Some ‘then’ and ‘nows’ of the president’s UN visit

by Saman Indrajith-October 1, 2016, 8:52 pm 

The UN General Assembly held its 71st session in New York from Sept 13 to 26 providing a platform for world leaders to discuss international issues of mutual importance besides having bilateral interactions.

President Maithripala Sirisena represented Sri Lanka at the General Assembly. His unprepared address was made in the Sinhala language and was his second address to the UN. He highlighted several issues including the end of the war and Sri Lanka’s way forward towards reconciliation.

In addition, he had the opportunity to meet large number of world leaders. All those meetings could be termed positive as their outcomes have the potential of benefiting the country in realizing its targets. Many world leaders congratulated him for the progress made in the last 20 months and expressed the wish that the good work of strengthening democracy and good governance continued.

It too early to engage in a cost-benefit analysis of participation in the general assembly where representatives from the UN’s 193 members meet to discuss international issues and prepare the policies necessary to combat the world’s most pressing concerns. We are yet to get details of the bill footed by government coffers but it was a relatively low cost affair.

‘Low’ is relative to what was spent on previous participation by Sri Lankan Presidential delegations to the UNGA. When President Mahinda Rajapaksa attended his last UNGA, his delegation stayed at the Waldorf Astoria. The hotel was selected with the objective of a meeting with American President Barack Obama who was staying there.

Despite much effort, Obama’s staff did not play ball and Rajapaksa had to be satisfied with traditional photo-op with the US President granted to all heads of state participating at the UNGA. Sirisena was luckier than his predecessor as Obama congratulated him during the luncheon hosted for heads of state by UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki moon.

Obama said the positive transformation taking place in Sri Lanka at present is an example to the world and assured his fullest support for these developments. Ban commented positively the same day on Sirisena’s commitment to good governance and reconciliation. 

He took the opportunity to convey his gratitude to the Government of Sri Lanka and the President for the warm welcome and hospitality extended to him by the Government and people when he visited Sri Lanka recently.

Sirisena did not need to park himself at the Waldorf Astoria for those opportunities. He stayed at Loews Regency in Park Avenue of Manhattan which cost relatively less than what his predecessor spent.

Lankan expats living in New York know the cost of the splurges during the previous regime. How much Lankan delegations coming to the UN spent each year is no secret. They had observed that more than 20 SUVs had been rented – at a cost of 45 dollars an hour, during the last visit of President Rajapaksa to the UNGA with almost all key members of the delegation assigned individual vehicles.

These were only partly used as most delegates going shopping, to parties or functions preferred to go as groups in a couple of vehicles with rest parked by the hotel with the drivers napping! They were all paid for by the hour.

Some prominent delegates including the Rajapaksa sons had rooms booked in the delegates’ hotel; but they stayed with friends living elsewhere while hotel rooms that were paid for remained empty.

Both last and this year only six cars had been rented for the Lankan delegation including the President, the ministers, officials and others. Lankans in New York were duly impressed by the thrift of the incumbent against past profligacy when a $ 30,000 bottle of champagne was uncorked to celebrate some trivial gain during Rajapaksa’s last visit to the UNGA.

The story goes that an inner circle member suggested the bubbly and another ordered the most expensive at the Waldorf bar. When the bottle arrived it had been found that the upmarket hotel could slake the thirst of the celebrants with only a $ 30,000 bottle at such short notice. They could have done better if they knew earlier. In the event the embassy supplied credit card to cover the president’s bills lacked the credit limit for such extravagance and Sajin Vass Gunawardena settled it.

It is customary for the visiting head of state to host his delegation, said the expatriates who knew how things used to be done. He appreciated the incumbent taking his delegation this year to an inexpensive but adequate Indian restaurant for lunch. This compared well with past splurges which cost government coffers hugely.

The UN visit saw the depositing of the Paris Climate Agreement Ratification Instrument on Sept 20 at the UN Headquarters in New York. This was important as this year’s UNGA was on the theme ‘The Sustainable Development Goals: a universal push to transform our world’, with particular focus on Goal No 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

UNSG Ban Ki-moon hosted a special event to encourage countries to ratify the agreement. According to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change, 29 parties had ratified the agreement, accounting for 40.12 per cent of global emissions. Sri Lanka was among approximately 30 countries to deposit their instruments of ratification, inching closer to the 55 per cent necessary for legal enforcement when the agreement takes effect and becomes legally binding on those countries that had joined.

"We have no time to waste, and much to gain. To build further momentum, I have asked leaders to come to New York with their instruments of ratification or to publicly commit to joining the agreement before the end of 2016," said the UNSG. 

China and the U.S., the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gas, announced their plans to formally ratify the agreement in a joint statement earlier last month. The Paris Agreement will go into effect 30 days after at least 55 countries, accounting for 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, bring forward their legally binding documents of ratification for review.

"I am hopeful and optimistic that we can do it before the end of this year and before my term as Secretary-General of the United Nations ends," said Ban.