UN diplomacy tests the reach of Trump’s policy agenda
A France 24 discussion examines US aid cuts, conflicts and energy pressures as leaders gather for the UN General Assembly.
World leaders are confronting the diplomatic and policy consequences of Donald Trump’s approach to US foreign policy as the United Nations General Assembly considers conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.
A France 24 discussion said Trump’s latest UN speech repeated much of the language of his address a year earlier, after cuts to US aid and development funding. The programme framed the speech as evidence of continuity in the president’s international policy.
The discussion also examined reported energy pressures, including a global diesel shortage, and linked them to conflict across the region from the Strait of Hormuz to the mouth of the Red Sea. Trump blamed Ukraine’s drone strikes on Russian critical infrastructure for the shortage, while the programme noted that Russia accounts for about 6 per cent of global diesel exports.
Trump also held a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, although the programme did not provide details of its outcome. French President Emmanuel Macron separately said he had held “very constructive” talks with Trump in New York about the Middle East and Ukraine; no agreement or policy change was reported.
China’s absence was another focus of the discussion. Chinese President Xi Jinping did not attend the UN and was reported to be due in Washington for discussions on artificial intelligence. The supplied material does not detail whether those discussions took place or what they produced.
