On the last day, Monday, September 27, speeches by leaders at the UN General Assembly, Burma and Afghanistan will not speak.
One curiosity among others of the diplomatic marathon which will have seen a hundred leaders and dozens of ministers come to New York despite the pandemic.
On the initial UN program, the general debate was to end successively with Burma, Guinea and Afghanistan, the latter country still scheduled for the night from Sunday to Monday with Ambassador Ghulam Isaczai, member of the cabinet of ousted President Ashraf Ghani, although he was dismissed by the Taliban.
But at the start of the resumption of speeches, surprise, Afghanistan is no longer registered.
"This country has withdrawn its participation in the general debate", announced to AFP the spokesperson for the president of the General Assembly, Monica Grayley, specifying that "no reason had been given" for this decision in extremis.
Conakry, where a junta has taken power, will be well represented by the ambassador to the UN, Aly Diane, appointed by the ousted executive.
But Ghulam Isaczai will not appear at the prestigious international forum.
"An agreement" between Washington, Beijing and Moscow on Burma
The Taliban, in power since August, asked the UN a week ago that their new foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, be able to intervene at the UN.
But their request was too late to be taken into account, a UN official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Was the double contradictory request for intervention concerning Afghanistan the subject of an agreement between Washington, Beijing and Moscow, similar to that which occurred for Burma?
"An agreement has been reached between the United States, Russia and China" so that the rebel Burmese representative Kyaw Moe Tun does not speak, had recently confided on condition of anonymity an ambassador from one of these three powers.
"Low profile", confirmed to AFP Kyaw Moe Tun, the target recently of an alleged plot to make him resign, even if it means killing him if he refuses.
Since the military coup of February 1, this ambassador chosen by the former Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi has retained his seat at the UN, supported by the international community.
In May, the junta appointed an ex-soldier to replace him but he remains unapproved to this day by the UN.
His appointment as that of a new representative for Afghanistan goes through a UN commission made up in particular of the United States, Russia and China.
Consensus is the rule and, for both countries, "there is none, so there will be a vote" in the coming months of the General Assembly, said a UN official.
France speaks on the last day
"How encouraging to see the General Assembly meet again in person," said Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo on Friday, while last year it had gathered mainly virtually.
"Don't we all aspire to 'get back to normal'?" He asked.
However, not all Europeans followed his example.
French President Emmanuel Macron successively announced to the UN that he would come to New York, then that he would speak by video the first day after the American Joe Biden, to finally give the voice of France to his leader diplomacy, which will speak on Monday.
By video, while he was physically present at the UN for five days.
"It is rare for one of the five permanent members of the Security Council to intervene on the last day," said a European diplomat.
"It's surprising, I've never seen that," said an ambassador who was a member of the Security Council.
Enigmatic, France confined itself to evoking the sanitary conditions.
If Washington, fearing an outbreak of a pandemic, has done everything to dissuade the leaders from coming to New York, with strict rules - masks, distancing, seven people per delegation to the UN - their application has remained uncertain.
On Wednesday, ironically, it was US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who walked the corridors of the UN flanked by twenty people, AFP found.
In the end, four cases of Covid-19 were officially identified, all in the delegation of Brazil, a country whose President Jair Bolsonaro remains anti-vaccine even if his wife took advantage of her visit to New York to receive a dose.
But without obligation to reveal his contamination, test before entering the UN or prove his vaccination, how many cases really?
The UN restrictions have been a deterrent.
On the first day of the debate, only 1,929 people passed through the security gates against 26,000 in 2019, according to the organization.
In total, some 200 speeches will have been delivered.
Hundreds of bilateral meetings were also organized in a frantic "speed dating" in and outside the UN, sometimes in an improvised way on the sidewalks near the UN for NGOs banned from entry, as the Committee has experienced. International Red Cross.
With AFP
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