Secretary of State for International Trade and Foreign Investment at the UN Assembly General

The Portuguese Secretary of State for International Trade and Foreign Investment, Bernardo Ivo Cruz, will represent the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the UN General Assembly, where, from Wednesday to Friday, the 11th special emergency session on Ukraine will be held in the week that marks one year since the Russian invasion. 

Under this trip to New York, the programme for which begins on Tuesday, the Secretary of State will hold meetings with the persons in charge of several UN bodies, namely the UN Foundation, the UN Capital Development Fund, the UN Office for Partnerships, the UNDP Foreign Relations Office, as well as the Global Compact CEO. These meetings are to assess the way to assist green and social transition for exporting SMEs, especially through internationally certified capacity-building programmes that take account of the Sustainable Development Goals and ESG values and how these apply to SMEs.

The Secretary of State will also visit Columbia University where he will give a lecture on "European Union Policy and Practice on Sustainability: the case of Portugal" by invitation of the Sustainable Development Centre.