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ASSEMBLY ELECTS 5 MEMBER STATES TO SERVE ON SECURITY COÄ¢¹½ÊÓƵCIL

• The General Assembly met this morning to elect five non-permanent members of the Security Council.
• Six Member States were running for the five available seats. Those six were Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Indonesia, the Maldives and South Africa.
• The four candidates that ran unopposed all secured the required two-thirds majority and therefore won. Those were Belgium, with 181 votes; the Dominican Republic, with 184 votes; Germany, with 184 votes; and South Africa, with 183 votes.
• The only seat that had been contested was from the Asia-Pacific Group. Indonesia won that seat, having secured 144 votes. The Maldives received 46 votes.
• The President also announced the Chairpersons of the main Committees for the 73rd session.
• They are Ion Jinga of Romania for the First Committee; Jorge Skinner-Kle¨¦ Arenales of Guatemala for the Second Committee; Mahmoud Saikal of Afghanistan for the Third Committee; Lewis Brown of Liberia for the Fourth Committee; Gillian Bird of Australia for the Fifth Committee; and Michel Xavier Biang of Gabon for the Sixth Committee.
• They will all serve in their personal capacities and will be members of the General Committee for the 73rd session.

PRESIDENT MEETS WITH SOUTH AFRICAN FOREIGN MINISTER

• The President met this morning with H.E Ms. Lindiwe Nonceba Sisulu, Minister for International Relations and Cooperation of the Republic of South Africa.
• They discussed the topic of sustaining peace, focusing on the importance of conflict prevention. They also spoke about the legacy of Nelson Mandela during the centenary of his birth, reaffirming the values and principles for which he advocated.
• Additional topics of discussion included multilateralism and United Nations reforms.

PRESIDENT RINGS NASDAQ CLOSING BELL

• The President will ring the closing bell at the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square this afternoon.
• While there, he will highlight the work of the General Assembly and why the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ needs partnerships with the private sector.

HIGH-LEVEL EVENT ON FINANCING GLOBAL GOALS TO BE HELD ON MONDAY

• On Monday, the President will hold his high-level event on financing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in the Economic and Social Council Chamber, under the theme ¡°Breaking the Bottlenecks of Investment from Policy to Impact.¡±
• It will aim to address the factors that block private investment toward SDG sectors. It will also examine the role of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ in strengthening public-private partnerships and how the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ can better align itself with the rapidly-changing world of international finance.
• The event will bring together representatives from the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), regional development banks and businesses.
• There will be a video message from Bill Gates of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
• Other speakers will include: Douglas Peterson, the CEO of S&P Global; Namita Vikas, Group President & Global Head of Climate Strategy & Responsible Banking from YES BANK in India; and Mustafa Suleyman, Co-founder and Head of Applied Artificial Intelligence at DeepMind.

PRESIDENT TO DISCUSS MIDDLE EAST WITH 6 AMBASSADORS AT THEIR REQUEST

• In response to questions, the Spokesperson confirmed that the President would be meeting at 5:00 p.m. today with a group of ambassadors, including: the Permanent Representative of Algeria, who would chair the delegation; the Permanent Representative?of Turkey, Chair of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)?Summit; the Permanent Representative?of Senegal, Chair of the Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People; and the Permanent Representative??of Sri Lanka, Chair of the United Nations Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories. The Permanent Observers of the State of Palestine and the League of Arab States would also attend.
• The Spokesperson noted that the ambassadors had requested this meeting and declined to speculate on possible outcomes. He did add, however, that the expected topics of discussion would relate to the recent discussions in the Security Council on Gaza.
• Asked whether the President or the ambassadors would speak to the press after the meeting, the Spokesperson said there were no plans for the President to address journalists. His primary goal was to listen to what the ambassadors had to say. As for the ambassadors speaking to the press, that would be up to them.
• Asked whether the Israeli Mission had reached out to the President to discuss Gaza, or whether the President would contact the Israeli ambassador to seek his views on this matter, the Spokesperson said that no meeting request had been received from the Israeli Mission. He added that the President was always open to meeting with all Member States. If the Israeli Mission requested a meeting, that would certainly be considered.
• In response to questions about resuming the , the Spokesperson noted that, according to the relevant the Assembly decided to adjourn the tenth emergency special session temporarily and to authorize the President of the General Assembly at its most recent session to resume its meeting upon request from Member States. Any action by the President would therefore be taken in accordance with that language.

PAPER ON SECURITY COÄ¢¹½ÊÓƵCIL REFORM TO BE CIRCULATED TO MEMBER STATES

• Responding to questions on Security Council reform, the Spokesperson said that that yesterday¡¯s round of intergovernmental negotiations (IGN) had been the last one for the 72^nd
• In terms of next steps, a final updated version of the paper ¡°Revised Elements of Commonality and Issues for Further Consideration¡± was expected to be circulated to Member States before the end of next week.

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PRESIDENT CALLS FOR ACTION ON WORLD OCEANS DAY

• The President will speak this evening at an event to mark World Oceans Day.
• He is expected to say that the way we are living is destroying our oceans. So today is not for celebrating or even raising awareness — but for taking concrete action.

NO EVENTS PLANNED FOR NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY ANNIVERSARY

• Asked whether the General Assembly was planning any events to mark the 50th anniversary of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the Spokesperson later informed the journalist that no such events were planned.
• He added that matters related to the NPT were generally handled by the States Parties to the treaty ¨C not the General Assembly as a whole.