WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump will hit out at “globalist institutions” and criticize the recognition of a Palestinian state by Western allies in a speech to the United Nations, the White House said Monday.
Trump is set to deliver the first speech of his second term to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, as the annual diplomatic gathering is dominated by Israel’s war in Gaza.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would tout “the renewal of American strength around the world” in his address.
“The president will also touch upon how globalist institutions have significantly decayed the world order, and he will articulate his straightforward and constructive vision for the world,” she added.
Trump has repeatedly criticized the UN and other multilateral institutions as part of his “America First” policy, and either cut funding for or withdrawn from a number of UN bodies.
Trump will meanwhile hold a “multilateral meeting” with the leaders of key Muslim countries at the UN assembly, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkiye, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, Leavitt told a briefing.
The move comes after several Western governments recognized a Palestinian state, angering Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will speak at the UN on Friday, has vowed to expand Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank after the recognitions.
Trump himself opposed the moves by Britain, Canada and Australia to recognize the state of Palestine, which France is due to follow on Monday.
“The president has been very clear he disagrees with this decision,” Leavitt said, noting that he had publicly done so with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer during a UK state visit last week.
“Frankly, he believes it’s a reward to Hamas. So he believes these decisions are just more talk and not enough action from some of our friends and allies, and I think you’ll hear him talk about that tomorrow” at the UN, she added.
Trump will also meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the UN gathering, Leavitt said, as Kyiv seeks Western-backed security guarantees to prop up an elusive ceasefire with Russia.
In addition, the US president will meet Argentinian counterpart and key ally Javier Milei, a day after the US Treasury said it was mulling an economic lifeline for Argentina as it battles to calm jittery markets.
Trump to slam ‘globalist’ bodies, Palestinian recognitions at UN
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Trump to slam ‘globalist’ bodies, Palestinian recognitions at UN
- Trump has repeatedly criticized the UN and other multilateral institutions as part of his ‘America First’ policy
- Trump will meanwhile hold a ‘multilateral meeting’ with the leaders of key Muslim countries at the UN assembly
DR Congo says M23 withdrawal from key city a ‘distraction’
- “The son, M23, offers itself in sacrifice before the American mediator to protect the father, Rwanda,” Muyaya said
- The announcement is a “non-event, a diversion, a distraction”
KINSHASA: The Congolese government on Wednesday said the M23 armed group’s recent announcement that it would withdraw troops from the key eastern city of Uvira was a “distraction.”
The Rwanda-backed militia seized the strategic city near the border with Burundi last Wednesday, days after the Congolese and Rwandan governments signed a peace deal — an agreement US President Donald Trump had hailed as a “great miracle.”
“The son, M23, offers itself in sacrifice before the American mediator to protect the father, Rwanda,” Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said on Wednesday.
The announcement is a “non-event, a diversion, a distraction... We are waiting for the withdrawal of Rwandan troops from all parts of our territory,” he added.
The M23’s latest advance has thrown the future of the peace process into doubt and raised fears of a wider regional war.
Its capture of Uvira — a city of several hundred thousand people — allowed it to control the land border with Burundi and cut the DRC off from military support from its neighbor.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Saturday that Rwanda had clearly violated the peace agreement it signed with its neighbor on December 4, and vowed unspecified “action” in response.
A day earlier, US ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz accused Rwanda of “leading the region toward more instability and toward war.”
Leader of the M23’s political branch announced Tuesday in a statement that the group would “unilaterally withdraw its forces from the city of Uvira, as requested by the US mediators.”
M23 fighters were still present in Uvira on Wednesday, according to residents contacted by AFP.
The DRC’s mineral-rich east has been ravaged by three decades of conflict. Since taking up arms again in 2021, the M23 has seized swathes of territory, leading to a spiralling humanitarian crisis.
While Kigali has never explicitly acknowledged backing the armed group, Washington has directly blamed Rwanda for the M23’s capture of Uvira.
Muyaya accused Rwandan President Paul Kagame of seeking to “entrench his control over this part of our country through violence,” arguing these actions “worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian situation.”
At least 85,000 refugees have fled into Burundi since the advance, with the numbers rising daily, Burundian officials said Tuesday.
