NOON BRIEFING HIGHLIGHTS

Spokesperson for General Assembly President Csaba Kőrösi
United Nations Headquarters, New York

Wednesday, 18 January 2023

 

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Starting in the General Assembly Hall today…

Member States adopted by consensus a resolution on education for democracy, introduced by Mongolia.

The next item on the agenda was the election of an Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme or UNEP.

Member States held a secret ballot on the candidature of Ms. Inger Andersen.

She received 136 votes out of 167 ballots. The required threshold was 69 votes. Her second four-year term will begin in mid-June. You have more details from Farhan.

Following today’s vote, President Csaba Kőrösi extended the General Assembly’s congratulations to Ms. Andersen.

If you were watching, you could have noticed that there are nine Member States behind in payment under the Charter’s Article 19. As a result, of those nine, six cannot vote.

 

JOINT GA-ECOSOC REMARKS

Tomorrow, President Kőrösi and ECOSOC President Lachezara Stoeva will jointly brief on their priorities and plans for the remainder of the General Assembly’s 77th session.

That will be at 10AM in the Trusteeship.

 

BILATERALS

Turning to his bilaterals today…

President Kőrösi will meet with the Ambassador Isabelle Picco, the Permanent Representative of Monaco.

As well as with Ambassador Osama Abdlekhalek, the Permanent Represetntaive of Egypt, to discuss the upcoming 2023 Water Conference.

The President will also meet with Joy Phumaphi. the Co-chair of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board – which is an independent monitoring and accountability body to ensure preparedness for global health crises. This is something that his co-convened by the heads of World Health Organization and the World Bank.

Among other bilaterals today, the President will speak virtually with Kenneth Stokes, the Persident of the World Sustainability Forum. Former PGA Maria Espinosa will join that meeting, also virtually. She is on the Board of Patrons of the Forum.

 

TURKIYE

I’ve been getting questions about the visit of the Turkish Foreign Minister to the UN Headquarters this Friday.
I can confirm that President Kőrösi will meet with Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu this Friday. We don’t put out read-outs for meetings with Foreign Ministers, but I’ll see if I can get you anything for the noon briefing that day.

QUESTIONS

The Spokesperson was asked which Member States in arrears can vote. The Spokesperson replied that in its resolution 77/2 of 7 October 2022, the General Assembly decided that the Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe and Somalia shall be permitted to vote in the General Assembly until the end of its seventy-seventh session.

The Spokesperson was asked why these Member States can vote. The Spokesperson replied that if Member States deem the debt to be beyond the control of the Member, such as because of a natural disaster or of conflict, they may allow the Member States to be allowed to vote.

The Spokesperson was asked which Member States in arrears cannot vote: Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Lebanon, South Sudan and Venezuela.

The Spokesperson was asked if it was typical for the General Assembly to vote on a Secretary-General appointment. The answer is that it depends on the UN agency, funds and programme, and their budget lines. The Spokesperson thought the journalist was asking if the GA typically voted in line with an SG recommendation (clarified off-camera).

WEBSITE

All briefings are online at https://www.un.org/pga/77/topic/spokespersons-briefings/