Christodoulides to address General Assembly, meet Guterres and Jordan’s King Abdullah, as Cyprus talks feature heavily in week of high-level contacts
President Nikos Christodoulides will travel to New York this weekend for a busy schedule of diplomatic engagements at the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, including an address to the plenary, a meeting with UN Secretary-General António Guterres, and talks with the UN chief’s personal envoy on the Cyprus problem.
Christodoulides will begin his programme on Sunday evening, 20 September, with a meeting with leaders of Cypriot diaspora organisations to brief them on developments in the Cyprus talks.
On 21 September, he will meet King Abdullah II of Jordan, before taking part in an afternoon summit on multilateralism, international law, peace and prosperity, co-hosted by European Council President António Costa and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
The following day, 22 September, the president will attend the opening of the assembly’s plenary session, at which Guterres will present his annual report, before meeting Chevron’s president of base assets and emerging countries, Javier la Rosa, in the afternoon. Later that day, he is due to meet María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar, the UN secretary-general’s personal envoy on the Cyprus issue.
Christodoulides will address the UN General Assembly plenary on Wednesday 23 September, at around 12.30pm New York time. He will also take part in a UN high-level summit on climate change, where he is expected to make an intervention, and will separately meet ExxonMobil vice-president John Ardill that afternoon.
On Thursday 24 September, the president will attend a working breakfast organised by the Antenna Group and the Atlantic Council on strengthening EU-Gulf cooperation on regional security and prosperity. He will then meet Guterres directly at UN headquarters, before hosting a lunch for the permanent representatives of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
On 25 September, Christodoulides is scheduled to meet Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng, followed by representatives of the American Jewish Committee. Before leaving New York, he will attend a dinner held in his honour by Cypriot diaspora organisations.
The president, who will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos, government spokesman Constantinos Letymbiotis and Cyprus problem negotiator Menelaos Menelaou, is due to return to Cyprus on the evening of 26 September.
