President Tarja Halonen travelled to New York on Sunday to participate in this week's opening session of the United Nations General Assembly. She will address the 63rd General Assembly meeting on Tuesday.
President Halonen leads the Finnish delegation along with its deputy chair, Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb and Foreign Trade and Development Minister Paavo Väyrynen.
Central themes of the session are African development and the world body's aims for this century.
Halonen will hold several meetings during the week with several world leaders. On Sunday she met with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. Discussions focused on peacekeeping operations, the conflict in Georgia and the role of women in society.
Later this week Halonen will also attend a top level meeting on African development where she serves as parallel chairperson during round table discussions.
