–to UN General Assembly next week

PRESIDENT David Granger will lead a delegation to the 72nd Regular Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 72) next week, on the sidelines of which high-level meetings will be held with Guyana’s bilateral partners from Eastern Europe, South-east Asia, Africa, the Pacific, the Caribbean and Latin America.

Vice-President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Carl Greenidge; Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ms Audrey Waddell; Director of Multilateral and Global Affairs, Mr Troy Torrington; and Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Michael Ten-Pow, are among officials expected to accompany President Granger to the UN confab in New York.
The General Debate is slated to open on Tuesday, September 19, 2017 at the UN Headquarters under the theme, “Focusing on People: Striving for Peace and a Decent Life for All on a Sustainable Planet”, with President Granger expected to deliver his address the following day.

Speaking during a press conference at the Foreign Affairs Ministry in the presence of the Ministry’s Director-General and the Director of Multilateral and Global Affairs, Minister Greenidge said that in addition to the general debate, which will cover a range of topical issues such as terrorism, UN Reform and Climate Change, a number of side events are also scheduled to discuss among other things, Gender and Women’s empowerment, energy and communicable diseases.
Several bilateral meetings are scheduled to be held with countries from Eastern Europe, Africa, the Pacific, the Caribbean and Latin America.
Minister Greenidge noted that since 2015, the Government of Guyana has sought to have more than just dialogue.

“Since 2015, what we have sought to do is not simply to have the same dialogue with the same set of countries, but to ensure that we keep a conversation with countries where the dialogue is still relevant; where there are matters of urgency. We take into that circle additional countries with whom we may not have spoken to recently, or in the recent past or in cases where something new has arisen,” the Foreign Affairs Minister posited.
He said that as such, meetings are expected to be held with countries such as Singapore, Peru and Chile.
Additionally, Minister Greenidge said as usual there will be sessions covered by the Commonwealth to deal with matters of common interest such as border problems and preparations for next year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference to be held in the United Kingdom.