The United Nations Secretary General (UNSG), Antonio Guterres will be visiting Fiji next week as part of his first official visit to the Pacific.
This historic visit will be the first-ever to the Pacific by UNSG Guterres and becomes a milestone achievement towards cementing stronger diplomatic relations between the United Nations and the Pacific Region, especially in the lead up to the upcoming UNSG’s climate action summit in September later this year.
The visit will unfold opportunities for Pacific region to advance their leadership and raise their voice on issues of global importance, key focus being on climate change mitigation. It will also significantly deepen the cooperation in advancing the Pacific’s development interests and priorities.
As part of the planned 5 days official visit, Pacific Islands Forum Leaders will converge in Suva for the first time since 2015, to hold a Talanoa session on the climate change priorities, and also to seize the opportunity in having bilateral meetings in relevance to the national priorities.
The UNSG will also meet with the His Excellency, the President of Fiji, Major General (Ret’d) Jioji Konusi Konrote and senior government and non-government officials.
A bilateral meeting is also being scheduled between UNSG and the Honourable Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama on the third day of the visit.
As part of this official tour, UNSG will also be visiting, New Zealand, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.