KATHMANDU: President Bidya Devi Bhandari who is in New York of the United States in the course of attending the 63rd session of the Commission of the Status of Women (CSW-63) was busy holding high-level meetings on Tuesday.

In this course, the President held a meeting with António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations at his office. During the meeting, the two sides exchanged views on various issues, including multilateralism, climate change, SDGs, peacekeeping, and post-earthquake reconstruction, according to Nepal's Permanent Mission to the UN in New York.

The President appreciated the Secretary-General for his reform agenda across all three pillars of the UN in general and for maintaining gender parity in all UN bodies, in particular.

The Secretary-General recalled his first visit to Nepal in 1978, and appreciated Nepal for playing an active role at the UN, including through contributions in peacekeeping missions.

In the afternoon, the President met with María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, the President of the United Nations General Assembly (PGA), and appreciated her for taking leadership on important issues, including through organizing the event, ‘Women in Power’.

Later in the afternoon, the President held separate bilateral meetings with the President of Estonia, Kersti Kaljulaid and the President of Croatia, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović.

During the meeting with the Estonian counterpart, the two sides discussed pressing global issues such as climate change, sustainable development, multilateralism, among others. Similarly, during her meeting with the President of Croatia, matters of mutual interests, including women in the political leadership were discussed. In both the meetings, the leaders expressed their satisfaction over the warm bilateral relations while exchanging views on ways to enhance them. The President also met with Mary Robinson, the president of the Elders and the former President of Ireland. During the meeting, the two leaders shared their views on climate justice, women empowerment and leadership, among others.

The President attended a dinner hosted in her honour by Ambassador Amrit Bahadur Rai, Permanent Representative of Nepal to the United Nations at his official residence.

Also on the same day, the President attended a high-level luncheon with ‘Young Women Leaders’ jointly hosted by the PGA and the Permanent Mission of Qatar to the United Nations.

President Bhandari is scheduled to leave New York for Kathmandu on Thursday and arrive in the capital on March 15's afternoon.

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