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

PRESIDENT CALLS FOR CONFLICT PREVENTION, DIALOGUE & STRONG MULTILATERALISM AT SECURITY CONFERENCE IN GREECE

• The President is currently in Rhodes, Greece.
• This morning he addressed the Third Rhodes Conference for Security and Stability, under the theme: “The spirit of Rhodes: shaping a positive agenda for stability and prosperity”.
• He said that, to overcome the challenges facing the world today, we need three things: much more focus on conflict prevention; a return to real and genuine dialogue; and a strong multilateral system – to which we are all committed.
• Today in Rhodes, the President met with the Foreign Minister of Greece. They discussed regional security and stability.
• The President also met with the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the State of Palestine. They spoke about last week’s resumption of the General Assembly’s tenth emergency special session, regional developments and priorities for the upcoming chairmanship of the Group of 77 plus China.

ASSEMBLY TO CONSIDER NEW RESOLUTIONS ON MOLDOVA & CENTRAL ASIA

• Tomorrow morning the General Assembly plenary will meet to consider two new draft resolutions.
• One is entitled “Complete and unconditional withdrawal of foreign military forces from the territory of the Republic of Moldova”.
• The other is “Strengthening regional and international cooperation to ensure peace, stability and sustainable development in the Central Asian region.”
• The plenary will also hold by-elections to fill a vacancy that has arisen in the International Court of Justice.

FIFTH COMMITTEE CONTINUING ITS WORK

• The Spokesperson was asked if the Fifth Committee would be ending its work tomorrow, and if so, how it would manage to consider the Secretary-General’s Global Service Delivery Model (GSDM) report in time.
• The Spokesperson replied that the Fifth Committee would not be ending its work tomorrow. He added that the GSDM report was still being considered. There was no date to announce yet for when that consideration would continue.
• In response to further questions, he said that, yesterday, the Chair of the Fifth Committee had announced that delegates should try to conclude their work by this Sunday. However, that deadline was not set in stone. It was up to the Fifth Committee to decide on when it would be concluding its work.