Concerns of world’s vulnerable countries top UN Assembly’s agenda: President

The concerns of the world’s most vulnerable countries, including climate change and the need to reach global anti-poverty targets, top the agenda of the current session of the General Assembly, its president said today.

“Both development and the preservation of the environment are of greatest concern to the work of the General Assembly,” Srgjan Kerim told representatives in New York of least developed countries, land-locked developing countries and small island developing States. “The three groups of countries represented here today – almost half of the Member States of the General Assembly – are particularly exposed to economic and environmental challenges.”

Mr. Kerim said he would organize a thematic panel bringing together a range of players to discuss climate change early next year, adding that addressing that problem is central to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of targets for tackling various social ills by 2015.

“At the mid-point for attainment of the Goals by 2015, I would like to focus the General Assembly’s attention on review of the progress in implementation of the MDGs, to recommitting efforts and resources to reach the agreed targets, and to build consensus for urgent collective action,” he said.

Pledging to address these issues in an inclusive and transparent manner, he urged countries to foster “a new climate of mutual trust and cooperation which would strengthen our ability to make meaningful and prompt progress.”