The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the CEI Member States are holding their traditional informal meeting in New York, on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly (73rd Session), on 26 September 2018. The event is organised by the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Croatia to the United Nations, in the framework of the Croatian CEI Presidency. The meeting will be opened by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Croatia, Marija Pejčinović Burić, who will brief the Ministers on the results of the past activities and announce the upcoming activities in the framework of the Presidency, including the CEI Summit of the Heads of Government, foreseen in December 2018. The Ministers will be expected to discuss the most topical issues concerning the region. Minister Pejčinović Burić will also present the draft Resolution on Cooperation between the UN and the CEI, to be adopted on the occasion of the biannual meeting between the UN and the regional organisations acting as observers. The CEI Alternate Secretary General, Antal Nikoletti, will also attend the meeting and address the Ministers.
This has become a traditional gathering in particular with regard to the CEI observer status in the UN General Assembly, which was granted to the CEI in 2011 by resolution 66/111. The unanimous decision taken on that occasion expressed the General Assembly's recognition of the CEI as the largest and oldest intergovernmental forum for regional cooperation.