President Barack Obama speaks at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit, Sunday at the United Nations headquarters.

President Barack Obama speaks at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit, Sunday at the United Nations headquarters.

Obama makes forceful defense of UN goals

UNITED NATIONS — President Barack Obama on Sunday committed the U.S. to a new blueprint to eliminate poverty and hunger around the world, telling a global summit that a sweeping new development agenda is “not charity but instead is one of the smartest investments we can make in our own future.”

It was the first of two addresses Obama is making at the United Nations. His second on Monday morning, to the annual U.N. General Assembly of world leaders, will be a broader examination of world issues, especially the ever-more complicated conflict in Syria and the related refugee crisis.

Obama offered a powerful defense of a 15-year development agenda and will require trillions of dollars of effort from countries, companies and civil society.

ADVERTISEMENT
0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
00:00
00:00
 

He told delegates that 800 million men, women and children scrape by on less than $1.25 a day and that billions of people are at risk of dying from preventable diseases. He called it a “moral outrage” that many children are just one mosquito bite away from death.

And, with a possible nod toward his address on Monday, he noted that “military interventions might have been avoided over the years” if countries had spent more time, money and effort on caring for their own people.

“Development is threatened by war,” Obama said, and war often arises from bad governance. Addressing the world’s greatest refugee crisis since World War II as millions flee conflict in Syria and elsewhere, he said countries “that can, must do more to accommodate refugees” but added those efforts must be matched by diplomacy.

The leaders of Britain, France, Japan and Turkey also were addressing the final day of the development summit. On Monday, the annual General Assembly high-level debate gives countries a chance to lay out their broader vision before the world.

World leaders have already begun a whirlwind series of closed-door meetings on Syria on the U.N. sidelines. Obama meets Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who hasn’t shown up to the U.N. meeting for a decade.

Earlier Sunday, French President Francois Hollande announced his country’s first airstrikes in Syria, raising the stakes in a region where a U.S.-led coalition nervously watches a new Russian military buildup near Syria’s Mediterranean coast.

Putin is expected to make a strong defense of those moves and urge countries to join a Russian-led effort against extremist groups like the Islamic State group. On Sunday, Iraq’s military said it will begin sharing “security and intelligence” information with Russia, Syria and Iran to help combat IS.

“We coordinate the efforts against ISIL,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters just before meeting Kerry on Sunday.

Kerry disagreed, telling reporters: “This is not yet coordinated. I think we have concerns about how we’re going to go forward, but that’s precisely what we’re meeting on to talk about now.”

Iran is also a major question, with the United States and the United Nations both reaching out in the diplomatic glow of the new nuclear deal for the Islamic Republic’s help in finding political solutions in Syria and the newer conflict in Yemen as well.

Iran President Hassan Rouhani is already at the U.N. summit and is set to address the U.N. gathering Monday morning along with Obama, Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping — who is making his first appearance here.

Amid the bustle of the back-to-back summit speeches Sunday, Brazil’s president announced her country’s climate commitment ahead of a global summit in December in Paris aimed at a climate treaty. President Dilma Rousseff said Brazil will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 37 percent by 2025 from 2005 levels as part of its contribution to a pact to fight global warming.

And the current refugee and migrant crisis is another top issue under feverish discussion. Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro spun the crisis into a chance to make a thinly veiled critique of the United States, blaming the problem on “unjust wars, imperialist wars, the attempt to control the world, one hegemon trying to impose its view on the world.”

___

Associated Press writers Karl Ritter in Stockholm, Darlene Superville in Washington and Matthew Lee in New York contributed.

More in News

(Juneau Empire file photo)
Aurora forecast through the week of Feb. 1

These forecasts are courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute… Continue reading

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. President Trump shared a quotation on social media, making it clear it was one he wanted people to absorb: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” (Al Drago/The New York Times)
Trump: ‘He who saves his Country does not violate any Law’

Quote sometimes attributed to Napoleon posted on White House’s official X account.

Members of the Alaska State Employees Association and AFSCME Local 52 holds a protest on the steps of the Alaska State Capitol on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
Alaska state employees rally for more pay and benefits on same day mass federal firings occur

Participants at state Capitol seek revival of pensions, release of state salary data withheld by governor.

Jonathan Rasch skates back to shore with his dog after spending hours looking for a man who fell through the ice on Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, on Chilkoot Lake near Haines. Rasch was skating on the lake when he heard the man screaming for help and used his Garmin inReach to call for help. (Rashah McChesney/Chilkat Valley News)
After Haines man disappears, locals and state officials warn of the dangers of ice skating on lake

After Haines man disappears, locals and state officials warn of the dangers of ice skating on lake

A U.S. Forest Service office sign in Juneau on Feb. 14, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
Trump’s federal layoffs hit wide range of Alaska agencies on Friday, with fears of many more to come

Murkowski: “Trying to get answers about the impact…but the response so far has been evasive and inadequate.”

A shelter staff member takes a dog who is currently boarding at Juneau Animal Rescue outside on Feb. 13, 2025. The animal shelter needs more space both outside and in, according to the executive director. It could also use a guillotine door to allow dogs easier access to the outdoors. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
Juneau Animal Rescue hopes to be ‘feline’ the love at annual fundraiser

The shelter is still in need of a new building and hopes to continue educating the community.

(Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
Police calls for Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025

This report contains public information from law enforcement and public safety agencies.

A building directory in Juneau’s federal building lists departments, such as the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Forest Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
Mass firings ordered by Trump administration, including nearly 10% of U.S. Forest Service

HUD plans 50% staff cut, scrutiny of “every dollar spent in serving tribal, rural and urban communities.”

Most Read