Vietnam will run for UNESCO chief position

By Toan Dao   May 26, 2016 | 05:09 pm PT
Vietnam will run for UNESCO chief position
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc meets Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena. Photo by VCG.
A Vietnamese candidate will be in the race for the director-general position of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for tenure 2017-2021.

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in a meeting with Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena in Japan on Thursday hoped Sri Lanka will support the Vietnamese candidate, according to a Vietnamese statement.

Phuc is in Japan to attend the outreach meeting of the G7 Summit from May 26 to May 28 on the invitation of his counterpart Shinzo Abe.

Vietnam was elected as a member of the UNESCO Executive Board for the 2015-2019 tenure in November last year, the fourth time that the Southeast Asian nation has won a seat at one of UNESCO’s two most powerful bodies.

Previously, Vietnam served in the Executive Board for 1978-1983, 2001-2005 and 2009-2013 tenures.

UNESCO, a specialized agency of the U.N., was founded in 1945. In education, it works to ensure every child, boy or girl, has access to quality education as a fundamental human right and as a prerequisite for human development. Through protection of heritage and support for cultural diversity, UNESCO created the idea of World Heritage to protect sites of outstanding universal value. It pursues scientific cooperation, such as early warning systems for tsunamis or trans-boundary water management agreements, to strengthen ties between nations and societies. It also strives for democracy, development and human dignity, according to UNESCO.

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