President Rodrigo Duterte will address for the first time the UN General Assembly, the world body's highest-level meeting that is expected to tackle the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, one of his aides said Monday.
All of the UN's nearly 200 members are represented in the UNGA and world leaders' statements in the event are much awaited. This years General Assembly will run from Sept. 22 to 26.
The 75-year-old Duterte has in the past criticized the UN's human rights bodies for censuring his war on drugs. The address will be delivered virtually.
"This will be the President's first time to address the UN General Assembly, the main deliberative board of the UN where all the 193 member-states are represented," Chief of Presidential Protocol Robert Borje said.
Dutetre is one of just 14 speakers on the day the general debates open. Also on the lineup that day: Jair Bolsonaro (Brazil), Donald Trump (U.S.), Tayyip Erdo?an (Tuekey), Xi Jinping (China), Sebastián Piñera Echenique (Chile), Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa(South Africa), Miguel Díaz Canel Bermúdez (Cuba), Vladimir Putin (Russia), King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein (Jordan), Moon Jae-in, President (South Korea), Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani (Qatar), Hassan Rouhani (Iran) and Emmanuel Macron (France).
