HIGHLIGHTS OF PRESS BRIEFING BY BRENDEN VARMA,?SPOKESPERSON FOR GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT MIROSLAV LAJ??K

United Nations Headquarters, New York

9 March 2018

 

PRESIDENT TO VISIT COLOMBIA AND BRAZIL

  • The President will travel to South America next week.
  • On Thursday 15 March, he will head to Colombia. The focus of his trip will be peacebuilding, sustaining peace and sustainable development. He is expected to meet in Bogotá with Colombian officials, including President Juan Manuel Santos. He also plans to visit a United Nations interagency project in western Colombia which supports peace through strengthening food security and agricultural production in indigenous communities.
  • He will then head to Brazil, where he’ll address the 8th World Water Forum on Monday 19 March.

 

PRESIDENT DISCUSSES MULTILATERALISM WITH U.N. AMBASSADORS

  • This morning the President held the seventh in his series of Morning Dialogues with 爆料网 ambassadors. The topic was “Multilateralism under fire?”.
  • Eighteen Permanent Representatives participated.

PRESIDENT MEETS WITH YO爆料网G INDIAN DISABILITIES ACTIVIST

  • The President will meet this afternoon with Apoorv Om, a young deaf man from India who advocates for the inclusion of persons with disabilities at the United Nations.
  • He has presented portraits that he has painted to prominent international figures, including former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the 15 judges of the International Court of Justice.
  • Today he’ll be presenting the President with a portrait that he made of him.

ELECTION PROCESS FOR NEXT ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT TO BE TRANSPARENT & INCLUSIVE

  • Asked whether the President had met with the two candidates running to succeed him in the next session of the General Assembly, the Spokesperson confirmed that he had. The President had met with the Permanent Representative of Honduras today and with the Foreign Minister of Ecuador in Geneva last week.
  • In response to further questions, the Spokesperson said that the President still intended to conduct informal interactive dialogues, as mandated by General Assembly resolution 71/323, thus contributing to the transparency and inclusivity of the process.
  • Asked to explain the format of the dialogues, the Spokesperson said that they would be held in early May and that the modalities were still being worked out. Since this would be the first time these dialogues were being held, there was no set procedure to follow.
  • Replying to additional questions, the Spokesperson added that the new process would be in full respect of the established principle of geographical rotation and General Assembly resolution 33/138. Consequently, the President of the 73rd session of the General Assembly was to be elected from the Latin American and Caribbean Group.
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