Trump at the UN General Assembly: Meetings with Zelensky, Gulf leaders and the Greenland agreement in focus

The United Nations General Assembly opens its session today with its annual general debate, considered the organization’s most important event of the year.

Heads of state and government, as well as foreign ministers from more than 120 countries, have gathered at the UN headquarters in New York. The main focus is expected to be on speeches by US President Donald Trump, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

Considerable interest is also expected to surround the bilateral meetings held on the sidelines of the Assembly, particularly the talks between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky. The meeting is seen as one of the day’s most important moments, as the war in Ukraine remains at the center of international diplomacy.

Another important development is expected to be the signing of the agreement on Greenland by Donald Trump, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and the head of the island’s government, Jens-Frederik Nielsen. Diplomats hope that this week’s bilateral meetings in New York will produce the most concrete results. The US president’s agenda is also expected to include talks with representatives of the Persian Gulf states.

Meanwhile, the war with Iran has entered its seventh month, and the confrontation has spread increasingly across countries in the region. Iranian attacks and the escalation of the conflict with the Houthi militia are increasing threats to cities, US bases and the main routes for oil transportation and maritime shipping.

Daniel Forti, a UN expert with the International Crisis Group, says it is still unclear what the US president’s main messages will be. According to him, even just days before the opening of the General Assembly, Trump’s advisers did not have a clear overview of the speech’s final content.