Four important speeches by various world leaders but
Putin steals the show.
The four key speeches at the UN General Assembly session on 28th September 2015:
(1) Obama - a highly defensive speech recycling tired cliches, but grudgingly conceding ground to Putin on Syria;
(2) Putin - a typically strong and confident performance, pushing a diplomatic plan for Syria which - because of its obvious logic - is succeeding I suspect far beyond his expectations, whilst condemning in scathing terms the US policies that he sees as creating the situation. Contains the clearest statement of outright support for President Assad the Russians have made to date;
(3) Xi Jinping - a typical quiet spoken speech from China's leader, but arguably the most interesting speech of the day. A clear defence of the principle of equality between states. Quite obviously aimed at the claims for “exceptional” status coming out of the US. Strange that the speech of the leader of the world's biggest country and (by purchasing power parity) the world's biggest economy is getting so little attention;
(4) Rouhani - a highly intelligent speech from an obviously intelligent man. Making clear that Iran has not compromised its essential geopolitical play as part of a grand bargain involving the nuclear deal.
None of the other speeches seemed to me at all interesting. Hollande's was (again) a sad disappointment.
Neither Cameron nor I believe Merkel could be bothered to turn up. Perhaps the fact Putin was coming scared them off.
Source: Russia Insider 29-09-2015
