Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Zimbabwe President Mugabe Arrives in New York for 70th United Nations General Assembly
September 24, 2015
Zimbabwe Herald

President Mugabe and First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe are welcomed by Mrs Shava, wife to Zimbabwe’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Frederick Shava at JFK International Airport, New York, yesterday. — (Picture by Presidential Photographer Joseph Nyadzayo)

Mabasa Sasa at the UNITED NATIONS

President Mugabe and First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe arrived in New York in the United States yesterday morning for the 70th meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.

The Zimbabwean leader was received at JFK International Airport by the country’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Frederick Shava and embassy officials.

In the President’s delegation are Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi and his Health and Child Care counterpart Dr David Parirenyatwa.

Gleaning the draft programme indicates some very busy days ahead for the Zimbabwe delegation.

September 25 and 26 will likely be dominated by a Special Summit to Adopt the post-2015 Development Agenda, which is the successor to the UN Millennium Development Goals.

September 27 will mark the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, a landmark women’s development agreement that has shaped the gender debate for the last two decades.

On September 28, the UN General Assembly debate proper opens, while there will also be a ministerial meeting of Russia and sadc’s foreign ministers on how best to strengthen ties between the two sides.

That same day will see a high-level meeting of Landlocked Developing Countries on the Vienna Programme of Action.

There will be, on September 29, meetings on the situation in South Sudan and the DRC; as well as a high-level meeting on Youth Empowerment and the UN Demographic Dividend.

In addition to this, the draft programme reserves that day for the Third Ministerial Meeting of the Co-ordination Committee of the Africa-Arab Partnership.

President Mugabe, the African Union Chair, has been one of the staunchest advocates for democratisation of the UN — particularly the Security Council — and for reform of the global financial architecture.

The AU’s common position on UN reform, as captured in the Ezulwini Consensus, demands at least two permanent seats with veto power and five non-permanent seats on the Security Council. The AU will determine which countries occupy the seats on the continent’s behalf.

China, Britain, France, Russia and the US are the permanent members of the Security Council. China and Russia have been warm to the reforms, as have emerging powers like India and Brazil who also want to sit on the UN Security Council.

Meanwhile, Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa is the Acting President.

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