New York – February 27, 2015
Statement attributable to the Spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly
During a busy week, the President of the General Assembly (PGA), H.E Mr. Sam Kahamba Kutesa received H.E Mr. Jan Elliason, Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations and met with H.E Dr. Sultan Al-Jaber, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Special Envoy for Energy and Climate Change of United Arab Emirates.
On 25 February 2015, the PGA also met with H.E. Mr. Francois Delattre, Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations, in his capacity as the coming President of the United Nations Security Council for the month of March. They exchanged views on a number of important international and regional issues, including efforts to reach a new climate change agreement in Paris this coming December, peace and security, international justice, the working methods of the General Assembly and reform of the Security Council.
Focus on Financing for Development
Financing for Development issues also featured prominently on the PGA’s calendar over the past week. On 24 February, the PGA met with H.E Mr. George Wilfred Talbot, Permanent Representative of Guyana to the United Nations and H.E Mr. Geir Pederssen, Permanent Representative of Norway to the United Nations, both of whom are Co-facilitators for the Financing for Development Negotiations.
The PGA also held a meeting with H.E Mr. Tekeda Alemu, Permanent Representative of Ethiopia to the United Nations, as Ethiopia will host the Third Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa in July. Furthermore, the PGA also met with H.E Mr. Wu Hungbo, Under-Secretary-General for the Department of Economic and Social Affairs and Secretary-General of the Financing for Development Conference.
PGA Convenes High-level Thematic Debate; Delivers Remarks at Several Other Meetings
On 25 February, President Kutesa chaired a landmark High-level Thematic Debate on “Integrating Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in the Post-2015 Development Agenda”.
The PGA also delivered remarks at the Closing Ceremony for the International Year of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) as well as at the Informal Joint briefing to Member States on “The Lima COP20 Outcome and the road to COP21 in Paris – from Lima to Paris: working together towards a global climate agreement”.
Other Meetings and Courtesy Calls
The PGA met with H.E Sabri Boukadoum, Permanent Representative of Algeria to the United Nations and Facilitator of the consultations on the Nelson Mandela Prize. The PGA also met with H.E Mr. Ib Petersen, Permanent Representative of Denmark to the United Nations.
The PGA conducted courtesy calls with H.E Mr. Palitha Kohona, the out-going Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations and H.E Mrs. Nguyen Phuong, the new Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the United Nations.
Additional meetings took place with Dr. Ibrahim Gambari, Co-Chair of the Commission on Global Security, Justice and Governance and Mr. James A. Goldston, Executive Director of the Open Society Foundations.