UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Developments as the United Nations General Assembly marks its 70th year and world leaders debate issues gripping the global community and governments.12
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12:30
President Vladimir Putin has urged the creation of a broad anti-terror coalition that would include the Syrian government troops.
Addressing the U.N. General Assembly, Putin said it was a “huge mistake” not to engage the Syrian army in the fight against the Islamic State group.
He also criticized the West for arming “moderate” rebels in Syria, saying they later come to join the Islamic State terror group.
Without naming the United States, he says a “single center of dominance has emerged after the end of Cold War,” and attempts have been made to revise the U.N. role.
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12:18 p.m
Vietnam’s president has told The Associated Press that China’s island-building in the disputed South China Sea violates international law and endangers maritime security.
President Truong Tan Sang (TOO-UHNG TAHN SAHNG) urged the U.S., which has expressed mounting concern over China’s assertive behavior, to fully lift a ban on lethal weapons sales to Vietnam.
Sang said that would demonstrate to the world that U.S.-Vietnam relations have been fully normalized, 40 years after the end of the Vietnam War.
Sang spoke to The AP Monday as world leaders gathered at the United Nations.
Communist-ruled Vietnam and China have long-standing fraternal ties but tensions have grown over oil exploration in disputed waters, and as China has undertaken massive land reclamation in the Spratly island chain, also claimed by Vietnam.
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12:10 p.m.
Jordan’s king is making a heartfelt defense of the kinder side of Islam in the face of “the outlaws of Islam that operate globally today.”
King Abdullah II quoted the Quran: “And my mercy embraces all things.”
In his address to a U.N. gathering of world leaders, he asks, “When and how did fear and intimidation creep so insidiously into our conversation when there is so much more to be said about the love of God?”
The king says he has called the rise of extremist groups like the Islamic State in his region, and the crisis they have caused, “a third world war, and I believe we must respond with equal intensity.”
Jordan borders both Syria and Iraq, and Syrian refugees now make up 20 percent of Jordan’s population.
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12:10 p.m.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is offering more than $1.1 billion to help with global peacekeeping efforts.
The leader of the world’s second largest economy pledged $1 billion over the next decade to support the United Nations’ efforts to further international cooperation and global peace and development.
Xi said China would also set up a permanent peacekeeping standby force of 8,000 troops to be deployed whenever necessary. China is already the biggest contributor of peacekeeping troops among the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, having sent more than 30,000 on 29 separate missions.
Xi said China would also provide $100 million in military assistance to the African Union over the next five years to support the establishment of an African standby peacekeeping force and to bolster the A.U.’s ability to respond to crises.
At the U.N. on Sunday, Xi said China would contribute an initial $2 billion to establish an assistance fund for meeting post-2015 goals in areas such as education, health care and economic development. He said China would seek to increase the fund to $12 billion by 2030.
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10:55
President Barack Obama says the United States is willing to work with any nation, including Russia and Iran, to solve the Syrian conflict.
But he says bringing about an end to the four-year civil war means Syrian President Bashar Assad cannot stay in office.
Obama says Assad responded to peaceful protests with repression and killing and wouldn’t be able to satisfactorily bring peace to the nation.
Obama calls the situation in Syria “an assault on all our humanity.”
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10:45 a.m.
President Barack Obama says the world cannot stand by while Russia violates Ukraine’s integrity and sovereignty.
He says if there are no consequences for Russia’s annexation of Crimea, it could happen to any other country in the United Nations.
Obama is speaking at the U.N. General Assembly. He’s criticizing Russia just hours before he’s set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Obama says Russia’s state-controlled media depict recent events as an example of a resurgent Russia. He says that view is shared by many U.S. politicians who think the world is in a new Cold War.
But Obama says that’s not true. He says Ukrainians are more interested than ever in aligning with the West.
Obama says the U.S. doesn’t want to isolate Russia. He says he wants Russia to engage diplomatically and resolve the crisis in a way that lets Ukraine determine its own future.
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10:35 a.m.
President Barack Obama is warning U.N member nations of the risks of failing to work together to solve world problems.
He says the work of the United Nations remains incomplete seven decades after its founding and warns that “dangerous currents risk pulling us back into a darker, more disordered world.”
Addressing the U.N. General Assembly gathering of world leaders, Obama spoke of leaders who believe power is a “zero sum game,” or that stronger states must impose their will on weaker ones, or that individual rights don’t matter and order must be imposed by force.
Obama says the world’s nations cannot go back to the “old ways of conflict and coercion” and that “we will all suffer the consequences” for failing to work together more effectively.
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10:20 a.m.
Brazil’s president says her country’s deeply troubled economy is in a “moment of transition to another cycle of economic expansion,” one that is more profound, solid and long-lasting.
President Dilma Rousseff spoke to a packed chamber Monday at the annual U.N. General Assembly of world leaders. President Barack Obama was set to speak after her.
This is a time of extreme volatility for Brazil’s economy, with inflation hovering around 10 percent and unemployment the highest in decades.
But Rouseff told world leaders that the economy is “stronger, more solid and resilient than some years ago.”
Credit agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded the country’s sovereign debt to “junk” status earlier this month.
Rousseff has submitted a budget to Congress with a built-in deficit of about $10 billion.
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9:05 a.m.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon for the first time is calling for the situation in Syria to be referred to the International Criminal Court.
In his state of the world address to leaders from the U.N.’s 193 member states, Ban says “innocent Syrians pay the price of more barrel bombs and terrorism” and there must be no impunity for “atrocious” crimes.
His call opened the annual General Assembly gathering of world leaders that includes addresses from President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday morning alone.
Ban says five countries “hold the key” to a political solution to Syria: Russia, the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran.
The U.N. chief says the Syrian conflict is “driven by regional powers and rivalries.”
