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17 February 1999

The President of the fifty-third session will leave New York to travel to Japan over the weekend for a five-day official visit, at the invitation of the Foreign Ministry of Japan. He will be in Japan from 22 to 27 February and return to New York in the second part of March. During his visit, the President will meet the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs and other leading figures in the Government of Japan for an exchange of views on issues relating to the United Nations.

The plenary will meet tomorrow afternoon (this meeting was originally scheduled to take place today) to consider the fourth report of the General Committee which, as you will recall, recommended last week the inclusion in the agenda for the session of an additional item, on the observer status for the Custom Cooperation Council in the General Assembly. The inclusion of this additional item would bring the agenda to a total of 169 items. In addition, the plenary is scheduled to take up several items relating to elections and appointments, including the confirmation of the appointment of the Secretary-General of UNCTAD for an additional four-year term. The Assembly will also consider the question of the closing date of the current session and the opening date of the fifty-fourth session.

Following the adjournment of this meeting the Open-ended Informal Consultations of the Plenary on United Nations reform: measures and proposals will resume to look into the issues relating to the Millennium Assembly.