President Jacob Zuma will next week attend the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly and address its general debate on peace and sustainability, his office said on Friday.

The president of the session is Slovakian Foreign Minister, Miroslav Lajčák, who has announced the theme of the debate as “Focusing on People: Striving for Peace and a Decent Life for all on a Sustainable Planet”.

Zuma will be accompanied by the ministers of international relations, state security, defence, environmental affairs and water and sanitation on the six-day trip to New York. On the sidelines of the General Assembly, he will on Wednesday host an event in honour of the late African National Congress (ANC) president OR Tambo, who was born a century ago.

The assembly is the first to take place under the new secretary-general of the United Nations, António Guterres, who began his term in January. The presidency said South Africa fully supported his stated focus on peace and conflict prevention. 

“Mr Guterres identified his major priority as the achievement of sustainable peace and security through conflict prevention by establishing a ‘culture of prevention’ in the UN – which South Africa fully supports.”

While in New York, Zuma will sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on 20 September 2017, and participate in a debate convened by Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn, who holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council for September, on the reform of UN peacekeeping missions.