Migiro to attend South African presidential inauguration

Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro is in Pretoria where she will attend, on behalf of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the inauguration of South African President-elect Jacob Zuma on Saturday.

Ms. Migiro will also hold bilateral talks with South African and regional leaders from the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Discussions will focus on issues related to regional security, economic development, and progress towards reaching a greenhouse gas emissions agreement at the Copenhagen climate change summit at the end of this year, United Nations spokesperson Marie Okabe told reporters in New York.

On Monday, the Deputy Secretary-General will travel to Hanoi to hold high-level consultations with the Vietnamese Government on its UN “Delivering as One” experience. Viet Nam is one of the pilot countries for the UN reform measure aimed at better coordinating the world body’s efforts on the ground at the country level.

Then she will travel to Bangkok, Thailand, where she will chair the Regional Coordination Mechanism Meeting of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) on 14 May.