Two Key Takeaways from the Antonio Guterres UNGA Preview and Press Conference

Plus, more UNGA78 updates!

Antonio Guterres at his pre-UNGA press conference, September 13 2023

In my 18 years of covering the United Nations, I’ve always caught the annual pre-UNGA press conference from the UN Secretary General — stretching back from Kofi Annan to Antonio Guterres! I wouldn’t say that the Secretary General can set the tone for UNGA— that comes more from the speeches of the Presidents and Prime Ministers. But the UN Secretary General can certainly influence the tenor of this most important week on the international diplomatic calendar.

For Antonio Guterres, the 2023 opening of the United Nations General Assembly is the culmination of several frenetic weeks of international summitry. In the last few days alone he attended the African Climate Summit in Nairobi, the ASEAN Summit in Jakarta, the G-20 meeting in New Delhi — and tomorrow he’s going to Havana for the G-77+China confab.*

Today, in his Pre-UNGA press conference, the UN Secretary General acknowledged each of these meetings. “But next w…