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

United Nations Headquarters, New York

17 September 2018

Today is the last day of the General Assembly’s 72nd session.
This afternoon, at 3:00 p.m., President Lajčák will deliver his final speech to the General Assembly.
He plans to give his own political assessment of the past year. And he’ll focus on six major trends: peace and prevention; the Sustainable Development Goals and climate change; the role of the General Assembly; UN reforms; dialogue; and multilateralism.
The President-elect of the 73rd session, Ms. María Fernanda Espinosa, will then take her oath of office. She’ll be the third President to take such an oath. The Secretary-General is also expected to be present.
Following the meeting, at approximately 3:45 p.m., Ms. Espinosa will speak to reporters outside the President’s office on the 2nd floor.

This morning the plenary adopted a resolution by consensus on the revitalization of the work of the General Assembly.
In that resolution, it highly commended President Lajčák for introducing the Morning Dialogues, and strongly encouraged the continuation of the valuable practice of regular meetings between the President and the Permanent Representatives.
The Morning Dialogues were launched this session to give UN ambassadors a space to informally discuss substantive and practical aspects of the General Assembly’s work.
And speaking of the Morning Dialogues, our office has just published a summary of the last eight sessions. Those were held in addition to the 6 held earlier in the year.

On the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the President today launched a “toolbox of SDG financing” — a compendium of recommendations, best practices and initiatives to galvanize action on financing for the SDGs.
This toolbox is a part of his endeavour to push forward financing for development, following his high-level event on this topic last June.

Regarding the General Assembly’s tribute to former Secretary-General Kofi Annan, which will be held on 21 September, the President has informed Member States that he intends to invite the following people to make statements during the meeting: former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; the former President of Ireland and member of The Elders, Mary Robinson; Mr. Annan’s spouse, Nane; former Under-Secretary-General and Chef de Cabinet Iqbal Riza; a former member of the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, Tasa Delenda; and an additional member of Kofi Annan’s family to speak on behalf of his children.

Today our office published President Lajčák’s second financial disclosure summary on our web site – in the ethics and transparency section.
According to General Assembly resolution 70/305, Presidents are to provide financial disclosures upon assumption and completion of their duties.
This year, although not required to do so, Mr. Lajčák became the first ever President of the General Assembly to volunteer to make his initial financial disclosure summary And now he has made the second one public as well.
He has done this in the interest of transparency and accountability.