Christodoulides travels to New York on Saturday
President Nikos Christodoulides will travel to New York on Saturday ahead of the United Nations General Assembly.
He is set to give his speech to the general assembly on Wednesday, after meeting UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday.
He will also have “bilateral contacts with leaders of other states”, and host a lunch for the permanent representatives of the UN Security Council’s five permanent members – the United States, China, Russia, France and the United Kingdom.
In addition, he will also hold a meeting with a delegation from petrol refinery company Chevron, which holds the rights to the Aphrodite gas field off Cyprus’ southern coast.
He will meet the leaders of various Cypriot American organisations on Sunday, before meeting Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and King Abdullah II of Jordan in separate meetings the following day, as well as addressing the UN’s Summit of the Future.
After those engagements, he will meet Guterres at 3.40pm local time – 10.40pm in Cyprus.
On Tuesday, he will attend a reception held by Guterres for all the heads of government participating in the general assembly before attending its opening ceremony.
Later in the day, he will meet with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the Crown Prince of Kuwait Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah, and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
He will then give his speech to the general assembly at 11am local time (6pm Cyprus time) on Wednesday, before addressing the security council an hour later on the topic of “promoting peace and respecting the UN Charter”.
He will meet Prime Minister of Iraq Mohammed Shia’ Al Sudani and then attend a reception with first lady Philippa Karsera Christodoulides held by US President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
He will return to Cyprus on September 29.
Meanwhile, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar had earlier in the month said he was due to meet Guterres in New York on Sunday. However, as of midday on Saturday, Tatar was still in Cyprus.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan departed his country for New York on Saturday morning, while Greece’s Mitsotakis has already made the journey. The pair will meet in New York, while Mitsotakis and Turkish first lady Emine Erdogan are both also set to meet Guterres.
Erdogan will be the third head of government to address the general assembly, speaking on Tuesday morning, while Mitsotakis will give his speech on Friday.