HIGHLIGHTS OF PRESS BRIEFING BY BRENDEN VARMA, SPOKESPERSON FOR GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT MIROSLAV LAJČÁK

PRESIDENT HIGHLIGHTS ROLE OF PARLIAMENTARIANS IN ADVANCING GLOBAL COMPACT ON MIGRATION

• Today the President addressed the Interparliamentary Union-United Nations Annual Parliamentary Hearing.
• The theme this year was: “Towards a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration: A parliamentary perspective”.
• The President stressed the important role that parliamentarians would play in ensuring that the global compact would have a real effect.
• He noted that parliamentarians were on the ground, seeing the opportunities that migration had to offer, as well as the risks that come when it is poorly managed. That was why their perspectives needed to be heard at UN Headquarters.
• He also cited their ability to combat misperceptions and mistruths about migration with facts. He told them, “You can drive an evidence-based approach in your parliaments, and among your constituents.”
• The President also discussed migration today in a separate meeting with the European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, H.E. Mr. Dimitris Avramopoulos.

PRESIDENT MEETS VICE PRESIDENT OF ECUADOR, FOREIGN MINISTER OF CÔTE D’IVOIRE

• The President met today with E. Ms. María Alejandra Vicuña Muñoz, Vice President of the Republic of Ecuador.
• The President briefed the Vice President on ongoing processes at the United Nations related to migration, including the recently launched intergovernmental negotiations on the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.
• They also discussed regional dynamics, United Nations reforms and the President’s forthcoming events on peacebuilding and sustaining peace, water and youth.
• The President was encouraged by Ecuador’s commitment to multilateralism.
• The President will meet later this afternoon with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Côte d’Ivoire, H.E. Mr. Marcel Amon-Tanoh.