Press Conference by Tijjani Muhammad-Bande,
President of the General Assembly
Tuesday 1 October 2019
Introductory remarks
Good morning everyone. I’m glad to be here, mainly to listen and take a few questions and to say we’re glad that we had a successful high-level week during which we had very important things agreed to.
First, we had the High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage, which is very important to people around the world. I’m hoping that this will see the delivery of good, affordable health care for all the people around the world. Companies, organizations, and governments are committed to this.
Next, we had a very successful High-Level Political Forum, during which political leaders agreed that it was important to push hard to accelerate the implementation of the SDGs (sustainable development goals), so by 2030 we’d achieve the goals.
In that context, there were some obstacles identified throughout the processes: one of which was financing. Financing gaps were noticed, and we had a whole meeting dealing with financing to cover the gap of $2.5 trillion per year for the next 10 years for the developing countries to achieve the goals.
Clearly, it’s an issue requiring partnerships, creative use of the available resources. That again was very successful.
We also think that the discussions on SAMOA in support of Small Island Developing States were extremely useful. Being small and prone to some of the most difficult incidents related to climate issues, those countries need support beyond the normal levels. I think that this commitment of a lot of countries, a lot of Heads of State and Government who were there, is very important.
We also had events relating to the whole question of the nuclear weapons. The day to mark the total elimination of the nuclear weapons is a very important matter. It was well attended by lots of Heads of state and government.
There are also discussions concerning the comprehensive treaty to ban the testing of nuclear weapons. That was also a very successful event.
Some of the most difficult global questions concerning climate, poverty, nuclear weapons, health coverage, I think were addressed through the political processes during the High-Level Week.
What we now hope to see is a commitment to what was declared. To get what was declared implemented, we need the support of journalists, civil society and everyone to remind the leaders of the commitments made and why they are important.
