The official says Obama also will call for the upholding of human rights while underscoring that security “depends upon making progress in advancing health, development, trade and combating climate change so that we are reducing the causes of instability in our world“.
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A statement from Ban Ki-moon’s spokesman Saturday says Ban encouraged President Hassan Rouhani to “contribute to a political settlement of the crises in the region, particularly with regard to Syria and Yemen”.
Speaking in New York at the summit for the adoption of the new global development goals, the US President said that with a strong, collective effort, leaders could bring an end to extreme poverty worldwide.
Analysts expect Obama to criticize Russia for its moves in Syria as well as eastern Ukraine, where Moscow is accused of directly backing pro-Russian rebels, something the Kremlin denies.
The meeting will be the first time Obama and Putin have held formal talks since the June 2013 G-8 summit, and it comes at the repeated request of Moscow, according to White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.
The White House also announced that Obama would meet with Cuban President Raul Castro on Tuesday.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met on the sidelines of a United Nations summit that adopted new development goals for the next 15 years.
In New York, all eyes will be on Putin, who is expected to announce a counterterrorism initiative when he addresses the General Assembly on Monday – his first UNGA appearance in 10 years.
The USA, Germany, Britain, China, Russian Federation and France have agreed to lift economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program.
Diplomatic wins — including the Iran nuclear deal and a thaw in U.S.-Cuba ties– have given Obama a boost.
A campaign against IS militants who have claimed broad sections of Iraq and Syria remains far from achieving Obama’s goal to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the group, despite more than a year of military airstrikes against IS targets by a U.S.-led coalition of more than 60 countries.
President Barack Obama, accompanied by United Nations…
President Obama leaves Washington, D.C., on Sunday for his annual trip to the United Nations (as well as a Democratic fundraiser). Addressing the world’s greatest refugee crisis since World War II as millions flee conflict in Syria and elsewhere, he said countries “that can, must do more to accommodate refugees” but added those efforts must be matched by diplomacy.
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World leaders have already begun a whirlwind series of closed-door meetings on Syria on the United Nations sidelines. Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro spun the crisis into a chance to make a thinly veiled critique of the United States, blaming the problem on “unjust wars, imperialist wars, the attempt to control the world, one hegemon trying to impose its view on the world”.
