When Musk meets Meloni

Sep 23, 2024

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Welcome to Day 2 of the U.N. Global Playbook coming to you from New York City, where global leaders are gathering for a week of frenetic diplomatic activity. Today is the second and final day of the Summit of the Future, after leaders signed off on a new “Pact for the Future” on Sunday. But most of the action is taking place off campus.

BATTLE OF THE EVENTS: A plethora of events are taking place today and throughout the week across Manhattan. Today, the Concordia Annual Summit, Clinton Global Initiative, and the Gates Foundation’s Goalkeepers Events are taking place (full details below); U.S. President Joe Biden will deliver a climate speech at Tuesday’s Bloomberg Global Business Forum.

MUSK FLIES IN: The hottest ticket in town tonight is the Atlantic Council Global Citizen Awards dinner, which has moved from its usual spot in Cipriani, Wall Street, uptown to the Ziegfeld Ballroom. Tech mogul Elon Musk, the nemesis of the regulatory and left-leaning political world, will introduce Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is being honored with a “Global Citizen” award.

MELONI HAVING A MOMENT: Meloni, a darling of the right, whose Brothers of Italy party has been governing Italy in a coalition government for two years, has emerged as a key player in European politics. Italy’s stint as president of the G7 group this year has also upped her international profile.

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Data sovereignty laws like GDPR and the CLOUD Act are redefining AI architecture. POLITICO Research & Analysis Division’s report, presented by G42, details how nations are leveraging these frameworks to localize data control and navigate cross-border data flows, driving shifts in where and how AI models are developed and deployed globally.

NOT HAPPY: The decision to honor Meloni — and particularly to invite Musk — has infuriated staffers within the Atlantic Council, with many protesting on a Sept. 3 call with Atlantic Council chief Frederick Kempe, my colleagues Eric Bazail-Eimil, Nahal Toosi and Robbie Gramer report.

OLD FRIENDS: Meloni and Musk go back a long way. The Italian leader hosted the billionaire in her official residence last year where they discussed falling birth rates and AI. Musk was also a guest speaker at a political festival hosted by Brothers of Italy last December.

MILEI IN TOWN: Musk is also expected to meet Argentinian leader Javier Milei today — the pair got together at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles in May. Milei is due to deliver Argentina’s national address to the General Assembly Tuesday.

A-LISTERS UNITE: Though the Musk-Meloni two-hander is likely to suck up most of the oxygen in the room, other honorees include President of Ghana Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Miky Lee, vice chair of the CJ Group.

HOLLYWOOD ROYALTY VS REAL ROYALTY: Today will also see a smattering of big names in town. Actor Matt Damon is due at the Clinton Global Initiative gathering, while Actor Meryl Streep will be at an event on women in Afghanistan at U.N. Headquarters; model and global health campaigner Christy Turlington Burns is due at the Gates Foundation Goalkeepers event. Meanwhile, Prince Harry, duke of Sussex, is among the headliners at the Concordia Annual Summit.

SUMMIT OF THE FUTURE REDUX

PACT AGREED: It wasn’t exactly a nail-biter, but the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Pact of the Future early Sunday, bringing to a close a yearslong negotiation process as member countries endorsed a 30-page document outlining 56 “actions,” covering everything from climate change to U.N. Security Council reform to AI. You can watch a clip of the good cheer as the results were announced in the chamber here.

When is consensus not consensus: Though officially the text was adopted “by consensus,” in reality Russia and a core group of countries were not too happy. Russia introduced an amendment advocating the “principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of states,” backed by Belarus, Iran, Nicaragua, Syria and North Korea. Member states then voted to take “no action” on the Russian amendment, kiboshing its efforts to disrupt the process, and technically allowing the U.N. to claim "consensus."

Taking stock: “I was one of those people whose expectations were pretty low, who thought that perhaps the Summit of the Future was a distraction from priorities like the Sustainable Development Goals,” said Minh-Thu Pham, CEO of Project Starling and a longtime U.N. watcher, “but ultimately the pact shows that multilateral cooperation is alive … maybe not well ... but alive and able to take on underlying issues that's preventing us from achieving the SDGs."

