Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism Minister Vijitha Herath met United Nations Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka Marc-André Franche at the Foreign Ministry on Monday morning, in talks focused on the coming 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
The discussion covered Sri Lanka’s priorities for the session, the Daily Mirror reported.
The two sides also took up Sri Lanka’s partnership with the United Nations, which spans more than 70 years; the UN80 process, the reform review marking the organisation’s eightieth anniversary; the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework; and Sri Lanka’s third Voluntary National Review on the Sustainable Development Goals.
Two meetings, one day
Franche held a second meeting with a senior government figure the same day, seeing Chief of Staff to the President Prabath Chandrakeerthi at the Presidential Secretariat to discuss Cyclone Ditwah resettlement and El Niño preparedness. Neither outlet reporting the two meetings notes the other.
The pair of engagements — one on multilateral diplomacy, one on disaster recovery — fell on the day the Human Rights Council opened its 63rd session in Geneva, where the High Commissioner’s latest report on Sri Lanka is among the matters before the Council. The Daily Mirror does not connect the meeting to the Geneva session, and the Resident Coordinator’s office is distinct from the Council’s human rights machinery.
Franche has been active across the political spectrum in recent days, having also met Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa on judicial independence and the 22nd Amendment and the Justice Minister on the rule of law.
Not reported
The Daily Mirror does not say what Sri Lanka’s stated priorities for the General Assembly are, when the country will address the session, or who will lead its delegation. It gives no date for the third Voluntary National Review, no detail on what the UN80 process would mean for the UN’s presence in Sri Lanka, and reports no commitments made at the meeting.
Update, September 8: NewsFirst has since filed its own account of the meeting, confirming it took place on Monday and attributing the summary to Minister Herath. Its report tracks the Daily Mirror’s on every point — the 81st Session, the seven-decade partnership and the UN80 process — and leaves the same questions open. Neither outlet names a single Sri Lankan priority for the session.
Update, September 8 (later): Two of the questions above are now answered. At Tuesday’s Cabinet decisions media briefing, Herath said President Dissanayake will not attend the General Assembly and that he will deliver Sri Lanka’s address himself on September 28, travelling to New York on September 26. Sri Lanka will be represented at ministerial level. Herath still named no priority for the session.
