The United Nations opens the 81st General Assembly in New York on Tuesday (22) with an unusual item at the top of the agenda: its own survival. Hit by funding cuts and public attacks, the organization will hear Secretary-General António Guterres ask its 193 member states to reaffirm their commitment to the institution founded in 1945. "The goal is to have a UN that reflects the world of 2026, not the world of 1945," spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said. The general debate starts at 10 a.m. local time and runs for six days.
According to G1, the backdrop is the institution's worst moment in 80 years. The United States, which covers more than 20% of the funding, has cut contributions and entire programs since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, and the president accuses the body of bias and ineffectiveness. Israel, Russia and the United States itself have ignored Security Council resolutions and even arrest warrants issued by UN judicial bodies. In an interview with the Associated Press, Guterres blamed an "enormous geopolitical division" and said the institution's survival depends on great powers respecting international law.
For Brazil, the opening is a showcase and a test at once. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will be the first head of state to speak, after Guterres and General Assembly president Annalena Baerbock of Germany, followed immediately by Trump, under a tradition consolidated in 1955 that puts Brazil ahead of the host country. It is Lula's tenth time opening the debate as president. The timing is delicate: his government is negotiating with Washington over the tariff dispute that led Lula to say, while in the United States, that Trump "acts like an emperor," and in October's presidential election Trump backs Lula's main rival, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro. Aides heard by G1 say the strategy is to cast Lula as a counterpoint to the American on democracy, trade and peace, an image the campaign hopes will land with undecided voters.
A speech with no names, and pointed messages
The final text was still being adjusted on Monday (21), but its main lines are known. Lula is expected to speak about the erosion of multilateralism and its effects on security, climate, health, trade and sovereignty, and to defend Brazilian sovereignty against what he sees as foreign interference in the election, with messages aimed, without any names being used, at the United States, Argentina and Israel, according to G1. He is also expected to refer to the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela early this year, which he frames as a threat to sovereignty in Latin America, and to renew his demand for reform of the Security Council, whose five permanent members hold vetoes. The tradition that puts Brazil first has a prosaic origin: "when nobody wanted to speak first, Brazil always volunteered to speak first," UN protocol chief Desmond Parker told NPR in 2010.
The interests around the podium explain the mood. The United States wants a smaller UN; analyst Richard Gowan argued in Foreign Affairs that the organization should stick to basics such as mediating conflicts and delivering humanitarian aid. On the other side, the European Union, Canada and Kenya joined Brazil over the weekend in signing a manifesto against abandoning multilateralism. The Planalto, Brazil's presidential palace, reads the Escudo das Américas, a US security initiative for the region, as an attempt to push China out of the hemisphere, according to Poder360. Brazil also renews its bid for a permanent Security Council seat, alongside Japan, Germany and South Africa.
A plea from Guterres, and a succession ahead
Before the leaders speak, Guterres will hold dozens of bilateral meetings to ask for help and hear proposals on how to keep the organization alive. To the Associated Press, he summed up the risk:
"Many countries say: 'If the superpowers can break the law, why can't we?' They do whatever they want, knowing there will be total impunity. The UN must be a reference of values and principles for the whole world, because someone has to state that the law of force cannot prevail over the force of law."
Lula's trip is short by design: he flies home the same Tuesday because of the campaign, travels with four ministers, including Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, and with at least 73 aides authorized in Diário Oficial da União (DOU), Brazil's official gazette, according to Poder360, and, unlike previous years, without the speakers of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate or any state governors. Lula told CNN International that multilateralism is "what has worked so far to keep world trade in some harmony," and the Assembly will still choose Guterres' successor this year.