President to address UNGA for 4th consecutive time today

President Maithripala Sirisena will address the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) today. 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 in the 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.

He said the proposals would safeguard the sovereignty and national security while protecting the honour of the security forces.

Yesterday, President Sirisena was one of the prominent speakers at the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit, the most important global peace event organised on the side-lines of the 73rd session of the UNGA. This event was organised to mark Mandela’s birth centenary. The summit is scheduled to adopt the Nelson Mandela Political Declaration.

The President will also take part in a special session to discuss issues pertaining to the drug menace.

Tomorrow, the UNGA will also hold a high-level meeting on the fight against tuberculosis, as agreed by the Member States in February.

On Thursday, 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 event organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

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.