After visiting Naples, Fla. last week to survey the damage wrought by Hurricane Irma, President Donald Trump is traveling to his hometown, New York City, Monday for a week of speeches and meetings with foreign leaders during a session of the United Nations General Assembly. The highlight of the trip is, of course, Trump's first speech before the General Assembly, which will take place Tuesday.
Trump started the week addressing 120 world leaders at a meeting on reforming the international organization, which Trump has repeatedly criticized since taking Office. In his remarks, Trump said the organization wasn't living up to its "potential" because it has been bogged down by its bureaucracy. He encouraged "all member states to look at ways to take bold stands at the United Nations with an eye toward changing business as usual and not being beholden to ways of the past, which were not working,” according to the New York Post.
As the Hill reports, his Monday schedule also includes meetings with Latin American leaders, as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Trump's Monday will be packed with meetings, leading up to his first-ever speech to the general assembly on Tuesday — a highly anticipated address in which the president is expected to discuss the specific threats of North Korea, Iran and global terrorism.
The president's schedule also includes meeting with representatives from more than 120 nations as well as the U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, to discuss reforming the international organization. Trump has been highly critical of the U.N. and the U.S. is backing changes it hopes will make the organization more efficient and effective.
The president will then meet with leaders from France and Israel with an expected focus on the Middle East — and Iran in particular — for what national security adviser H.R. McMaster has called that country’s “destabilizing behavior” in the region.
Trump will close out his first day of meetings at a working dinner with Latin American leaders to discuss the crisis in Venezuela, as well as how to maximize economic partnerships between the U.S. and South America.”
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The Hill’s sources say that, while not a specific focus of any of Trump’s meetings, it’s expected that threats posed by North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and global terrorism in the wake of an attack on a London subway will be “hot topics.”
UN Ambassador Nikki Haley provided her what amounts to a preview of the administrations priorities during a press briefing last week:
Ambassador @NikkiHaley previews US priorities at the 72nd Regular Session of the @UN General Assembly. c: @POTUS @realDonaldTrump @VP #UNGA pic.twitter.com/yPSvEwXZBb
— Dan Scavino Jr. (@Scavino45) September 15, 2017
And here's a summary of the US's top priorities for the week as the administration seeks to cultivate support for its agenda among its partners in the international community, according to the Hill:
UN REFORM
Since taking office, Trump has repeatedly expressed his dissatisfaction with the UN, complaining that the US pays too much to fund and host the organization while receiving comparatively little in return. Meanwhile, peacekeeping missions should be examined for excessive spending. Trump administration officials have described the UN as bloated and inefficient, and too hostile toward Israel. According to the Hill, Trump appears to have an ally for reform in Guterres, who assumed the role of secretary general in January.
IRAN
Trump will meet with Netanyahu and Macron to discuss Iran. In recent months, the administration has begun stepping up its rhetoric against Iran, an issue that has been relegated to the back burner by the US’s troubles with North Korea.
“While their conversations will be wide-ranging, we expect that Iran's destabilizing behavior, including its violation of the sovereignty of nations across the Middle East, to be a major focus,” McMaster said at a press briefing on Friday.
The White House has until mid-October to notify Congress of whether it believes Iran is complying with the terms of the nuclear deal brokered during the Obama administration by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, along with the European Union.
The administration’s view, as expressed by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, is that while Iran may be abiding by the terms of the deal, the country is seeking to violate the spirit of the agreement through a litany of other “destabilizing activities in the region.”
“Since the nuclear deal has been concluded what we have witnessed is Iran has stepped up its destabilizing activities in Yemen. It's stepped up its destabilizing activities in Syria. It exports arms to Hezbollah and other terrorist groups. And it continues to conduct a very active ballistic missile program,” Tillerson said Sunday on CBS News's "Face the Nation."
“None of that, I would believe, is consistent with that preamble commitment that was made by everyone," Tillerson said Sunday.
These are some of the same concerns voiced by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Egypt during this summer’s GCC diplomatic crisis, when those states abruptly cut off diplomatic relations with Qatar over allegations that it has enabled Iran to sow discord in the region.
VENEZUELA
The rapidly deteriorating situation in Venezuela – which just last week announced that it would abandon the US dollar and begin accepting oil payments in Chinese yuan, dealing a significant blow to the petrodollar regime – is expected to be the focus of Trump’s Monday night meeting with Latin American leaders.
The US believes that the vote organized by President Nicolas Maduro earlier this summer about whether to form a new national Congress was essentially a fraud. The new body is expected to help Maduro rewrite the country’s constitution to cement his grip on power, despite the worst civil unrest the country has ever seen.
The Trump administration has adopted a bevy of economic sanctions against the country and its officials, banning American companies from “participating in Maduro’s liquidation of the Venezuelan economy.”
However, UN Ambassador Haley said at a Friday press conference the president is “unlikely” to speak with Maduro directly.
“As you know, the United States designated President Maduro after he victimized his own people, denied them their rights under his own constitution,” Haley said. “And I think as the president has made clear, he’s willing to talk at some point in the future, but it would have to be after rights are restored to the Venezuelan people.”
NORTH KOREA
Trump will speak with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in later in the week, but throughout the summit, the administration will be rallying support for what Tillerson described as a “peaceful pressure campaign” from world leaders meant to force North Korea to the bargaining table. The UN Security Council has, of course, passed two rounds of economic sanctions against the restive, isolated North in recent months – but as Haley said on Sunday, she believes the council has just about reached its limit.
Trump does not have a meeting scheduled with Chinese President Xi Jinping – who is probably preoccupied with the Communist Party’s upcoming once-every-five-years leadership transition, which will take place in November.
But according to the Hill, the administration will be looking to pressure China where it can, on North Korea, trade and a host of other issues.
Meanwhile, Trump’s first speech before the UN General Assembly, set for Tuesday morning. Iran and North Korea are widely expected to be the focus. But according to Axios, Trump’s tone will be more important than the specific topics he covers.
Here’s what Axios says world leaders will be watching for during Trump’s speech:
- How will Trump's 'America First' strategy measure up to the UN's 'world first' agenda? "The perception ... is that President Trump is unilateralist and isolationist. Trump has the opportunity to present and describe his vision and strategy. The world will be all ears," Zalmay Khalilzad, UN ambassador under President Bush, told the Times.
- How will the president address the North Korean threat? Some countries "fear that the fighting talk of this impulsive president could make things worse rather than better," Peter Westmacott, a former British ambassador, said.
- How will Trump tackle UN reform? The president, along with prominent Republicans, has been vocal about inefficiency at the UN. He's got a meeting on UN reform Monday.
To summarize Axios, the biggest question that Trump’s fellow world leaders will have ahead of the event is: Will Trump’s speech be more “fire and fury” directed at North Korea and the US’s many geopolitical adversaries? Or will it be conciliatory and measured? Not unlike the speech he gave to a joint session of Congress earlier this year that was a stand-in for the State of the Union?
At least as far as markets are concerned, it may not matter – that is, unless Trump says something unexpected about tax reform, or Gary Cohn’s future in the White House (or at the Fed).
Watch a livestream of the proceedings here: