The 81st session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 81) will open on Tuesday, 8 September 2026. The general debate of the 81st session of the General Assembly will open on Tuesday, 22 September, continuing through Saturday, 26 September, and concluding on Monday, 28 September 2026.
The general debate of the UN General Assembly is the opportunity for heads of state and government and ministers to come together at the UN Headquarters and discuss world issues, such as climate change, sustainable development, and international peace and security.
The presidency of the 81st session will be held by a representative from the Asia-Pacific Group, following the customary regional rotation.
The 2026 dedicated thematic groups of the Global Mechanism on developments in the field of ICTs in the context of international security and advancing responsible State behaviour in the use of ICTs will be held on 7-11 December 2026.
The two groups are:
- An integrated, policy-oriented and cross-cutting dedicated thematic group drawing on the five pillars of the framework to address specific challenges in the sphere of ICT security in the context of international security in order to promote an open, secure, stable, accessible, peaceful, and interoperable ICT environment, with the participation of, inter alia, technical experts and other stakeholders. (DTG 1)
- An integrated, policy-oriented and cross-cutting dedicated thematic group drawing on the five pillars of the framework to accelerate ICT security capacity-building, with the participation of, inter alia, capacity-building experts, practitioners, and other stakeholders. (DTG 2)
The Global Mechanism on cybersecurity will convene in different formats.
It will hold substantive plenary sessions once a year during each biennial cycle, the first of which is scheduled for July 2026.
It will hold two dedicated thematic groups each year—one addressing general substantive issues and one focused on capacity building—intended to enable more in-depth discussions, building on the outcomes of the plenary.
In addition, the mechanism will convene a review conference every five years to assess progress and guide its future direction.
