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Safadi attends Trump-hosted UN reform meeting

By JT - Sep 19,2017 - Last updated at Sep 19,2017

Deputising for His Majesty King Abdullah, Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi attends a meeting hosted by US President Donald Trump at the UN headquarters on Monday (Petra photo)

AMMAN — Deputising for His Majesty King Abdullah, Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi on Monday attended a meeting hosted by US President Donald Trump at the UN headquarters, aimed at supporting the UN reform, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Jordan, the UK, Canada, Japan, Germany, Senegal, Slovakia, Indonesia, Niger, Rwanda, Thailand and Uruguay took part in the meeting that was held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly 72nd session.

In his address to the meeting, Trump applauded UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres for laying out a vision to reform the UN to better serve the people of its member states.  

“We support your efforts to look across the entire system and to find ways the United Nations can better, and be better at development, management, peace, and security,” Trump added in his speech posted on the White House’s website.

He added that the UN was founded on “truly noble goals” which “include affirming the dignity and worth of the human person and striving for international peace”. 

The UN has helped advance towards these goals in many ways, he added, citing “feeding the hungry, providing disaster relief, and empowering women and girls in many societies all across the world”.  

“Yet, in recent years, the UN has not reached its full potential because of bureaucracy and mismanagement,” Trump noted. 

“While the UN on a regular budget has increased by 140 per cent, and its staff has more than doubled since 2000, we are not seeing the results in line with this investment.  But I know that under the secretary general, that’s changing and it’s changing fast.  And we’ve seen it,” the president added.

 

Attendees of the meeting issued a statement supporting the UN reform, including the support to reform initiatives by Guterres, activating partnerships between countries and the UN Secretariat General to improve its performance in humanitarian, development and peace work, Petra added.

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