António Guterres: Afghanistan and the submarine crisis mark the start of the United Nations General Assembly | International

The President of the United States, Joe Biden, will make his debut this Tuesday at the General Assembly of the United Nations, the most important diplomatic meeting of the year, in a climate rarefied by the hasty withdrawal of his troops from Afghanistan and the tension that the announcement of a defensive alliance with the United Kingdom and Australia has caused in many foreign ministries and in particular in France, the most affected by the agreement. In the organization’s first joint meeting since the pandemic, Biden will dismiss the United States as a prodigal son in the multilateral forum that Donald Trump has ignored, but both crises, especially the second, threaten to eclipse the appeal and jeopardize months of diplomatic efforts.

Between calls for containment by UN Secretary General António Guterres and Paris’ angry reaction to the damage the tripartite security pact has done to its defense industry, Biden will try to reassure a main ally like Emmanuel Macron, in parallel with The supposedly conciliatory efforts of London. Indeed, the president said today “impatient” to speak by telephone with his French counterpart, an interview requested by Washington and which according to the White House could take place “in the coming days”. Paris requires “explanations and clarifications” before picking up the phone, replied the head of French diplomacy, Jean-Yves Le Drian.

The wake of the conflict in Afghanistan will define Biden’s speech to the plenary, which he will try to convince that the end of the military intervention in this Central Asian country marks the beginning of a new chapter of “intensive diplomacy”, as defined by the White House, in accordance with its determined commitment to multilateralism. But although Afghanistan and the Tripartite Pact monopolize all the limelight, a threat of more serious consequences looms in the air: a new cold war in which China plays the role the Soviet Union once played.

Curbing China’s hegemonic and expansionary ambition is the ultimate goal of the security pact announced last week by Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States – known as Aukus, according to the acronym of the English initials of the three countries – to the detriment of France. and its colossal diplomatic and commercial interests. A previous order from Australia to renew its submarine fleet, for an amount of $ 60,000 million and that the pact of the angloesfera he left in suspense, he angered the Elysee. El perjuicio no es sólo económico, sino de imagen, ese aspecto que tanto cuida la diplomacia, pues el convenio se negoció de espaldas a París, que el viernes llamó a consultas a sus embajadores en Washington y Canberra, y, por extensión, a la European Union. EU foreign ministers spoke on Monday in New York on the sidelines of the multilateral forum on what is already called the “nuclear submarine crisis”, in reference to the new fleet promised by Washington and London to Australia.

Beyond the good words, in his telephone interview with Macron, Biden does not plan to offer any compensation to France for the cancellation of the agreement, and even less to go back on what had been announced. “What the President will do in this conversation is reaffirm our commitment to work with one of our oldest and closest partners on a range of challenges facing the global community,” the White House spokesman Jen Psaki. A perfect example of double talk, the most beautiful expression of diplomacy. Regarding a possible Cold War, Biden does not intend to start any with any country, the spokeswoman said. “Our relationship with China is not one of conflict, but one of competition.”

But, aware that the important must not distract attention from the urgent – or the rowdy, the two characteristics of the dust raised by the tripartite pact -, the Secretary-General of the UN sent a meridian message, to halfway between the recommendation and the warning, to Washington and Beijing, urging them to rebuild their “completely dysfunctional” relationship before the tension between the two countries pulls the rest of the planet into a global conflict.

Host of the Assembly, Guterres suggested that the two major world powers collaborate in the fight against climate change and negotiate more openly on trade and technology issues, although differences of opinion persist on issues such as human rights. man, security on the Net or the sovereignty of the South China Sea, whose waters Beijing claims. But, “unfortunately, today there is only one clash” between the two countries, declared the UN secretary general in an interview with the AP agency on the occasion of the 76th Assembly. The debate will be marked by two global challenges, the pandemic and the fight against climate change, plus the echo of the human crisis unleashed in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of foreign forces.

The intervention of France, with a message from Macron recorded on video, was to take place this Tuesday, just like that of the United States, according to the provisional agenda put forward last week by the UN. But the anger of the Elysee is of such magnitude that the president could delegate to his Minister of Foreign Affairs and postpone his intervention until the last day of the Assembly, Monday 27, according to the newspaper today. The New York Times. The official 24-hour schedule that Biden will spend in New York leaves no doubt about his priorities, and France does not appear to be one of it. A first bilateral meeting with Guterres on Monday afternoon and his plenary address mid-morning Tuesday will be followed by a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, before returning to the White House for an interview with British. Prime Minister Boris Johnson. More wood for the fire of suspicions and grievances in Paris.

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