Note to Correspondents

New York, 9 February 2017

Later today the Secretary-General will travel to Istanbul, Turkey and then to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Egypt, as the first part of his visits to the region.

In Istanbul, the Secretary-General is expected to have separate meetings with the President and Prime Minister of Turkey.

From there, the Secretary-General is expected to travel to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he is expected to have discussions with the King, the Crown Prince and Deputy Crown Prince, as well as with senior officials.

The Secretary-General will then fly to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to deliver remarks at the 2017 World Government Summit. While there, Mr. Guterres is expected to meet with the leaders from the UAE.

The Secretary-General will also visit Oman and Qatar to exchange views with the respective leaderships.

In Egypt, the Secretary-General will meet with the President and members of the Government.

During this tour to the region, the Secretary-General expects to discuss a number of issues of regional and global interest.

He will then go on to Bonn for the G20 Ministerial Meeting, where he will focus on the Sustainable Development Goals and will also stress the need to rebuild trust in the international community in order to address pressing peace and security challenges.

Following the ministerial meeting, the Secretary-General will travel to Munich to attend the annual Security Conference. There, the Secretary-General will stress the need for a surge in diplomacy for peace, greater attention to conflict prevention and stronger commitment to multilateralism. He will also outline the wide-ranging reforms he has set in motion aimed at ensuring that the United Nations works effectively to help countries build trust, bridge divides and address the challenges of a fragmented international order.

The Secretary-General will be back in the office on 21 February.