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

United Nations Headquarters, New York

10 May 2018

The President returned to New York yesterday afternoon from a trip to Sweden and Rwanda.
In Stockholm on Monday, he delivered the keynote address at the 2018 Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development. He met with Sweden’s Vice Prime Minister, who is also the Minister for Development Cooperation and Climate, as well as the Swedish Foreign Minister and former United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson.
In Kigali on Tuesday, the President addressed the Transform Africa Summit. He also met with Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who currently chairs the African Union. They agreed to hold regular coordination meetings between the President of the General Assembly and the Chair of the African Union.
They also discussed the strong partnership between Rwanda and the United Nations, sustaining peace and conflict prevention, migration, and financing for development.
Before leaving Kigali, President Lajčák visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial, where he laid a wreath and observed a moment of silence. He also contributed 10,000 dollars to the Memorial on behalf of the General Assembly.

This morning the General Assembly adopted a resolution called “Towards a Global Pact for the Environment.”
This initiative followed the high-level “Summit on a Global Pact for the Environment,” which was held on the sidelines of the General Debate last September. It aims to address the challenges posed by environmental degradation in the context of sustainable development.
According to the resolution, the Assembly requests the Secretary-General to submit a report during the its next session, which identifies and assesses possible gaps in international environmental law and environment-related instruments.
It also decides to establish a working group to consider that report and discuss possible options, which may include the convening of an intergovernmental conference to adopt an international instrument.
In terms of next steps, the President of the General Assembly will appoint two co-chairs of the working group.
The resolution was sponsored by 71 delegations and presented by France. It was adopted by a vote of 143 in favor to 6 against with 6 abstentions.

We are now halfway into the negotiations on the first ever Global Compact on Migration. The fourth round will start this coming Monday and last all of next week.
The following issues will be discussed: international cooperation and capacity-building; pathways for regular migration/regularization; natural disasters, climate change and migration; fundamental human rights and services; the concept of firewalls; integration/contributions of irregular migrants; and cooperation on return.
The President has also shared a concept note with Member States, on behalf of the co-facilitators, on a mechanism that could help with the implementation of the objectives outlined in the Global Compact.

Asked about reports that there would be a “floor fight” in the General Assembly in June over the Secretary-General’s Global Service Delivery Model (GSDM) report, the Spokesperson said the report was still being considered by the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) and was expected to go to the Fifth Committee during its second resumed session this month. That was the current role of the General Assembly with respect to this report.
He added that he could not predict what may or may not happen in June, and in response to further questions, he said it would not be for the President to comment on this report by the Secretary-General.

The Spokesperson was asked why there had been no updates from the President’s Office on Security Council reform, and whether that meant that the President had “given up trying”. The Spokesperson replied that no one had given up on the intergovernmental negotiations (IGN) on Security Council reform. The talks were continuing, and if there was anything concrete to announce, the Spokesperson would do so.
Journalists’ requests for a press briefing on Security Council reform had been transmitted to the Co-chairs of the IGN, who would be best placed to brief, the Spokesperson noted. He added that he regularly kept journalists informed on when the rounds of negotiations were happening, and what the areas of focus were.
However, given that these were closed-door negotiations, he could not provide public updates on the state of play. He urged the journalist to seek information on Member States’ positions from the Member States themselves.

Asked for the President’s reaction to the recent strikes against Israel and Iranian targets in Syria, the Spokesperson said the President always favored dialogue, as well as peaceful and political solutions. He later added that the President also called for restraint.
Asked whether the President felt that the strikes would lead to an “explosive cauldron” in the Middle East, the Spokesperson said the President was not in the habit of making predictions about the future.