PRESS BRIEFING

BY MONICA GRAYLEY, 

SPOKESPERSON FOR GENERAL ASSEMBLY 

PRESIDENT DENNIS FRANCIS

United Nations Headquarters, New York

23 October 2023

Video: https://tinyurl.com/ybt3fvh3

 

(As delivered)

Good afternoon, everyone.

 

PGA FRANCIS MEETS MEMBER STATES ON SITUATION IN MIDDLE EAST

 

The President of the General Assembly, Mr. Dennis Francis, met earlier today with the Permanent Representative of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Mr. Mahmoud Hmoud, who is also the Chair of the Arab Group; the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Mr. Sidi Mohamed Laghdaf, who is the Chair of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Group; the Permanent Representative of the State of Palestine, Mr. Riyad Mansour, and the Ambassador of Egypt to the United Nations, Mr. Osama Mahmoud Abdel Khalek Mahmoud.

The meeting which was held at the PGA’s Office focused on the situation in the Middle East and on the upcoming Emergency Special Session, ESS.

This morning, the Office received a third letter requesting that he facilitate the convening of the ESS by the General Assembly “as soon as possible”.

This correspondence was signed by Representatives of: Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Maldives, Timor-Leste and Viet Nam.

We are not yet in a position to inform when the meeting will take place, but we are waiting for an announcement at any time from now.*

We will let you know immediately in a Note to Correspondents which will be sent in an email.

 

GA TO HOLD PREPARATORY MEETING ON SUMMIT OF THE FUTURE

 

The GA will hold a preparatory meeting on the Summit of the Future on 9 November to hear from the co-facilitators of the intergovernmental preparatory process about the approach, timeline and plans for consultations over the coming months.

As we announced earlier this month, the co-facilitators for this process are the Permanent Representative of Germany, Ms. Antje Leendertse, and the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Namibia, Mr. Neville Gertze.

Delegations will be invited to make brief, general interventions. The co-facilitators of the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations processes plan to also join this meeting. After this open meeting, which will take place in the ECOSOC Chamber, the co-facilitators plan to hold closed informal consultations in December

Following this initial meeting on 9 November, we plan to hold closed informal consultations in December with the aim of allowing them to hear directly from Member States on the substantive issues that they would like to see reflected in the zero draft of the Pact for the Future on a chapter-by-chapter basis.

 

*Please note that after the live briefing concluded, PGA Dennis Francis sent a letter to Member States informing that the resumption of the 10th Emergency Special Session will take place on 26 October at 10 am. at the General Assembly Hall.

 

END

 

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