Western leaders have gone on a charm offensive on the opening day of the UN general assembly as they were forced to defend their record in meeting the organisation’s sustainable development goals (SDGs), and insist that the war in Ukraine had not distracted them from this commitment to end global inequality.

A plea by the UN secretary general, António Guterres, for all sides to avoid recriminations about the cause of the failure and instead to use the two-day summit as a chance to make a global rescue plan was only partially met on the opening day.

The solutions laid out in the political declaration are broad, covering financing for developing countries including clear support for Guterres’s proposal for an SDG stimulus of at least $500bn annually, as well as a more effective debt-relief mechanism.

Catherine Colonna, the French foreign minister, said she wanted to avoid a north-south fracture and emphasised France’s role in building its aid budget and a new global financial pact.

France is part of the coalition who help to make everyone not go hungry.” She said Russia’s efforts to present itself as a member of the global south, a term she said she disliked, were designed to mislead.

But the strength of the diplomatic olive branch to the global south was weakened by the glaring absence of two European leaders: Rishi Sunak, the British prime minister, and Emmanuel Macron, the French president.

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