Security fences are up and streets are locked down around the United Nations in New York as the 81st General Assembly begins its high level week, a seven day stretch that officials hope will renew faith in a body strained by war, division and budget cuts.
More than 130 heads of state and government are expected to speak in the annual debate, which opens on Sept. 22 with US President Donald Trump among the first at the podium. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will address the 193 member Assembly on Sept. 25, presenting Islamabad’s vision for dialogue, restraint and the peaceful settlement of disputes, according to APP.
The session unfolds under the theme “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: A United Nations That Delivers for All,” a phrase that captures both ambition and anxiety. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, in his final press conference before the gathering, urged leaders to use the week to meet face to face over active crises, recalling last year’s US led meeting with Muslim countries that produced a Gaza peace plan.
That plan, which took hold on Oct. 10, 2025, has held unevenly. Repeated Israeli violations are blamed for killing at least 1,318 Palestinians and injuring more than 4,300 since the ceasefire began. In Ukraine, recent US-Russia talks in Moscow produced no breakthrough, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the war will continue. Tensions with Iran have also flared, with US strikes on Iranian targets and Tehran’s retaliation against US bases in the Gulf further straining the Strait of Hormuz.
Against this backdrop, Pakistan’s diplomats say the prime minister will come to New York with what they describe as “unprecedented prominence,” citing the defeat of Indian aggression in May 2025, Pakistan’s mediation between Iran and the United States, and the Pak-Turkish-Saudi Makkah Pact. In his speech, he is expected to highlight Pakistan’s mediation efforts, its priorities on climate change, sustainable development, counter-terrorism and Islamophobia, and to call for UN reform.
He will also draw attention to prolonged occupations and the denial of self-determination, particularly in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine, urging action in line with Security Council resolutions.
Beyond conflict, the week is packed with high-level meetings on climate action and a “just transition,” the right to development, sea-level rise for island states, pandemic preparedness, and racism, capped by a push for a global framework to govern artificial intelligence. Guterres has called for a shared understanding on how to advance the safe and responsible development of AI, warning that powerful systems may need stronger safeguards.
Yet the shadow of paralysis looms large. The Security Council remains divided over Iran sanctions and wider geopolitical rivalries, feeding demands to overhaul its composition to reflect today’s world. Guterres has called reform “an absolute priority,” arguing that the current body reflects “the world of many decades ago.”
As leaders converge, the UN finds itself at a crossroads; a forum for diplomacy in an age of wars, and an institution asked to deliver on climate, development and new technologies while its core machinery for peace and security stalls.
