UNMISS Head hails “productive meeting” with South Sudanese President ahead of UN General Assembly in New York

UNMISS Head hails “productive meeting” with South Sudanese President ahead of UN General Assembly in New York

UNMISS Head hails “productive meeting” with South Sudanese President ahead of UN General Assembly in New York

15 Sep 2017

UNMISS Head hails “productive meeting” with South Sudanese President ahead of UN General Assembly in New York

Daniel Dickinson

A meeting with the President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir, ahead of the General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly has been hailed as “productive” by the UN’s most senior representative in the country.

David Shearer, who is the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for South Sudan, was speaking in Juba on Friday ahead of his visit to the Assembly at UN headquarters in New York next week.

“I wanted to get the President’s views on a number of issues ahead of my trip, including the revitalization of the peace agreement,” Mr Shearer said.

A High-Level meeting which is being convened by the United Nations, with co-facilitation by the African Union and the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is due to be held in New York on Thursday September 21 and will consider the revitalization of the political process in South Sudan.

“It was a productive and cordial meeting. We had a very good understanding of each other’s position,” Mr Shearer added.

Speaking for the Government, Ambassador Bol Wek, the Chief Administrator in the Office of the President, reported that President Kiir had said that South Sudan had made “a lot of progress” on key issues including the National Dialogue process.

The National Dialogue is a South Sudan-led process which is aimed at resuscitating the peace process.

The UN has provided financial and logistical support for the National Dialogue and is bringing experts from around the world to train and advise when requested.

Separately, on Thursday in a  press conference, Mr Shearer had said that the “UN sees the National Dialogue as a positive step in the overall pursuit of peace – as well as an opportunity to inject new life into the 2015 peace agreement. We hope it can contribute to peace, reconciliation and nation-building. But it has to be transparent and genuinely inclusive,” he added.

Ambassador Bol Wek confirmed that Mr Shearer and President Kiir discussed “the issue of inclusivity” in the National Dialogue as well as “progress” in the peace process.

“It was a fruitful meeting and Mr Shearer will go to the UN and brief about the progress he has seen and what needs to be done to support the peace process,” Bol Wek added.