The following statement was issued today by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and United Nations-League of Arab States Joint Special Representative for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi:

The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met today with the leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York to discuss recent developments in the Pacific region and to look at ways to enhance cooperation between the Pacific Islands Forum and the world body.

The following statement by the Middle East Quartet (United Nations, Russian Federation, United States, European Union) was issued on 27 September:

The Secretary-General of the United Nations convened a High-level Meeting on the Sahel in New York on 26 September.

Following is the joint United Nations-Association of Southeast Asian Nations press statement following the United Nations-ASEAN ministerial-level meeting in New York on 26 September:

Earlier today, the Secretary-General convened a ministerial meeting of his Group of Friends on Myanmar to discuss recent developments in the country. The ministers welcomed the remarkable gains which the country continued to make in the areas of democratization, national development and national reconciliation.

The inaugural meeting of the International Support Group for Lebanon was held on 25 September 2013 at United Nations Headquarters in New York and was chaired by the United Nations Secretary-General Mr. Ban Ki-moon.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has designated Gyan Chandra Acharya, Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States as the Secretary-General of the 10-year Review Conference on the Implementation of the Almaty Programme of Action for Landlocked Developing Countries.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has designated Eduardo Rojas-Briales as Commissioner-General for the Organization’s participation in Expo 2015, in Milan, Italy. Mr. Rojas-Briales is the Assistant Director-General for Forestry at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

The following is a joint message from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova, on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, observed on 3 May: