The UN General Assembly opened its 68th annual session on Tuesday with a speech by incoming President John Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda, who laid out his plan to set the stage for the post-2015 development agenda.

The assembly’s work in the coming year will be “pivotal” in setting goals for global development that will go into effect in 2015, Ashe said addressing representatives of all 193 member States for the first time as the Assembly’s president.

“The magnitude of the task before us will require decisive action and the highest levels of collaboration and we must prove ourselves and our efforts to be equal to the enormity of the task,” Ashe said.

Besides setting new development goals, Ashe said he also planned to work on “reforming and revitalising” major bodies of the UN such as the General Assembly and the Security Council.

While Ashe didn’t mention the crisis in Syria in his opening speech, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said in his opening remarks that the country’s civil war was “without doubt” the most pressing crisis facing the Assembly.

Shortly after the opening speeches, Ban briefed member states on the findings of the UN chemical inspection team in Syria, signalling that the issue is first on the assembly’s agenda.

Member States will use the following days to finalise the programme of work for the year, before high-level representatives of each country gather in New York next Tuesday for the week-long general debate.

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