SINGAPORE: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (pic) will embark on a three-day official visit to Singapore from Saturday (Aug 31), his first since taking on the job in 2017.
While in Singapore, Guterres will meet Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
He will attend a dinner hosted by Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo, who is also Minister-in-charge of Smart Nation and Cybersecurity.
Guterres is also scheduled to visit Marina Barrage and Punggol Regional Library to understand issues relating to sustainability and digitalisation.
His trip comes ahead of the Summit of the Future planned for Sept 22 and 23, a high-level UN meeting during which member states are expected to renew their support for multilateralism and sustainable development.
Singapore’s participation in the organisation is extensive. The Republic hosts the Global Centre for Technology, Innovation and Sustainable Development under the UN Development Programme.
Singapore previously led various studies and multilateral working groups on issues ranging from the role of small states in a multilateral system to open, free and secure digitalisation.
In 2023, after negotiations that stretched for almost two decades, Singapore Ambassador for International Law Rena Lee helped foster an agreement on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity in the oceans beyond the exclusive economic zones and continental shelves of states.
Burhan Gafoor, Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, chairs a working group on cyber security. - The Straits Times/ANN
