SECRETARY-GENERAL ATTENDS WORLD ECONOMIC SUMMIT IN DAVOS, SWITZERLAND

Press Release
SG/T/2085

SECRETARY-GENERAL ATTENDS WORLD ECONOMIC SUMMIT IN DAVOS, SWITZERLAND

DAVOS, 2 February -- In the evening of Friday, 31 January, while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland (and his last activity that day) the Secretary-General had dinner with a group of about 50 journalists and editoralists. During the dinner, the Secretary-General explained at length his concept of reform and answered numerous questions on his ideas on how to approach it.

On Saturday, 1 February, the Secretary-General met the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom, Malcolm Rifkind at 9:15 a.m. This was followed by a meeting with the Prime Minister of Slovenia, Janez Drnovsek, at 10:15 a.m. After that, he addressed the plenary of the 1997 annual meeting of the World Economic Forum at the Congress Centre (for the text of the speech, see Press Release SG/SM/6153 of 31 January). Following this, the Secretary-General held a press conference. At 11:50 a.m., the Secretary-General met with the President of Kazakstan, Nursultan Nazarbaev; at 12:10 p.m. with the President of Poland, Alexander Kwasniewski; and at 12:30 p.m. with the President of Cyprus, Glafcos Clerides.

During his meeting with Mr. Clerides, the Secretary-General talked about the need to intensify peace efforts even though tensions were high in the region. Mr. Clerides was receptive but talked about various concerns he had. The Secretary-General indicated his desire to address those concerns during proximity talks. Both men agreed on the importance of intensive negotiations this year before the Cyprus elections in 1998, and the Secretary-General urged restraint from actions by any party that would aggravate tensions. The next meeting of the Secretary-General at 12:50 p.m. was with the Prime Minister of India, Deeve Guada. At 1 p.m. the Secretary-General was the guest of honour at a lunch organized by Professor Schwab and attended by 14-15 business leaders from various parts of the world. During a very interesting discussion, Professor Schwab invited each business leader to give a reaction to the Secretary-General's speech to the plenary earlier.

In the afternoon at 3:15 p.m., the Secretary-General met with the Deputy President of South Africa, Tabo Mbeki; at 4 p.m. with the President of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma, and at 4:30 p.m. with the Foreign Minister of Indonesia, Ali Alatas. In this meeting both men discussed the importance of

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getting the talks on East Timor up and going again and the Secretary-General said that he favoured a sustained United Nations effort in leading these talks.

At 5 p.m. the Secretary-General attended another conference included in the Forum's activities and at 7:30 p.m. had dinner. At 9:45 p.m. the Secretary-General had his last activity for the day in the form of meeting with Yasser Arafat. Chairman Arafat expressed his disappointment at the failure of Israel in implementing the accords. The Secretary-General indicated that he would take it up with the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, during their meeting the next day.

On Sunday, 2 February, at 8:45 a.m., the Secretary-General attended scheduled activities in the Forum's programme; later, the Secretary-General stepped out of the programme for a meeting with the President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, at 9:45 a.m. Then, he returned to the programme. At 11 a.m. the Secretary-General held a meeting with the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. The Prime Minister indicated his pleasure with the appointment of the new Secretary-General. He felt that Israel and the United Nations should "turn a new page". Mr. Netanyahu also discussed with the Secretary-General some other specific issues. Later in the day, the Secretary-General participated in a round table organized by Time magazine. During this meeting, with editors and senior correspondents from the publication, conference themes were discussed. Towards the end of the discussion, the Secretary-General was joined by Bill Gates, Chairman of the Microsoft Corporation. Both men interacted with each other and with the Time group.

The Secretary-General's next activity was to attend a 1 p.m., closing luncheon of the Forum, hosted by Professor Schwab. This was followed by a private meeting at 3:30 p.m. with the Crown Prince and the Princess of Luxembourg. At 4 p.m. the Secretary-General and Mrs. Annan met with the President of Hungary, Arpad Goncz. At 5 p.m. the Secretary-General met with the High Representative for the former Yugoslavia, Carl Bildt. At 5:30 p.m. the Secretary-General gave an interview to the BBC. Later in the evening, after a private dinner with Mrs. Annan, the Secretary-General gave an interview at 10 p.m. to Brazil's O'Globo. The last activity of the day for the Secretary-General was a small "nightcap" reception at which time substantial issues before the Forum were discussed.

At 9:15 a.m., Monday, 3 February, the Secretary-General met with the President of the State Council of the Republic and Canton of Geneva, Jean Philippe Maitre. At 9:30 a.m. the Secretary-General was tentatively scheduled to meet with the President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela. At 10 a.m. the Secretary-General and his party left Davos by car for Zurich. At noon the Secretary-General took his flight from Zurich to New York, where he is expected to arrive later this afternoon.

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