UNITED NATIONS (TIP): The President-elect of the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly, Ambassador Peter Thomson, will visit China later this week and India early next week.

Ambassador Thomson will spend Friday 26 August attending official meetings in Beijing. It is expected the President-elect will meet with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, State Councillor Yang Jiechi and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi.

On Monday 29 August the President-elect will be in New Delhi for official meetings with the Indian Government. It is planned that he will meet with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Secretary for External Relations, Sujata Mehta.

Ambassador Thomson said: “Coming from the Asia-Pacific nation of Fiji, I am pleased to have this opportunity to visit the two biggest countries in the regional group to which I belong. I look forward to the high-level talks I will be having with the Governments of China and India. My main interest will be to discuss how the United Nations can assist and accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”

The President-elect will be accompanied by the Office of the President of the General Assembly’s Chef de Cabinet Ambassador Tomas Anker Christensen and Senior Adviser Meena Syed. For the Beijing visit, Wen Li, Senior Adviser to the Office of the President of the General Assembly, will also accompany the President-elect.