The 76th General Debate of the UN General Assembly is history – after days full of speeches and side events. Who would speak for Afghanistan and Myanmar was unclear and controversial until the end.
The general debate of the UN General Assembly ended with no contributions from Afghanistan and Myanmar. After six days of speeches and side events, the 76th general debate closed on Monday with the address of the representative from East Timor.
The speeches originally announced for Monday by representatives of Afghanistan and Myanmar had previously been canceled. The respective UN representations of the countries had asked to be removed from the list of speakers.
There had previously been disagreements about who should speak for the two countries. The Afghan ambassador to the UN, Ghulam Isaczai, was appointed before the militant Islamist Taliban seized power. Myanmar’s representative, Kyaw Moe Tun, also began work before the coup in his home country in the spring. After his military convictions, the government tried to replace Kyaw Moe Tun, but so far unsuccessfully. The military had put in a coup at the beginning of February and disempowered the de facto head of government Aung San Suu Kyi.
On Friday, a UN spokesman had emphasized that the representative officially registered as spokesman for Afghanistan was the previous ambassador to the United Nations, Ghulam Isaczai. At the weekend, however, the UN mission of Afghanistan asked by email to be removed from the list of speakers, it said on Monday. This request has been complied with.
After taking power in Afghanistan, the militant Islamist Taliban applied to the UN to officially represent the country on the UN stage – both with a speech at the general debate and with the nomination of a dedicated ambassador to replace Isaczai. The decision on this now lies with the responsible UN Accreditation Committee. So far, however, there has been no scheduled meeting of the body, which is why the previous ambassador of Afghanistan is at least temporarily retaining his office.
The Taliban took power in Afghanistan in mid-August. The previous President Ashraf Ghani had previously fled the country. Germany, the USA and other Western countries are holding talks with the Taliban, but they do not recognize them as legitimate governments.
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