The UN as a Crime Scene:
How Trump’s UNGA Speech Revealed the Global South’s Predicament.
Senior
Advocate Dr. Khimlal Devkota, Constituent Assembly Member
The 81st United Nations General
Assembly is unlikely to be remembered for its diplomatic efforts. It
will be recalled as the point
when the illusion of multilateral
agreement perished—not silently through
compromise, but with the triumph of a conqueror's rewards.
President Donald Trump’s speech on September 22, 2026, served multiple purposes: a campaign
message, a security evaluation, and a marketing
strategy for artificial intelligence.
However, for the Global South—which encompasses the large, dynamic majority of people from the Sahel to the Strait of
Malacca—it represented something much
more significant: a reflection of
a harsh imbalance that no level of UN discourse can disguise.
The Conflict That Belongs to Others
Reflect on what
Trump’s Iran conflict has genuinely
brought about for nations uninvolved in
its instigation. Ian Bremmer told NPR with unsettling precision: “The spikes in food costs and energy prices are significantly
larger for many nations listening to Trump's speech, particularly in the Global South, and that is damaging them politically despite their lack of involvement in initiating or prolonging the war.”
This is the mathematics of empire that the UN was created to stop. A conflict imagined in Washington, carried out with Israel, and now poised to spread across the Strait of Hormuz has turned into a burden on the world's most impoverished. The Global South suffers from rising bread costs and
fuel shortages due to a conflict
it opposed, centered around an Islamic
Republic it never wished to see
destroyed.
Trump's speculation—will
he "strike a deal with Iran or destroy the Islamic Republic"?—was expressed not as a diplomatic stance but as a personal caprice, oddly aligned
with the American election timeline. The
Global South observed a superpower nonchalantly discuss genocide.
"To the winner go the rewards."
Then arrived Venezuela. Trump
didn't just declare
Nicolás Maduro's arrest and the establishment
of a compliant regime. He endorsed
an oil agreement with the new administration and proclaimed, with
unapologetic triumph, “to the victor go the spoils.”
This statement should be etched into
the marble of the UN's entrance as a caution instead of a slogan.
As Bremmer pointed out, it would be difficult to create a statement more opposed to the UN Charter—a document, by
the way, developed by Americans in San Francisco after World War II specifically to conclude the era of conquest.
For the Global South, Venezuela
was never centered on Maduro. It concerns
the idea that sovereignty is not a reward to be captured by the powerful. When Brazil’s Lula da Silva addressed the audience following
Trump and asserted that Latin America
is not “the backyard of anyone,” he was representing
more than just
Brazil. He voiced the sentiments of every country
that has observed a superpower impose its government through force while labeling it as
liberation.
The Design of Neglect
The true
geopolitics of this UNGA are found not in Trump's comments, but in the covert actions
of others. POLITICO’s coverage of
the summit’s periphery uncovered something more significant than walkouts and responses: the Global South is establishing alternatives. Nations throughout South America, Asia, and Africa leveraged the General Assembly’s margins not to influence Washington, but to strengthen ties
with Beijing. Senator Chris Murphy noted,
“Nations are strengthening their ties with China, and no significant new agreements are being
made with the United States.”
This isn’t based on ideology.
It is foundational. The Global South is
not “favoring” China over
America in any idealistic manner. It is protecting itself from a superpower.When the
United States dismisses global AI regulation, declines
carbon taxes on shipping, and views international
organizations as "globalist" infringements
on American autonomy, it is not retreating from the world—it is retreating from the world’s limitations.
Climate Hypocrisy as a Fundamental Danger
For the island nations in the Global South, Trump's denial of climate change
is more than just
a difference in policy. It is a verdict of
death. Trump informed the UN that “the
planet was cooling, not warming, and no one was deceased.” In
just a few
hours, the president of Seychelles stated
that rising sea levels
are “attacking our
very foundations,” while Sierra Leone’s
leader recounted witnessing
the ocean “consume their land, their
fisheries, and the resting places of their ancestors.”
CNN's fact-check revealed
that Trump’s assertions are filled with inaccuracies—the
world has recently
gone through its
eleven hottest years
documented. However, the Global South
does not require
fact-checking. Water is right at its entrance.
The Actual Address
Trump’s speech at
the UNGA will be
examined for its
menaces and its
peculiarities. However, its actual significance is
captured in one
straightforward statement, expressed sincerely: “There
is no worldwide
government, and during my presidency, there
will not be any global
taxes.”
For the Global South,
this did not
signify a commitment to freedom from bureaucracy. It was
a statement asserting that the most
powerful will never agree to be ruled by regulations that could limit their
authority. It was an acknowledgment that the UN's original commitment—equal sovereignty, collective security,
mutual prosperity—has consistently depended on the approval
of the powerful.
The Global South’s reaction,
evident in the walkouts, the set-aside
China agreements, and the subtle departure from
the American sphere, is not an uprising.
It is a judgment.
The multilateral system was never designed for their benefit.
It was constructed to oversee
them. Trump did not
undermine the UN.
He honestly described
what it has
turned into: a
platform where the influential enact diplomacy
and the weak bear
the costs of the show.
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