President Kaljulaid to attend UN General Assembly in New York this week

This week, President Kersti Kaljulaid is visiting the United States, where she will be speaking at the 76th UN General Assembly in New York, meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, attending a high-level meeting of the UN Security Council and taking part in a number of other events linked to the General Assembly.

“In one way or another, UN General Assembly week – the year’s biggest event in international, multilateral diplomacy – will be focusing on the greatest challenge facing us all: battling the COVID crisis and speeding up recovery from it,” explained Kristel Engman from the Foreign Department of the Office of the President of the Republic. “It’s always the most vulnerable who suffer the most in a crisis, the majority being women and children. This is what heads of state will mainly be doing in New York this week – looking for answers to those problems in the context of coronavirus and crisis zones around the world.”

President Kaljulaid will be giving her last speech as head of state at the General Assembly: she is scheduled to speak on Wednesday evening Estonian time. She and her Baltic counterparts will also be meeting with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed and President of the General Assembly Abdulla Shahid. Furthermore, President Kaljulaid will be taking part in a high-level public meeting of the UN Security Council on climate and security, speaking at parallel events focusing on Afghanistan and women in conflict zones and attending a number of other meetings.

This year’s UN General Assembly marks a key anniversary for Estonia: 17 September marked 30 years since the country became a member state of the United Nations, of whose Security Council it has been an elected member since 2020.

President Kaljulaid will be returning to Estonia on Friday evening.