Biden to rally support for Ukraine at UN amid global South concerns

The Eaubonne bulk carrier ship docks in the port of Mombasa, Kenya, Nov. 26, 2022. The vessel arrived with 53,300 tons of wheat procured under the Black Sea Grain Initiative. [AP Photo]

Despite the setbacks, the Biden administration has an opportunity to embrace the SDG agenda in a way that is aligned with aspirations of the Global South, Noam Unger, director of the Sustainable Development and Resilience Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in a briefing to reporters Thursday.

One way to demonstrate Washington's commitment is through voluntary national reviews, which all countries who agreed to the SDGs are supposed to do but the U.S. has not done, Unger told VOA.

Marking the beginning of a new phase of hoped-for accelerated progress, the 2023 SDG Summit will be held Monday and Tuesday on the sidelines of the General Assembly.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative will be a key focus of the summit. The now-expired deal among Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the U.N. created a safe corridor for Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea and allowed for Russian food and fertilizer to reach global markets.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is scheduled to meet Turkish, Ukrainian and Russian leaders in New York in a bid to revive the deal, which Russia allowed to expire two months ago.

Security Council reform

Another focus of Biden's remarks will be support for reform of the Security Council, Sullivan said.

While the U.S. has long advocated increasing the number of permanent and nonpermanent representatives, in his 2022 speech Biden said that Washington endorses not only "permanent seats for those nations we've long supported" - that is, Japan, Germany and India - but also "permanent seats for countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean."

Since its creation, the Security Council has had the same five permanent members: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The council's failure to act on the war on Ukraine because of Russia's wielding of its veto power has reignited decadeslong demands to overhaul the world's premier body for efforts toward international peace and security.

Biden is also set to hold bilateral meetings on the assembly sidelines, including with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The U.S. has expressed disapproval of the Netanyahu government's hard-line policies, including its judicial overhaul plan, which critics say is a danger to the country's democracy.

It's also pushing for Israel to normalize diplomatic relations with its Arab neighbors, including Saudi Arabia.