A number of African leaders including Tanzania’s Samia Hassan, Zambia’s Hakainde Hichilema, Ghana’s Nana Akufo, Botswana’s Mokgweetsi Masisi and Nigeria’s Muhammadu Buhari are present in New York, for the UN General Assembly.
This year’s assembly has been scaled down to have most heads of states joining in virtually because of coronavirus. Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Chinese president Xi Jinping, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Ebrahim Raisi, the new president of Iran will be among the no-shows.
Discussions will be held on expanding access to Covid-19 vaccines and confronting the rising dangers of climate change. US President Joe Biden is likely to speak about the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan after the Taliban seized Kabul.
On climate change, Johnson will call upon world leaders to take a “concrete action”. His visit is seen as an important precursor to the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) UN climate summit, to be hosted by the UK in Glasgow in November.
US President Joe Biden will focus on ending the Covid-19 pandemic, combating the climate crisis and defending human rights, democracy and the international rules-based order in his first address as the US President to the high-level UN General Assembly session next week.