President Maithripala Sirisena will leave for New York today (September 22) to address to the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Tuesday (September 25). This will be his fourth consecutive annual address to the world body.
This year’s theme of the UNGA Session is, “Making the United Nations Relevant to All People: Global Leadership and Shared responsibilities for Peaceful, Equitable and Sustainable Societies.”
President Sirisena is scheduled to address the UNGA Tuesday afternoon. Earlier, he said that he would present a set of proposals to UNHRC to find sustainable peace, reconciliation and communal harmony and outline the government’s plans to tackle the remaining issues listed in the UNHRC proposals and he explain this to the world leaders at the United Nations. He said the proposals would safeguard the sovereignty and national security while protecting the honour of the security forces.
On September 24, President Sirisena will be one of the prominent speakers at the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit, the most important global peace event organized on the sidelines of the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly. This event has been organized to mark Mandela’s birth centenary. The Summit to is scheduled to adopt the Nelson Mandela Political Declaration.
The President will also take part in a special session to discuss then issues pertaining to the drug menace.
On Sept. 26, the UNGA will also hold a high-level meeting on the fight against tuberculosis, as agreed by member states in February.
On Sept. 27, the UN will hold a one-day comprehensive review of the progress achieved in the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs),
which will be the third high-level meeting of the UNGA on the issue and President Sirisena will be one of the Heads of States attending this even organized by the World Health Organization.
During the visit an agreement is to be signed between the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) and Sri Lanka.
President Sirisena will also have meetings with the United Nations Secretary General and Commonwealth Secretary General.
Couresy : pmdnews.lk