General Assembly

Gert Rosenthal of Guatemala was elected Chair of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) on 11 June 2010.

Chitsaka Chipaziwa, Permanent Representative of Zimbabwe to the United Nations, was elected Chair of the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) on 27 August 2010.

Ochir Enkhtsetseg, Permanent Representative of Mongolia to the United Nations, was elected Chair of the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) on 11 June 2010.

Miloš Koterec, Permanent Representative of Slovakia to the United Nations, was elected Chair of the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) on 11 June 2010.

Joseph Deiss of Switzerland was elected President of the sixty-fifth session of the United Nations General Assembly on 11 June 2010.

The incoming President of the General Assembly, in his first Headquarters press conference this afternoon, expressed hope that the sixty-fifth session would reaffirm the central place of the United Nations in global governance. “All the big topics that concern our planet have to be discussed in the General Assembly,” Joseph Deiss of Switzerland said following his opening of the sixty-fifth session in the Assembly Hall.

In a flurry of activity before the opening tomorrow of its sixty-fifth session, the General Assembly adopted three resolutions and two decisions today on issues related to the layout of its upcoming high-level meetings on the Millennium Development Goals, the Mauritius Strategy for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, and the International Year of Biodiversity, among others.

Welcoming the General Assembly’s accomplishments over the past 12 months – especially the spirit of consensus shown by Member States on issues ranging from achievement of the Millennium Development Goals to ensuring long-term support for disaster-struck Haiti and Pakistan — Ali Abdussalam Treki, the 192-member body’s outgoing President, today said there was nevertheless “room for improvement,” especially to strengthen it’s working methods and reassert its authority on the international stage.

The United Nations General Assembly today welcomed the European Union’s readiness to facilitate dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo over the province’s unilateral declaration of independence, saying that the process of such talks would itself be a factor for peace, security and stability in the Balkan region.