The United Nations General Assembly opened its 71st session, as the outgoing Assembly President, Mogens Lyketoff passed the gavel on to the new President, Peter Thomson of Fiji. The session opened with an emphasis on ensuring that implementation of the sustainable development goals, adopted by the UN Member States last year, is well underway. Mr. Thomson, who had had been serving as the Permanent Representative of Fiji to the United Nations until his appointment, said that the theme of the 71st session is ‘The Sustainable Development Goals: A Universal Push to Transform our World.’
Prior to the opening of the 71st session, the General Assembly held the last meeting of its 70th session, with the outgoing Assembly President, Mogens Lyketoff of Denmark, underscoring the progress made under his leadership, including the adoption of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement.
The new Assembly President noted that it had been heartening to observe the sincerity with which governments and national planning agencies around the world have begun integrating the 2030 Agenda into national processes. Devoted fully to the sustainability of the fast growing development seen in our world, Hungary is greatly committed to the global implementation of the 2030 Agenda, and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Being a member to the joint UN and World Bank Group High-Level Panel on Water, and hosting the Budapest Water Summit 2016, Hungary considers the achievement of the water related sustainability goals as a cornerstone of the success of the 2030 Agenda.
This session will be also special, he flagged – echoing incumbent Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon - in that his office will have the experience of working with two Secretaries-General as the search for the best possible candidate to fill the post is approaching its final stages.
