Türkiye demands UN reform as Erdogan addresses General Assembly

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York, saying that "the world is bigger than five" while calling for comprehensive reform of the Security Council and positioning Türkiye as a leading advocate for global justice.

UN reform and global justice

Speaking before delegates during the high-level meetings week, Erdogan said the UN has proven unable to prevent conflicts across the past three decades — a period he described as the bloodiest in recent history citing bloodshed in Myanmar, Darfur, Ukraine, Palestine and Lebanon — and noted that inviting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas only via video link rather than in person constituted an injustice. He stated that Gaza has become the world's largest graveyard with 74,000 innocent citizens killed, mostly women and children, emphasizing that Asian workers and African nations currently face mounting capitalist threats and calling for a new global paradigm based on income equality and enhanced connectivity through roads, transport and energy infrastructure that would allow society to follow economic development.

The Turkish president highlighted Türkiye's resilient economy, top-tier defense industry and integral role within Europe as assets for advancing this agenda, referencing the recent NATO summit in Ankara as evidence of the country's security commitments and its unwavering desire to improve rather than abolish the UN system. He called for a Turkish director to lead the Food and Agriculture Organization and proposed hosting the COP 31 climate summit in Antalya, with the Presidential Office releasing a trilingual book in English, Arabic and Turkish featuring his address to underscore Ankara's 360-degree approach to foreign policy — a strategy first articulated by MIT head Ibrahim Kalin in 2018.

Bilateral diplomacy

Erdogan held face-to-face meetings with leaders from Poland, Japan, Bangladesh, Senegal and Qatar alongside US President Donald Trump, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during the four-day visit, discussing defense cooperation, trade partnerships and educational exchanges while connecting with the Turkish business community in New York. The president attended a reception hosted by Trump for heads of state at a downtown hotel, emphasizing that Ankara maintains strong bilateral ties with London regardless of whether Conservative or Labour governments hold power and does not play merely to a domestic gallery, as the 81st General Assembly session runs through September 2027.