But Tijjani Muhammad-Bande told a news conference that he hopes to announce in the next two weeks how the 193 heads of state and government will give their speeches on pressing local and world issues during the assembly’s so-called General Debate.

“World leaders cannot come to New York because they cannot come simply as individuals,” he said. “A president doesn’t travel alone, leaders don’t travel alone” and “it is impossible” to bring large delegations to New York during the pandemic, AP reported.

“We cannot have them in person as we used to — what happened in the last 74 years — but it will happen,” Muhammad-Bande said of the annual event.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recommended last month that the gathering of world leaders, which was supposed to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, be dramatically scaled back because of the pandemic.

Guterres suggested in a letter to the General Assembly president that heads of state and government deliver prerecorded messages instead, with only one New York-based diplomat from each of the 193 UN member nations present in the assembly hall.

Muhammad-Bande said Monday that by late September “maybe a hundred or so” people might be allowed in the General Assembly chamber.

The meeting of world leaders usually brings thousands of government officials, diplomats, and civil society representatives to New York for over a week of speeches, dinners, receptions, one-on-one meetings, and hundreds of side events.

This year was expected to bring an especially large number of leaders to UN headquarters to celebrate the founding of the United Nations in 1945 on the ashes of World War II.

Muhammad-Bande said the 75th-anniversary celebration “is not conceived as one moment” but will continue throughout the year starting on June 26, the 75th anniversary of the signing of the Charter of the United Nations in San Francisco.

He said a political declaration on the United Nations at 75 is also being negotiated, and world leaders will have the opportunity to mark the occasion — only not in person.

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Tijjani Muhammad-Bande said in an interview with AP that “this is not something that has so far been an issue of serious consultation,” and for now the calendar of events remains. It calls for the General Debate — the official name of the high-level meeting — to open on Sept. 22, with a kickoff event for world leaders the previous day to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations.

The former Nigerian ambassador said “in the coming month we’ll make a decision about leaders meeting through the normal means,” which means consulting all UN member states.

The United Nations has canceled or postponed numerous upcoming events including the five-year review of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty that had been scheduled to start in late April, and two major events in Mexico City in May and Paris in July to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Beijing women’s conference, which adopted a 150-page roadmap to achieve gender equality.

Muhammad-Bande announced the postponement Friday of several meetings of the General Assembly scheduled in the next two months including the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II on May 6.

“The current situation might have pushed us to postpone events celebrating the 75th anniversary (of World War II) but it illustrates, maybe more than anything else, the absolute need for the UN to guide the global efforts and provide much-needed support to defeat our common threat,” he said.

“The UN, since its creation, has given a sense of hope to many people in very difficult situations,” Muhammad-Bande said. “The very existence of this organization has the same effect now during a time in which a lot of people go through fear and anxiety.”

He said, “everything is secondary to COVID right now.”

But Muhammad-Bande stressed that other issues are still being discussed in the assembly’s committees, which are meeting by video conference.

What has emerged so far from the pandemic, he said, “is a greater realization of how interconnected we all are … and also in my view I can see better relations among nations.”

Muhammad-Bande pointed to the authority of the UN World Health Organization, saying people everywhere want to hear what it has to say about COVID-19.

He said it must be “a moral imperative” to help poorer countries tackle the virus, and urged governments to give generously to the UN appeal.

“We certainly need to do much more, and I am hopeful that we’ll get what is needed while looking at better ways of guaranteeing social nets,” the General Assembly president said.

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