A ceremonial meeting was held at the United Nations today to mark the handover of the Presidency of the UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS Executive Board from Fiji’s Ambassador Peter Thomson to Ambassador Fernando Carrera of Guatemala.

In his closing remarks, Ambassador Thomson said it had been a great privilege to lead the Board during the critical preparations for the Post-2015 Development Agenda. He said he was confident that UNDP, UNFPA and UNOPS were fit for purpose for the great development challenges looming ahead.

The United Nations General Assembly today adopted a new resolution on ‘Capacity Building for the Evaluation of Development Activities at the Country Level’.The resolution invites the entities of the United Nations development system, with the collaboration of national and international stakeholders, to support efforts to further strengthen the capacity of nations for evaluation of development activities. The Fiji Permanent Mission to the United Nations led the passage of the resolution.

The Republic of Malta and the Republic of Fiji formalized diplomatic relations at a ceremony at the Permanent Mission of Fiji to the United Nations in New York on 11 December 2014. The Permanent Representative of Malta to the United Nations, Ambassador Christopher Grimaand his Fiji counterpart, Ambassador Peter Thomson, signed a joint communiqué establishing diplomatic relations between the two States.