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General Assembly President and Venezuelan leader discuss development, UN reform

General Assembly President and Venezuelan leader discuss development, UN reform

General Assembly President Ali Treki
United Nations reform, climate change and global efforts to achieve the anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have topped the agenda during wide-ranging talks between General Assembly President Ali Treki and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

United Nations reform, climate change and global efforts to achieve the anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have topped the agenda during wide-ranging talks between General Assembly President Ali Treki and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Mr. Treki and Mr. Chavez also discussed South-South cooperation, the Middle East conflict and other peace and security issues when they met yesterday at the start of the General Assembly’s four-day official visit to Venezuela.

The two officials stressed the need to continue efforts to reform and strengthen the UN, and especially to revitalize the 192-member General Assembly and its role on issues such as climate change, disarmament, peace and security, and economic and financial matters.

Mr. Chavez briefed Mr. Treki on Venezuela’s progress towards the MDGs, the set of social and economic targets – including eradicating poverty, boosting maternal health and overcoming environmental degradation – that world leaders pledged at a summit in 2000 to try to attain by 2015.

A high-level summit on the MDGs will be held in September as world leaders gather at UN Headquarters in New York for the annual opening of the General Assembly, and Mr. Chavez said his country would fully participate in the event.

While in Venezuela Mr. Treki has also met Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro and other Cabinet officials, as well as members of the UN Country Team. On Saturday he heads to Cuba for the next phase of his trip.