Estonia To Back UN Global Migration Pact At UN General Assembly In January - Tallinn

TALLINN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th November, 2018) Estonia will support the UN global compact on migration at the UN General Assembly session in New York in January, Foreign Minister Sven Mikser said on Tuesday.

Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid met with Prime Minister Juri Ratas earlier in the day to discuss the outcome of an urgent parliamentary meeting at which the Estonian lawmakers adopted a declaration in support of the global migration pact. The Estonian Foreign Ministry had to decide who would represent the Baltic country at an inter-governmental conference in Morocco as Kaljulaid said she would not attend.

"The president was supposed to attend the inter-governmental conference in Morocco. I will not go either. But this will not affect Estonia's support for this UN pact. We will express our views on this document at the UN General Assembly vote. I ordered the representative of Estonia to the UN to support the migration pact at the vote," Mikser told the ERR news portal.

Several EU nations, including the Czech Republic, Austria and Bulgaria, voiced their reservations about the global agreement, which aims to regulate the treatment of migrants and refugees.

The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration was approved on July 13 by all UN member states except the United States, which withdrew from the pact last year. The paper represents the international community's attempt to establish a common global approach to all aspects of international migration. The paper comprises 23 objectives for better managing migration at local, national, regional and global levels. The agreement is expected to be formally adopted at an intergovernmental conference in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh on December 10-11.