UN General Assembly

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid is to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, as relations between the two countries thaw.

Lapid's office said he would travel to New York on Monday night, ahead of an address to the General Assembly on Thursday.

A source said the meeting with Erdogan would take place on Tuesday.

President of Hungary Janos Ader delivers his speech during a high-level debate of the UN General Assembly on climate change and sustainable development in the organisation's headquarters in New York, USA, 28 March 2019. EPA-EFE/NOEMI BRUZAK

Ankara – President Borut Pahor met his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan before wrapping up his two-day trip to Ankara on Wednesday. The presidents confirmed that relations between Slovenia and Turkey were good and friendly. They talked about the war in Ukraine and the Western Balkans, agreeing on a meeting in September.

New York – The UN General Assembly elected Slovenia with 176 votes to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), one of the six principal bodies of the United Nations, responsible for coordinating the economic and social policies of the organisation.

The Ukrainian edition of Forbes compiled the Friends of Ukraine rankings using criteria including the amount of aid, the number of expelled Russian diplomats, the attitude of state leaders - presidents and prime ministers, and the relative share of aid to Ukraine in gross domestic product. Bulgaria is missing from the list of 20 countries.

"The Russian invaders are preparing a propaganda staging - they will show the dead in Mariupol, as if they were not killed by them, but by the Ukrainian military."

This was announced by President Volodymyr Zelensky in an address on April 7, published on his Facebook page.

He said that there were no consultations of all member states, and such an approach will only worsen the discord within the Council.
He estimated that such an approach would only deepen the rift between the member states, increase the contradictions between the parties and add fuel to the fire, RIA Novosti reports.

The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution terminating Russia's participation in the Human Rights Council.

"The UN General Assembly has suspended Russia's participation in the UN Human Rights Council," the statement said.

93 delegations voted in favor of the resolution, 24 against and 58 abstentions.

A two-thirds majority in the UN General Assembly is needed to suspend a country. Russia is currently in the second year of its three-year mandate in the UNHRC, which consists of 47 members.

The UN General Assembly will vote today on the request of Western countries for Russia to be excluded from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) due to its military intervention in Ukraine, the UN said.