UN General Assembly 2026: Everything about UNGA session and who's attending

World leaders are coming together in New York for the 81st session of the UN General Assembly. President Trump will address the body on Tuesday, as will his Finnish, French and Turkish counterparts

For over eight decades, the UN General Assembly has brought together all 193 member states to grapple with the issues that define the era—war and peace, development, climate change, and human rights.

 

Nearly 130 heads of state and government are set to take the podium again in New York as the UN General Assembly's high-level general debate gets underway.

 

The general debate is the centrepiece of UNGA's annual session, which kicked off on September 8, when Bangladesh's Khalilur Rahman was sworn in as the Assembly's new president.

 

What is the general debate?

 

It is the annual gathering of heads of State and government at the start of the session, typically the first debate on the calendar, and, barring special high-level meetings, the only one in which leaders regularly participate in person.

 

 

The general debate takes place in the General Assembly Hall at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

 

Each year, the Assembly chooses a theme for the general debate. The theme for the general debate of the 81st session is "Restoring trust, managing transformation: a United Nations that delivers for all".

 

Statements are expected to observe a voluntary 15-minute limit, although many run longer, with the meetings continuing after all the leaders have spoken.

 

When does UNGA 2026 start?

 

The debate opens on September 22, runs through September 26, and resumes on Monday, September 28, after a Sunday break.

 

The debates will be held in two daily sessions: from 9 am to 2:45 pm local time (13:00 GMT to 18:45 GMT) and from 3 pm to 9 pm (19:00 GMT to 01:00 GMT the next day).

 

Who is speaking at UNGA 2026, and when?

 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Assembly President Khalilur Rahman will open the 81st UNGA session on Tuesday as world leaders come together in New York.

 

US President Donald Trump is expected to set the tone early, speaking after Brazil's Lula and before Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the morning session—a lineup that's bound to make headlines.

 

By tradition, Brazil has opened the general debate every year since 1955, barring 1983 and 1984. The US, as host nation, customarily takes the podium second, with only a handful of exceptions over the years.

 

For all other participating nations, the speaking order comes down to level of representation (whether head of state, head of government, or minister), stated preference, and factors like geographic balance.

 

The only non-member participants invited to the podium are the Holy See, the State of Palestine and the European Union, whose slots, too, are set by the seniority of who's speaking.

 

Other countries who get to take the morning podium on Tuesday include Jordan, Turkiye, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, Lithuania, Peru, Chile, France, Finland, Luxembourg, and Angola.

 

The nations whose representatives get to take the afternoon session include Mongolia, South Korea, Suriname, Sierra Leone, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dominica, Switzerland, Vietnam, and others.

 

Do member states get a right of reply?

 

Yes. A right of reply to another leader's statement must be submitted in writing to the Secretary-General, who circulates it to all member states.

 

During the general debate itself, spoken rights of reply are heard at the end of each day, capped at two interventions per delegation, with the first limited to 10 minutes and the second to five.

 

Delegations can also register dissent more bluntly: by walking out of the hall, en masse, mid-speech.

 

What's on the agenda this year?

 

The 81st UNGA runs under the theme "Restoring trust, managing transformation: a United Nations that delivers for all."

 

Beyond the speeches, high-level meetings are scheduled through the week: climate action and a just transition, plus the 40th anniversary of the Right to Development (September 23); sea level rise (September 24); pandemic preparedness (September 25); the 25th anniversary of the Durban Declaration against racism (September 28); and eliminating nuclear weapons (September 29).

 

Expect the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, AI, and the UN's funding crunch to dominate speeches, alongside quiet diplomacy over who succeeds Guterres when his term ends December 31.

 

Beyond the podium, the session doubles as a stage for quiet diplomacy, with a string of bilateral meetings expected on the sidelines.

 

This year's Assembly convenes against a backdrop of global uncertainty, with conflict, environmental crisis and sweeping technological disruption converging all at once.