Newly Elected President of the 70th General Assembly Mogens Lykketoft Speaking at a Press Conference 9/21/15 — Photo by Matthew Ecker

Lykketoft: International Community Needs to Make Changes to Accomplish Sustainable Development

Mogens Lykketoft gave his second press conference today as President of the 70th General Assembly. During the hour long meeting Lykketoft commented on his plans for the 70th General Assembly — including a strong position on how the international community needs to change to achieve sustainable development.

Most of the press conference consisted of comments on the refugee crisis in Syria. Lykketoft emphasized that the crisis is only going to get worse with the impending winter. He furthermore urged the international community to consider this a global crisis, not just a regional crisis.

The Danish Lykketoft was also asked to respond to Denmark’s strict immigration policies. In recent weeks Danish immigration officials were responsible for placing ads in Lebanese newspapers to discourage refugees from coming to Denmark. Denmark has granted 7000 people amnesty this year (.14% of country’s population), neighboring Sweden has taken in 100,000 refugees (1% of population), and Germany has taken in 500,000 refugees (.6% of population).

Lykketoft answering questions at press briefing on 9/21/15 — photo by Matthew Ecker

Lykketoft argues that Denmark could be doing more with the refugee crisis, but that Denmark ranks in the top five in refugees allowed in the country by percentage of population.

Lykketoft will also be at center stage during the raising of the Palestinian flag on September 30 in the UN Rose Garden. The flag raising will get a significant amount of attention because Palestine and the Holy See will be the first UN observer missions to raise their flags at the UN. The President committed to attending the flag raising ceremony saying that, he was invited and he plans to attend.

Lykketoft faced criticism in 2014 for traveling to Palestine to visit with Palestinian officials, but he did not meet Israeli officials. He commented at the time that he did not meet with Israeli officials because of scheduling conflicts.

The President also made strong comments saying that the international community needs to make changes in order to make the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDG) a success. He made it clear that his record as a Social-Democrat influenced his position on development issues. He commented that in order to make the SDGs successful the international community would need to make the most changes in regard to economic inequality and climate change.

Lykketoft spent a few minutes touting the need for increased taxation on the rich as well as encouraging more incentives to promote investment in green technologies.