UN General Assembly President to Address World Leaders Forum  

Ambassador Csaba Kőrösi, the President of the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly, will be at Seton Hall on January 26 as part of the World Leaders Forum speaker series.

On January 26, Seton Hall University welcomes Ambassador Csaba Kőrösi, the President of the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly as part of the World Leaders Forum speaker series. Hosted by the School of Diplomacy and International Relations, the event will take place at the University Center on the South Orange campus beginning at 4pm. All are welcome. Registration is required. 

A career diplomat and leading voice on the climate crisis, Ambassador Kőrösi was sworn in as president of the UN General Assembly on September 13, 2022.

Seton Hall has a history of welcoming renowned world leaders to our campus,” notes Courtney Smith, Ph.D., dean of the School of Diplomacy and International Relations. “We look forward to starting the New Year off with this important event which will give our students an opportunity to hear from the president of the General Assembly at a time when the UN is working to address many of the critical issues we are all concerned about, such as the climate crisis and the impact of the war in Ukraine.”

Ambassador Kőrösi is a career diplomat and leading voice on the climate crisis with an eye toward transformation in global cooperation.

As presiding officer of the UN’s main policymaking forum, Kőrösi continues the assembly’s work promoting global recovery from the pandemic, addressing climate change and striving to meet the 17 U.N. Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, beginning with ending extreme poverty and hunger, achieving gender equality and ensuring quality education for every child. “Fresh pages of history are being written with new divisions,” Kőrösi said while presiding over general debate at the Assembly. In "a world of new challenges, changing priorities, changing roles and changing ways,” global cooperation is being transformed, he noted.

Kőrösi became Hungary’s ambassador to the United Nations in 2010 after serving in his country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was previously Head of Mission to Greece and the United Arab Emirates. Covering various government posts over his career, Kőrösi has been responsible for security policy, multilateral diplomacy and human rights cooperation. He is a founding member of the Hungarian Scientific Panel on Climate Change and a permanent invitee to the Presidential Committee on Sustainable Development at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the National Council on Sustainable Development at the Hungarian National Assembly.

A graduate of the Institute of International Relations in Moscow, Kőrösi’s extensive diplomatic career has taken him to posts at Hungary’s embassies in Tel Aviv and the United Arab Emirates. He studied Middle East issues at Hebrew University, completed a diplomatic course at the University of Leeds and studied strategic negotiations at Harvard University.

Ambassador Kőrösi’s address at Seton Hall marks the latest in a series of recent events featuring leading United Nations diplomats. In May, His Excellency António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General delivered the commencement address at the University’s 166th baccalaureate commencement ceremony. On April 12, United States Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield took part in a fireside chat hosted by the School of Diplomacy, answering questions from students about the United States’ agenda at the UN, and diversity within diplomacy and international affairs careers and gender equity. In 2016, Samantha Power, then the U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN, addressed a rapt audience of students, faculty, staff and alumni the day after President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address.

The World Leaders Forum provides an opportunity for speakers to encourage dialogue in search of new avenues for building peace. As part of this signature program, the School of Diplomacy has welcomed U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, Nobel Peace Prize winners Leymah Gbowee and Nadia Murad, UN Secretaries-General Ban Ki-moon and Kofi Annan, former Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Tony Blair, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, and former President of Poland Lech Walesa, among other distinguished visitors.

Categories: Nation and World