Key takeaways: In particular, she highlights the language on international financial architecture reform, as well as explicit commitments to protecting the rights of future generations. The “once-in-a-generation” pledge for reforming the 15-member Security Council is also a takeaway.

Climate views: Most climate groups were also broadly positive about the final communiqué, which included language agreed at the COP climate talks in Dubai about the need to transition away from fossil fuels and triple renewables. It was no means a done deal, given that these pledges had been watered-down in earlier versions of the text.

Talking shop continues: Despite the pact being agreed, world leaders will continue to have their moment in the sun today and pat themselves on the back, as the Summit of the Future continues for a second day. But there are also plenty of substantive meetings on the side, not least a meeting on Haiti chaired by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Haiti’s acting leader Garry Conille.

Smiling Scholz: Meanwhile, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who had a prominent role Sunday given that Germany was a co-facilitator of the negotiations, was in upbeat form in the General Assembly hall after his Social Democrats party held off the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in crucial local elections back home.

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SPEAKING FROM THE SAME PAGE

PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW: EU foreign ministers are meeting today, with the topics of Ukraine and the Middle East leading the agenda. The aim of the gathering is to ensure a unified European position ahead of a week of diplomacy, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell told Brussels Playbook in an interview.

ON UKRAINE … Borrell will also attend today’s G7+ meeting on energy and the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting taking place this evening. But is the West just talking to itself when it comes to Ukraine, given that many developing countries are lukewarm about fully backing Kyiv?

“Clearly everybody has different approaches because geography matters and history matters,” said Borrell. “That is why, over the last few years, we have been trying to explain why we are supporting Ukraine in this war. There are arguments about anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism. These are part of the way the world has been built, and that's why you have to counter this narrative with another narrative.”

Russia’s responsibility: Borrell, who like other senior EU officials has no contact with Russia or its representatives, is highly critical of the Security Council format, noting that it has been the General Assembly that has been “taking the political lead” on issues like Ukraine and the Middle East in recent years.

“The Security Council is losing legitimacy because it’s unable to reach a position on almost anything. When they do reach a decision, such as a ceasefire, then it’s not implemented and nothing happens.”

Russia’s friends: With Moscow shunned by Europe and the United States over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it has bolstered its relationship with many U.N. members. Business is booming between Russia and countries like India, Turkey and China. (Vladimir Putin and India's Narendra Modi recently pledged to boost trade by 50 percent to $100 billion by 2030.) But Borrell acknowledges that there is still a problem with sanction-circumvention in Europe’s back yard. “You only have to look at the exports of Europe to Turkey or to Central Asia. It has multiplied many times since the war began.”

Kyiv at the table: Borrell has invited Ukraine’s new foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, to join today’s EU foreign ministers’ meeting (Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to hold a meeting with members of the U.S. Congress today before Tuesday’s Security Council meeting.)

Trump alert: With the U.S. presidential election looming, officials in Brussels are apprehensive about the prospect of U.S. aid drying up. Borrell is upfront about the possibility of Trump 2.0. “When you listen to candidate Trump, certainly we are concerned … about what we can expect from America’s protection. That is why Europeans must take much more responsibility for their share of the burden, increase its defense capacity and be less dependent. In order to make NATO stronger, we, Europe, need to be stronger.”

AROUND TOWN

BILLIONAIRES RUN THE WORLD: That’s the message from a new Oxfam report out this morning highlighting the startling wealth gap that permeates the global economy, as U.N. leaders meet. Using data from UBS, Oxfam found that billionaires are “exerting new levels of control over economies” — more than a third of the world’s top 50 corporations are run by a billionaire, or they are the principal shareholder. Read the full report here.

WALZ WITH ME: U.S. Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris may not be making the trip to the U.N. General Assembly, but her running mate, Tim Walz is in town. The vice-presidential candidate is attending two fundraisers in New York today.

ZELENSKYY HITS THE RUSTBELT: It’s arguably the most crucial state in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, but the electoral college is not the reason why President Zelenskyy chose Pennsylvania as the first stop on his U.S. trip. The Ukrainian leader visited an ammunition factory in the state on Sunday, before heading to New York. The plant in Scranton — which happens to be Biden’s hometown — manufactures 155 mm artillery shells.

