SECRETARY-GENERAL ARRIVES IN MOSCOW FOR FIVE-DAY VISIT
Press Release
SG/T/2051
SECRETARY-GENERAL ARRIVES IN MOSCOW FOR FIVE-DAY VISIT
19960514 Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali arrived in Moscow today for a five-day official visit to the Russian Federation. He was welcomed at the airport by Vassili Sidorov, Vice-Foreign Minister, and Sergei Lavrov, the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, and other Russian officials, as well as the heads of the United Nations offices in Moscow.During a brief meeting with correspondents, the Secretary-General said:
"The main purposes of my visit to the Russian Federation are, first, to reinforce the relations between the Russian Federation and the United Nations, secondly, to address the Summit Meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and thirdly, to have consultations with the leaders concerning many problems which we have in common and which we are trying to solve; international disputes to be solved peacefully, reinforcement of economic cooperation, protection of human rights. All those are common objectives between the Russian Federation and the United Nations."
During his visit, the Secretary-General is to meet with the President of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin, Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin and Foreign Minister Eugeniy Primakov.
Tomorrow, the Secretary-General is to address the State Duma, and on Friday, the Summit Meeting of Heads of State of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The Secretary-General is accompanied on his visit by Vladimir Petrovsky, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, and by Under- Secretary-General and Special Adviser Chinmaya Gharekhan. This is the fourth official visit by Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to Russia.
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