Your 2026 UNGA Primer

UNGA 2026: Trump, Iran, China, AI, and the Secretary-General Race

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Situation Report: Your 2026 UNGA Primer

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Situation Report

A weekly digest of national security, defense, and cybersecurity news from Foreign Policy reporters John Haltiwanger and Rishi Iyengar. Delivered Thursday.

Your 2026 UNGA Primer

The race for the new U.N. secretary-general, a Trump-Xi side quest, and runaway AI fears.

By **Rishi Iyengar**, a staff writer at *Foreign Policy*, and **John Haltiwanger**, a staff writer at *Foreign Policy*.

!Law enforcement secures an entrance to the United Nations during the start of the General Assembly in New York City on Sept. 21.

*Law enforcement secures an entrance to the United Nations during the start of the General Assembly in New York City on Sept. 21.*

Law enforcement secures an entrance to the United Nations during the start of the General Assembly in New York City on Sept. 21. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

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September 21, 2026, 6:21 PM

Happy Monday, and welcome to the first pop-up edition of *Foreign Policy*’s Situation Report, coming to you from the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) high-level week. Your SitRep co-authors are on the ground at U.N. headquarters in New York City’s Turtle Bay neighborhood with recorders, power banks, and comfortable shoes to bring you all the updates from what is shaping up to be an action-packed week.

Here’s what we’ll be watching as leaders from dozens of countries—including, of course, U.S. President Donald Trump—descend on New York for the world’s biggest annual diplomatic gathering.

Happy Monday, and welcome to the first pop-up edition of *Foreign Policy*’s Situation Report, coming to you from the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) high-level week. Your SitRep co-authors are on the ground at U.N. headquarters in New York City’s Turtle Bay neighborhood with recorders, power banks, and comfortable shoes to bring you all the updates from what is shaping up to be an action-packed week.

Here’s what we’ll be watching as leaders from dozens of countries—including, of course, U.S. President Donald Trump—descend on New York for the world’s biggest annual diplomatic gathering.

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MUNGA 2.0

As always, much of the conversation this week will be dominated and dictated by the United States’ words and actions. Trump, who used his pulpit last year to slam the U.N. and air many of his long-standing international and domestic grievances, is set to address the gathering on Tuesday morning (with hopefully no teleprompter or escalator snafus this time).

Despite Trump’s many criticisms of the U.N., his administration gave the multilateral institution a much-needed boost last week by paying more than $800 million in pending U.S. dues, including a portion of its peacekeeping fees. While that’s a sizable amount, it still leaves Washington’s pending debt to the U.N. at more than $3 billion across the regular budget and peacekeeping functions.

The Trump administration has already pulled out of several U.N. programs, dialed back its contributions to the budget, and pushed the body to shrink its annual budget this year for the first time in the institution’s eight-decade history. “We call it having the U.N. on a diet, getting it back focused, leaner, and back to basics focused on peace and security,” a senior U.S. official said in a briefing ahead of the gathering, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Let’s do less things better.”

Still, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz told reporters that there’s “nothing else quite like UNGA,” adding that “you have presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers, finance ministers, CEOs, diplomats from every country on Earth packed into a few square miles of Manhattan. … That concentration of people creates an extraordinary diplomatic opportunity.”

Trump’s planned meetings include new U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, and a pull-aside with acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez, Waltz said, as well as a meeting with Arab Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) leaders that is expected to focus on how to end the U.S.-Iran war. Administration officials declined to comment on whether Trump will meet with the Iranian delegation led by President Masoud Pezeshkian.

As for broader engagement with the U.N., Waltz reiterated his statement from last year that the United States has “worked to rebrand it MUNGA, or Make the U.N. Great Again.” (No word on whether there will be more hats, though.)

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What We’re Watching

**Sec-Gen sweepstakes.** The one thing that’s different about UNGA this year is that it foreshadows the U.N.’s first leadership change in a decade. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres will step down at the end of this year, having led the institution since 2017. The race to succeed him is now down to seven candidates after former Chilean president and U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet withdrew her candidacy over the weekend via a video posted to her Instagram page, reportedly after a secret straw poll on Friday showed a lack of support.

U.N. Conference on Trade and Development Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan of Costa Rica emerged as the front-runner in that straw poll, remaining on course to become the first woman to hold the U.N.’s top job.

For more on the challenges facing the next U.N. secretary-general, check out the FP podcast *World’s Toughest Job*.

**AI answers.** Few issues have animated the U.N. more in the past decade than the rapid rise of a