AGENDA

— Day 2 of Summit of the Future, 9 a.m. U.N. General Assembly Hall, U.N. Headquarters.

— Clinton Global Initiative, 8:45 a.m. Speakers on Day 1 include: actor Matt Damon; former U.S. President Bill Clinton; first lady Jill Biden; former Foreign Secretary Hillary Clinton; Chelsea Clinton; Governor of Arizona Katie Hobbs, Environmental Protection Agency’s Michael Regan; U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su; Josh Shapiro, governor of Pennsylvania; Kathy Hochul, governor of New York; Governor of New Mexico Michelle Lujan Grisham; Bill Ready, CEO of Pinterest; La June Montgomery Tabron, president and CEO of W.K. Kellogg Foundation; Brad Smith, Microsoft’s vice chairman and president.

— 2024 Concordia Annual Summit, 9 a.m., Sheraton New York Times Square. Speakers on Day 1 include: Prince Harry, Philip Davis, prime minister of the Bahamas; U.S. Representatives Chrissy Houlahan and Mike Waltz; U.S. Senators Chris Coons and Bill Cassidy; World Bank President Ajay Banga; European Parliament President Roberta Metsola; NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

— Goalkeepers Event, 6-8 p.m., Jazz@Lincoln Center. Speakers include former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, model Christy Turlington Burns; singer-songwriter John Batiste, UNICEF’s Saul Guerrero Oteyza.

— Global Renewables Summit, 9 a.m., Columbia University.

— "Exploring the Power of of women’s leadership in Malaria eradication,” hosted by WomenLift Health and RBM Partnership to End Malaria, 8 a.m., Yale Club.

— Fireside chat between WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus and European Investment Bank President Nadia Calviño, moderated by POLITICO’s Suzanne Lynch, 11 a.m., SDG Media Zone, U.N. Headquarters. Live-stream here.

— Launch event for Munich Security Conference report on Global Double Standards at Permanent Mission of Liechtenstein to the United Nations, 1 p.m.

— “Ways to Include Women in the Future of Afghanistan;” U.N. Headquarters, Conference Room 3. Co-hosted by Permanent Missions of Ireland, Switzerland, Indonesia and Qatar. Speakers include actor Meryl Streep, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin.

— Rockefeller Foundation hosts the GEAPP Leadership Council, 8:30 a.m., Rockefeller Center.

— Protection of Aid Workers event, 11:30 a.m., Australian Mission to the United Nations. Speakers include Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong.

— Meeting of the foreign ministers of the Western Balkans with the “Friends of the Western Balkans countries,” U.N. Headquarters (afternoon).

— Octopus Energy Nightcap, hosted by Greg Jackson, CEO and founder, Octopus Energy Group, 10 p.m.; Goals House, Tavern on the Green, 67th Street and Central Park West.

SPOTTED

— Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani at Mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral on 5th Avenue.

— U.S. Senator Chris Coons on the corner of Madison Avenue and E. 48th Street

— At the Summit of the Future dinner hosted by BCIU, Amazon, and the U.N. Office for Outer Space Affairs at the American Museum of Natural History. Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden Ebba Busch; Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator; Minister of Information Technologies and Communications of Colombia Mauricio Lizcano; Vice Chairman and CEO of the Saudi Space Agency Dr. Mohammed Al-Tamimi; State Secretary for Economic, Finance and European Affairs at the Federal Chancellery of Germany Dr. Jörg Kukies.

— At the Concordia Reception at CORE on 5th Avenue: Qatar’s Ambassador to the United States Sheikh Meshal bin Hamad Al-Thani; Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy, Concordia’s Matthew Swift, Mahar Al-Kuwari, executive director of the Doha Forum; Foreign Policy’s CEO Andrew Sollinger and national security reporter Amy MacKinnon, Former U.S. under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky, Congressman Mike Waltz, Alexander Tah-ray Yui, Taiwan’s ambassador to the U.S.; Jon Clifton, CEO of Gallup; Obama administration alumnus David Simas; Laura Chinchilla, former president of Costa Rica; Prime Minister of the Bahamas Philip Davis.

Thanks to Nahal Toosi and editor Sanya Khetani-Shah.

A message from G42:

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