South Sudan President Meeting, the US President, Obama
The leader of newly-independent South Sudan is due to meet Wednesday with U.S. President Barack Obama.
President Salva Kiir is one of six foreign leaders Obama will meet on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session in New York.
The White House says the meeting will mark South Sudan’s progress from conflict to independence. It split from Sudan in July, six years after a long civil war. 
The White House says the meeting will mark South Sudan’s progress from conflict to independence. It split from Sudan in July, six years after a long civil war.
President Obama was one of the first world leaders to recognize the new nation after it declared independence on July 9.
President Kiir is no stranger to meeting with U.S. presidents. President George W. Bush welcomed Kiir to the White House on three separate occasions during his second term.
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/east/South-Sudan-President-to-Meet-Obama-130265723.html
South Sudan President Meets With Obama
U.S. President Barack Obama has pledged to remain committed to helping the people of South Sudan, but called on President Salva Kiir to work on resolving issues remaining with neighboring Sudan.
Mr. Obama met with the leader of the newly-independent South Sudan Wednesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session.
The two leaders posed for photographs but did not address the public during their meeting in New York. However, a top White House official said President Obama called on President Kiir to work towards completing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, including questions regarding the region’s oil wealth.
The official said Mr. Obama also stressed how important it was for the violence in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states in Sudan to end, and called on President Kiir to take action on reports that the South Sudanese millitary is providing support to fighters there.
The two leaders also discussed the importance of maintaining transparency and the rule of law and setting the fledgling nation on a path to economic progress.
President Kiir this week has renewed his pledge to fight corruption, announcing “five critical steps” he will undertake. These include investigating diverted funds and passing new laws regulating government contracts.
South Sudan declared independence on July 9, after a referendum agreed to in the 2005 peace agreement that ended a two-decade-long north-south civil war.
But several key issues remain unresolved, including the fate of the oil-rich Abyei region, which was a key battleground during the war and is now claimed by both sides.
South Sudan also faces the difficult task of developing and rebuilding a country with almost no roads, low literacy rates, widespread poverty, and other challenges.
President Kiir Arrives in New York
Thomas Kenneth From New York
21 September 2011
press release
New York — The President of the Republic H.E Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit arrived yesterday Tuesday September 20th, 2011 afternoon in New York heading a very high delegation of the Republic of South Sudan to participate in the sixty sixth session of the United Nations General Assembly scheduled to commence on September 21st, 2011.
In the delegation are Hon. Nhial Deng Nhial, minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation; Hon. Emmanuel Lowilla, minister in the Office of the President; Hon. Stephen Dhieu, minister for Petroleum; Hon. Garang Diing, minister for Commerce, Industry and Investment, among others.
Before the UN/GA session President Kiir will on September 22nd, 2011 participate in a mini-summit in cooperation with member states on preventing and responding to sexual violence. H.E Kiir is expected to address the sixty sixth session of the United Nations’ General Assembly on 23rd September 2011 at the UN General Assembly meeting hall. In the margins of the UN/GA session, H.E Kiir will meet some heads of states.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201109220631.html
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