UN Photo/Mark Garten  /  President elect of the 75th Session of the General Assembly, Turkish diplomat H.E. Volkan Bozkir.

By Gary Raynaldo      DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

UNITED NATIONS  –  NEW  YORK – The 75th UN General Assembly (UNGA) session officially opened Tuesday without the usual massive crowds and swarms of diplomats and world leaders descending on New York City. Due to the ongoing global pandemic, this year’s UN General Assembly will be unlike any other in the organization’s three quarters of a century of existence.  It will be a mostly virtual UNGA session conduced via Zoom as most world leaders will not appear in person at the UN world headquarters. Drama will be low as prerecorded speeches will be the menu of the day.  The centrepiece of this virtual General session is still the General Debate, which starts on 22 September, a week after the official opening.  This year, because of the pandemic, world leaders will be staying away and have been invited to send in pre-recorded videos of their speeches which will be broadcast “as live”.  The General  Assembly Hall will not be empty, however, as  the videos will be introduced by a representative of each State, who will be physically present. Speeches are expected to be introduced by a New York-based representative of each state, who will be physically present.

UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe / Socially distanced delegates in the General Assembly hall wrap up outstanding business ahead of the opening of the 75th session on Tuesday Sept. 15, 2020. 

The decision to introduce pre-recorded videos to the High-Level General Debate, which takes place at the beginning of the 75th session of the General Assembly, was made by the UN body, using the novel ‘silence procedure’ method. Under this method, draft resolutions are circulated by the President of the General Assembly, which gives Member States a deadline of at least 72 hours, to raise objections. If there are no objections, the President circulates a letter, confirming that the resolution has been adopted. The United Nations was established in 1945 and is marking its 75th anniversary.

UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe  / Katalin Bogyay, Permanent Representative of Hungary to the United Nations, prepares her ballots during the elections in the General Assembly Hall

Turkish Diplomat Elected President of 75th United Nations General Assembly  

UN Photo/Manuel Elias  / Ambassador Volkan Bozkir (left) of Turkey, incoming President of the 75th Session of the UN General Assembly, meets with Secretary-General António Guterres back in January 2020

Volkan Bozkir of Turkey will be the new President of UN General Assembly.  Bozkir, a veteran diplomat and parliamentarian, will preside over the landmark 75th session of the UN GA. 

“The context in which we are working, serves to remind us of the necessity of the multilateralism system”,

-Volkan Bozkir told delegates sitting distanced apart in the gilded hall at New York Headquarters.

The Turkish diplomat  is taking on the role as the Organization grapples with an unprecedented pandemic, and questions surrounding the future direction it should take. Bozkir, a highly experienced public servant, and recently Minister for European Affairs, with almost 50 years of professional experience, was elected from the Western European and Others (WEOG) group of nations, and follows Nigeria’s Tijjani Muhammad-Bande.  Bozkir joined Turkey’s foreign service in 1972, and has held several senior diplomatic positions, including Consul General in New York, Ambassador in Bucharest, and Permanent Representative of Turkey to the EU.

Ahead of the 75th session, Mr. Bozkir conducted an interview with UN News, to discuss how to ensure that the UN stays relevant in the decades to come, why it is he will be making the protection of vulnerable people and communities a key issue during his year in the presidency, and how he intends to cope with the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

GA President: Of course, COVID-19 has become an overwhelming priority and focus right now.  That is why I chose to adapt the theme for the 75th session of the UN.  Member States chose the theme: “The future we want, the United Nations we need: reaffirming our collective commitment to multilateralism”. I added to that, “confronting COVID-19 through effective multilateral action”, because the pandemic is testing our institutions like never before: we have a duty to take effective action at the global level to overcome this virus, and the havoc it is wreaking on our economies and societies.”

UN News: The UN is 75 years old this year. What does this anniversary mean to you as President of the GA during this session?

GA President: COVID-19 is a global crisis the world hasn’t known since the UN was created out of the ashes of World War Two.  It is not only a health crisis, but a social and economic crisis, which has exacerbated existing challenges the UN is seeking to overcome through the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals.  The whole of humanity is in this fight together. It is time for unity.   Member States have never had a more compelling reason to work closely together for the common good. And I am certain that, together, we will come out of it stronger.

In all these endeavours the UN, in particular, the General Assembly has a central role to play. Through this body, Member States set norms and direct our collective resources to addressing common challenges.  Vaccines is a case in point.  Will the COVID vaccine be a global common good shared equitably?  This is a disease that does not respect national boundaries.  We are not safe until we are all safe. “

UN News: On a personal level, how did you become interested in public service? What motivates you?

GA President:  “As a career diplomat and politician for nearly 50 years, I have spent my entire professional life in public service. It was a source of pride for me to serve my country and my nation.  Now I am at the beginning of a new and equally proud chapter, where I will be serving all UN members. My motivation for taking on this challenging new role is my strong conviction in the effectiveness of multilateral diplomacy, and also my desire to serve and make contributions, even small ones in history’s flow, to the overall well-being of humanity. I cannot think of a much better place than the UN to work for that.”