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President-elect of UN General Assembly names two more special advisors

Xinhua, August 6, 2016 Adjust font size:

The president-elect of the UN General Assembly, Ambassador Peter Thomson of Fiji, on Friday announced two more key appointments to the Office of the President of the General Assembly for the 71st session, showing the president-elect's strong commitment to transparency, gender parity and North-South balance for the upcoming session.

Ambassador Sofia Borges, former permanent representative of Timor-Leste to the United Nations, will become special adviser on strategic engagement and transparency and Ambassador Ioannis Vrailas, the deputy head of the European Union delegation to the United Nations, will act as special adviser on political affairs, a press release said here.

On June 13, Thomson, who has served as Fiji's permanent representative to the United Nations since 2010, was elected president of the 71th session of the United Nations General Assembly. He will replace Mogens Lykketoft of Denmark as president of the 193-member assembly in September this year.

In announcing the appointments, the president-elect said they reflected a commitment to provide the Office of the President with gender parity, North-South balance, institutional continuity and the requisite skills and experience to drive towards a successful 71st session.

"In line with the appointments made earlier this week, today's appointments reflect my commitment to maintaining gender parity and a healthy North-South balance in the Office of the President," Thomson said. "A continuing commitment to transparency will also be a core responsibility during the 71st session."

Ambassador Borges will lead work on strategic engagement with member states and non-state actors and oversee activities within the Office to ensure the maximum level of transparency possible.

Borges is currently serving as special adviser on the 2030 Agenda to the World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA).

Ambassador Vrailas is a career diplomat and foreign affairs expert. Before taking his current position as deputy head of the European Union delegation in New York in 2011, Vrailas was deputy chief of mission with the Embassy of Greece in Washington D.C. from 2009 to July 2011.

The Friday announcement follows the appointment earlier this week of Ambassador Tomas Anker Christensen of Denmark, who will continue for a second term to serve as chef de cabinet of the assembly president's office and Ambassador Dessima Williams of Grenada as special adviser in charge of the Office's team for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, which was approved in September last year to serve as the blueprint for global development efforts for the next 15 years. Enditem