HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY STEPHANE DUJARRIC,
SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANTÓNIO GUTERRES
THURSDAY, 6 JULY 2017
 
SECRETARY-GENERAL ATTENDS CONFERENCE ON CYPRUS BEFORE HEADING TO G20 SUMMIT IN HAMBURG

• The Secretary-General arrived this morning in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, where he is attending the Conference on Cyprus.
• From Crans-Montana, Switzerland, the Secretary-General will travel to Hamburg, Germany, on the morning of Friday, 7 July, to attend the two-day Group of 20 (G20) Summit.
• On 7 and 8 July, he will participate in sessions on topics including sustainable development, climate change, Africa, migration, health and women’s empowerment.
• The Secretary-General is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with world leaders attending the Summit.
• On the evening of Saturday, 8 July, the Secretary-General will travel to Kyiv, Ukraine. On Sunday, 9 July, he will meet with President Petro Poroshenko and other senior Government officials.
• The Secretary-General will arrive in New York on the afternoon of Monday, 10 July.

• Tomorrow, the second Chiefs of Defense Conference will be held hear at the UN Headquarters in New York.
• Around 100 national Chiefs of Defense will attend along with military representatives from the African Union, the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Also Force Commanders from the UN peacekeeping missions in Mali, Central African Republic, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo will be present.
• Under the theme ‘Meeting the Challenges', the conference will address political, strategic, operational and support aspects of UN peacekeeping operations, such as rapid deployment, robustness or actions, training, military women deployment and conduct and discipline.
• The Chiefs of Defense Conference is part of a wider process to improve the overall performance of our peacekeeping missions.
• The conference will start at 10:00am on Thursday and will be closed by the Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed just before 4.30 p.m.

• The UN Mission in Mali today condemned the continuing ceasefire violations by two signatories of the Peace and Reconciliation Agreement – the CMA (or Coordination des Mouvements de l’Azawad) and the Plateforme.
• These violations include movements of armed convoys, provocations and even armed clashes, like the ones ongoing south of Aguelhok.
• The Head of MINUSMA, Mahamat Saleh Annadif, urged the leadership of both groups to put an end to these violations immediately. If violations persist, they risk undermining their credibility as partners in Mali's quest for a lasting peace, he stressed.

• In Afghanistan, our humanitarian colleagues inform us that armed clashes between the National Defence and Security Forces and Non State Armed Groups continue around Kunduz city and are driving people to leave their homes.
• Some 3,500 people have been displaced by the most recent fighting, with nearly 1,000 having arrived in Kunduz. Humanitarian partners are monitoring the situation, coordinating the IDP assessment and response in the city, and working to preposition food stocks. OCHA said markets remain functioning, but continued blockage of the road access to Kunduz could hamper availability and drive food prices up.

• The Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, spoke to the press in Astana, Kazakhstan, yesterday evening.
• He said that the UN appreciates the hard work of the so-called Astana Guarantors and of all of the countries involved in de-escalating the violence and strengthening the ceasefire in Syria.
• Mr. de Mistura said that there are two complementary and mutually supportive processes going on. One, he said, is the Astana process, which is continuing to make clear progress on reducing the violence.
• But, he stressed, de-escalation by itself is an interim arrangement and what is needed is progress on the political side.
• The Envoy confirmed that a new round of intra-Syrian talks will begin on Monday, 10 July, in Geneva. He voiced hope that the current progress in the Astana process will be used to lead to progress on the political side.

• The Food and Agriculture Organization released their monthly Food Price Index today.
• The index is up 1.4 percent in June, amid surging prices of high-protein wheat due to deteriorating crop conditions in the United States.
• However, global cereal supplies are likely to remain abundant in the coming year, with stocks expected to expand further to a new record high.

• Following the Secretary-General’s recommendation, the General Assembly has confirmed Mukhisa Kituyi of Kenya as Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, or UNCTAD, for a further four years. 
• Mr. Kituyi, who served for an initial four year term as UNCTAD’s seventh Secretary-General, has an extensive background as an elected official, an academic, coupled with wide-ranging experience in trade negotiations, and in African and broader international economics and diplomacy.

• We’d like to congratulate the UN Migration Agency (IOM) for being honored yesterday evening with the Jacques Diouf Award for Global Food Security.
• The Jacques Diouf Award is presented every two years to individuals or institutions that have made a significant contribution to the improvement of global food security. Established in 2011, the award pays tribute to former FAO Director-General, Jacques Diouf, recognizing his outstanding leadership, personal engagement, and untiring advocacy in the fight against poverty, hunger and malnutrition.

• As the Secretary-General underlined on 22 June 2017, we are increasingly concerned over the deteriorating security environment, including the most recent cease-fire violations, along the Line of Contact and in the broader Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.
• We took note of and echo the Co-Chairs’ recent statement with reference to the renewed violence on 4 July at Alkhanli village of Fizuli region, which resulted in casualties, including among civilians.
• We call upon the sides to refrain from any military action, and strongly urge them to take immediate steps to de-escalate tensions and prevent any further violence. An early return to the negotiations table in good faith is the only way to resolve this long-standing and dangerous conflict.

• At 3:00 p.m., there will be a briefing by Ambassador Elayne Whyte Gómez of Costa Rica, President of the UN Conference to Negotiate a Legally Binding Instrument to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, Leading [towards] Their Total Elimination.