The Briefing:
- The General Debate runs Tuesday, September 22 through Saturday, September 26, then reconvenes Monday, September 28, under the theme "Restoring trust, managing transformation: a United Nations that delivers for all."
- Brazil's Lula opens the hall Tuesday morning ahead of Trump, with France, Lithuania, Switzerland and new UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham all speaking the same day; Ukraine's Zelenskyy takes the podium Wednesday.
- Russia sends Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov instead of President Putin on Saturday, while China's Xi Jinping skips the hall entirely for a Thursday summit with Trump in Washington.
More than 15 European governments and the European Union itself now have confirmed slots on the speakers' list for the 81st UN General Assembly's General Debate, a nine-day stretch that opened this week as diplomacy tries to hold together a fifth winter of war in Ukraine, a fragile Gaza truce and an unresolved race to pick the next UN chief. With Washington and Moscow both due at the podium and a new British prime minister making his global debut, the hall is set to double as a stage for nearly every live fault line in world politics at once.
A Marathon Tuesday Opens With Brazil, Then Trump
Outgoing Secretary-General António Guterres — in his final high-level week before his term expires at year's end — opens proceedings Tuesday morning and presents his annual report before handing the floor to Brazil. Brazil has opened every General Debate since 1955, and this marks Lula's tenth turn at the podium; President Trump follows immediately after, continuing the two countries' decades-old first-and-second arrangement.
The rest of Tuesday's morning session pulls in Jordan, Turkey, Qatar and Lithuania before closing out with Peru, Chile, Luxembourg, Finland and France's Emmanuel Macron, whose appearance carries extra weight: with his term ending in 2027 and no path to a third consecutive mandate, this is expected to be his last General Debate as French president.
European Speakers, In Order of Delivery
Confirmed as of September 21, 2026. Morning sessions run roughly 9:00 a.m. to early afternoon; afternoon sessions begin around 3:00 p.m., New York time (EDT). Exact hours for Ukraine, the EU and Russia remained unpublished at writing time.
| Date (2026) | Country / Entity | NY Session (ET) | Local Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tue, Sept 22 | Luxembourg | 9:00 a.m. (morning) | 3:00 p.m. CEST |
| Tue, Sept 22 | Finland | 9:00 a.m. (morning) | 4:00 p.m. EEST |
| Tue, Sept 22 | France | 9:00 a.m. (morning) | 3:00 p.m. CEST |
| Tue, Sept 22 | Lithuania | 9:00 a.m. (morning) | 4:00 p.m. EEST |
| Tue, Sept 22 | United Kingdom (PM Andy Burnham) | 3:00 p.m. (afternoon) | 8:00 p.m. BST |
| Tue, Sept 22 | Switzerland | 3:00 p.m. (afternoon) | 9:00 p.m. CEST |
| Tue, Sept 22 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 3:00 p.m. (afternoon) | 9:00 p.m. CEST |
| Wed, Sept 23 | Latvia | 9:00 a.m. (morning) | 4:00 p.m. EEST |
| Wed, Sept 23 | Romania | 9:00 a.m. (morning) | 4:00 p.m. EEST |
| Wed, Sept 23 | Bulgaria | 9:00 a.m. (morning) | 4:00 p.m. EEST |
| Wed, Sept 23 | Cyprus | 9:00 a.m. (morning) | 4:00 p.m. EEST |
| Wed, Sept 23 | Ukraine | Session TBC | Hour pending (EEST) |
| Thu, Sept 24 | European Union (António Costa) | Session TBC | Hour pending (CEST) |
| Thu, Sept 24 | Germany | 3:00 p.m. (afternoon) | 9:00 p.m. CEST |
| Thu, Sept 24 | Spain | 3:00 p.m. (afternoon) | 9:00 p.m. CEST |
| Thu, Sept 24 | Poland | 3:00 p.m. (afternoon) | 9:00 p.m. CEST |
| Sat, Sept 26 | Russia (FM Sergey Lavrov) | Session TBC | Hour pending (MSK) |
Italy and the Netherlands had no independently confirmed speaking date in public reporting as of this writing; the UN updates the provisional list daily.
Burnham's Global Debut Shares the Afternoon With Switzerland and Bosnia
Tuesday's 3 p.m. sitting brings a genuinely new face to the podium. Andy Burnham became Britain's prime minister on July 20, replacing Keir Starmer after a Labour leadership contest, and Tuesday's speech doubles as his first appearance on the world stage — he's also set to hold his first-ever meeting with Trump on the sidelines that same day. He shares the afternoon slate with Switzerland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Japan, South Korea and Mongolia.
Zelenskyy's Wednesday: One Podium, One Security Council Seat
Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the General Debate on Wednesday and, hours later, sits down for a UN Security Council session dedicated specifically to his country's war — a pairing his government has used in past years to press for accountability measures alongside the speech itself. Iran's Masoud Pezeshkian speaks the same day, a day after Trump, putting two of the week's most closely watched wartime addresses back to back. Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus round out Wednesday's morning lineup.
Brussels Gets Thursday, Moscow Waits Until Saturday
European Council President António Costa addresses the Assembly on the EU's behalf Thursday, September 24 — the day after co-hosting a separate summit on multilateralism with Canada's Mark Carney and Kenya's William Ruto that took place Monday, ahead of the debate proper. Germany, Spain and Poland also speak Thursday afternoon, per updated scheduling.
Russia's turn comes far later in the week. Lavrov is expected to deliver Moscow's address on Saturday, September 26, extending a pattern that now stretches back 11 straight years: Putin last stood at that podium in person in September 2015 and has sent his foreign minister in his place ever since.
The Leaders Staying Home
Not every capital is sending its top official. Germany, India and South Africa are all expected to send senior representatives rather than heads of government this year. The starkest absence belongs to China: Xi Jinping is skipping the hall altogether to fly to Washington for a one-on-one summit with Trump on Thursday, the same day EU and German officials take the podium in New York. Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group told NPR the split-screen moment could "send a bit of a message about where power really lies."
A Debate Overshadowed by the Hunt for a New UN Chief
This is Guterres' last high-level week as Secretary-General, with his second term ending December 31. Three Security Council straw polls have failed to produce a consensus successor; Costa Rica's Rebeca Grynspan and Guyana's Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett are considered front-runners after Chile's Michelle Bachelet dropped out of the race over the weekend, leaving seven candidates standing. The U.S. State Department has said its single goal this session is "delivering prosperity through peace" by pushing the UN "back to basics" — language that, as a veto-holding Security Council member, Washington has real leverage to enforce on whoever ultimately gets the job.
