SECRETARY-GENERAL, IN FIRST VISIT TO GENEVA, ADDRESSES DISARMAMENT CONFERENCE, MEETS AUSTRALIAN AND SWISS FOREIGN MINISTERS

30 January 1997

Press Release
SG/T/2083

SECRETARY-GENERAL, IN FIRST VISIT TO GENEVA, ADDRESSES DISARMAMENT CONFERENCE, MEETS AUSTRALIAN AND SWISS FOREIGN MINISTERS

19970130 Also Meets Press and Heads of International Organizations

GENEVA, 30 January (UN Information Service) -- Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived at the Palais des Nations this morning to the ceremonial welcome accorded a new Secretary-General making his first official visit to the Geneva headquarters of the United Nations.

The Secretary-General first meeting was with the Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer. They discussed the need for action against anti- personnel land-mines and exchanged views on a range of United Nations reform issues. Following their meeting, Mr. Downer presented the Secretary-General with a portrait of Sir Robert Jackson -- an Australian who first joined the United Nations in 1945 and is best known for his work in major humanitarian relief operations and a 1969 report on the capacity of the United Nations.

The Secretary-General said there was a real need these days for people like Sir Robert who had been "persistent, tenacious and had pushed as far as he could even in an Organization full of bureaucratic resistance and restraint".

The Secretary-General then met briefly with the President of the Conference on Disarmament, Joun Yung Sun (Republic of Korea), before addressing the Conference.

Following his address to the Conference, the Secretary-General met with the heads of United Nations departments and agencies in Geneva; the Director- General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Vladimir Petrovsky; the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Rubens Ricupero; the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), Yves Berthelot; the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Jose Ayala-Lasso, and the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Ibrahima Fall.

Opening the meeting, the Secretary-General promised to combat the tendency in New York to be myopic and forget that the Headquarters were part of a larger system. He said there was also a need to end the silence on the

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positive message of the United Nations work. He urged the meeting to play a more active role in making known the Organization's successes.

The Secretary-General then met correspondents accredited to the United Nations in Geneva. Following his press conference, the Secretary-General went to a luncheon that was also attended by the heads of United Nations departments and agencies as well as heads of other international organizations. Guests included the following: the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Renato Ruggiero; Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Pekka Tarjanne; Secretary- General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Godwin Obasi; Director-General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Arpad Bogsch; Director-General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), James Purcell; President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Cornelio Sommaruga; President of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch; and the Secretary-General of the Inter- Parliamentary Union (IPU), Pierre Cornillon.

In the afternoon, the Secretary-General met the Vice-President and Foreign Minister of Switzerland, Flavio Cotti. The Secretary-General thanked Switzerland for its long-standing commitment to the United Nations. He said that if Switzerland wanted to give him a gift during his term of office it would be to join the United Nations.

Mr. Cotti said support for the work of the United Nations was a fundamental element of his country's international relations. On behalf of the Federal Council, the Foreign Minister said he had invited the Secretary- General to visit Berne. Mr. Annan said he had accepted the invitation.

The Secretary-General said they had also discussed the issue of Bosnia, where Mr. Cotti had played a significant role in his recently concluded position as Chairman-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

This evening, the Secretary-General will be the guest of honour at a dinner given by the President of the State Council of the Canton and Republic of Geneva, Jean-Philippe Maitre.

On Friday morning, 31 January, the Secretary-General will leave Geneva for Davos, in eastern Switzerland, where he will take part in the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.

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