President Donald Trump will sit down for lunch Monday with the U.N. Security Council amid tensions between the U.S. and North Korea.
UN’s ambassadors are expected to have coffee with members of Congress at The President’s Guest House Monday morning before going across the street to meet with Trump at the White House for lunch, according to NBC News.
This lunch date comes after the president’s criticism of the United Nations both during his campaign and in his time in the Oval Office.
Since Trump has taken office, he has challenged international cooperation with such moves as a nuclear deal with Iran and global funding cuts, according to The New York Times.
North Korea, Syria and the Israel-Palestinian conflict are expected to be topics of conversations during the lunch, according to the Times.
The U.N.’s functions include refugee relief, vetting, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, NBC News noted.
The U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, will be present at the meeting along with some other 14 diplomats, including envoys from China and Russia. Haley is serving as president of the Security Council this month. That role rotates monthly among the U.S., Great Britain, France, China, and Russia.
“There has been a lot of talk about China supplanting the U.S. as the top diplomatic dog at the UN since Trump’s election,” said Richard Gowan, an associate at the European Council on Foreign Relations, according to The New York Times. “But at the end of the day, the Council’s school outing to Washington makes it clear that it is still at Washington’s beck and call.”
The U.N. Security Council is expected to return to the Big Apple on Tuesday for more meetings.
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