UNGA lingo: A guide to UN General Assembly meeting acronyms, buzzwords and more

General Assembly is launching into its yearly meeting of world leaders, a week of diplomacy, dealmaking, speechmaking — and lingo. Here is some of the key vocabulary, decoded. For starters … UNGA: Shorthand (often pronounced “UN’-gah”) for the U.N.

General Assembly’s “High-level Week,” when presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and other top leaders of all 193 U.N. member countries are invited to speak to the world and each other. New Yorkers sometimes just groan “General Assembly” to describe what many experience as a week of epic traffic, but the assembly isn’t just this meeting.

It’s a body that discusses many global issues and votes on resolutions throughout the year. GENERAL DEBATE: The centerpiece of the week, it gives each country’s leader (or a designee) the microphone for a state-of-the-world speech. This year’s theme is “restoring trust, managing transformation” and ensuring the 81-year-old United Nations “delivers for all.” But speakers often opine on the planet’s biggest issues and hot spots, spotlight domestic accomplishments and needs, air grievances and try to exude statesmanship.

While the “debate” is more a series of speeches than an interactive discussion, rebuttals are allowed at the end of each long day, and some embittered neighbor nations routinely go multiple rounds. BILATERAL (or “bilat,” for short): Private meetings between high-ranking officials of two countries. Many UNGA veterans say the gathering’s real value lies in these tête-à-têtes and other personal, off-camera encounters among decision-makers.

MINISTERIAL: Applies to meetings of cabinet-level officials, such as foreign ministers, from different countries. SECURITY COUNCIL: The U.N.’s most powerful component, charged with maintaining international peace and security. The 15-member council can enact binding (though sometimes ignored) resolutions, impose sanctions and deploy peacekeeping troops.

While this week is the General Assembly’s show, the council generally also holds a high-wattage meeting or two. P5: The Security Council’s five permanent members with veto power. Under a structure set up in 1945, they are China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.