UNITED NATIONS, September 6. /TASS/. The 78th session of the UN General Assembly officially began in New York on Tuesday, a TASS correspondent reported from the opening ceremony.

The event’s peak will be the High-Level Week of September 19-25, bringing together leaders and foreign ministers from all over the world. The top-level participants will visit New York to share their vision of the current global situation and outline ways of countering global threats. The Russian delegation will be led by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Dennis Francis, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to the United Nations in New York, was elected as president of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly. The diplomat took the oath of office earlier, vowing to perform his duties in a fair and independent way.

"We begin the 78th session of the General Assembly amid a daunting global agenda, beset by a series of cascading challenges," he said. "I have set out 4 priorities - four watchwords - to ensure the 78th session meaningfully addresses these challenges: Peace, Prosperity, Progress and Sustainability."

In his opinion, sharp geopolitical divides "have brought us to a dangerous new era of nuclear uncertainty." "They have bred scepticism of our multilateral system," the diplomat added.

The High-Level week will begin by an address by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He will be followed by US President Joe Biden, who will be the only P5 leader to participate in this year’s Assembly. The leaders of the other four permanent members of the UN Security Council - Russia, the United Kingdom, China and France - do not plan to participate in the Assembly’s events this year.