Trump calls on UN to reform
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — President Donald Trump made his debut at the United Nations yesterday, using his first appearance to urge the 193-nation organisation to reduce bureaucracy and costs while more clearly defining its mission around the world.
But while Trump chastised the UN — an organisation he sharply criticised as a candidate for president — he said the United States would “pledge to be partners in your work” in order to make the body a more effective force for peace across the globe.
“In recent years, the United Nations has not reached its full potential due to bureaucracy and mismanagement,” said Trump, who rebuked the UN for a ballooning budget. “We are not seeing the results in line with this investment.”
The president pushed the UN to focus “more on people and less on bureaucracy” and to change “business as usual and not be beholden to ways of the past which were not working”. He also suggested that the US was paying more than its fair share to keep the New York-based world body operational.
But he also complimented steps the United Nations had taken in the early stages of reform efforts and made no threats to withdraw US support. His measured tone stood in stark contrast to his last maiden appearance at a global body, when he stood at NATO’s new Brussels headquarters in May and scolded member nations for not paying enough and refused to explicitly back its mutual defence pact.
While running for office, Trump labelled the UN as weak and incompetent, and not a friend of either the United States or Israel. But he has softened his tone since taking office, telling ambassadors from UN Security Council member countries at a White House meeting that the UN has “tremendous potential”.
Trump more recently praised a pair of unanimous council votes to tighten sanctions on North Korea over its continued nuclear weapons and ballistic missile tests.
Trump’s big moment comes today when he delivers his first address to a session of the UN General Assembly. The annual gathering of world leaders will open amid serious concerns about Trump’s priorities, including his policy of “America First”, his support for the UN and a series of global crises. It will be the first time world leaders will be in the same room and able to take the measure of Trump.
The president on Monday praised UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who also spoke at the reform meeting and said he shared Trump’s vision for a less wasteful UN to “live up to its full potential”. The US has asked member nations to sign a declaration on UN reforms, and more than 120 have done so. The president also kicked off his maiden speech at the world body by referring to the Trump-branded apartment tower across First Avenue from the UN.
The speech began a busy week of diplomacy for Trump, who is slated to meet separately with more than a dozen world leaders along the sidelines of the UN. His first bilateral meeting was yesterday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during which he declared that they “are giving it an absolute go’” in Middle East peace talks.
Trump is slated to meet with the head of the Palestinian Authority later in the week, though the White House has downplayed this week as a milestone in peace negotiations. US national security adviser H R McMaster said “Iran’s destabilising behaviour” would be a major focus of those discussions. While seated next to Netanyahu, a vociferous critic of the Iran nuclear deal, Trump declared, “You’ll see very soon” when asked if the US would stay in the agreement.