SECRETARY-GENERAL'S TRIP TO WASHINGTON, D.C. -- 16 OCTOBER
Press Release
SG/T/2151
SECRETARY-GENERAL'S TRIP TO WASHINGTON, D.C. -- 16 OCTOBER
19981106 Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Washington, D.C. on the morning of Friday, 16 October, where he addressed the Empower America Fall Conference. He appealed to conservative Americans, saying, "The United Nations and the United States must face this world together." He continued, "American values are United Nations values, American interests are United Nations interests". Referring to the "grim" news about United Nations funding and Article 19, the Secretary-General said, "Great nations keep their word. They do not inflict wounds on their own prestige or undermine their claim to leadership at crucial moments in world affairs." He noted, "The United States needs an effective United Nations; the United Nations needs an engaged United States". (For text of the Secretary-General's statement see Press Release SG/SM/6754 of 16 October.)After an hour-long meeting at the State Department with Thomas Pickering, United States Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, the Secretary-General proceeded to the Madison Hotel, where he signed the Freedom Press Charter and presented the 1998 Harold W. Anderson Lecture to the World Press Freedom Committee. The Secretary-General spoke of the need and his own responsibility to "speak up and speak out when no other voice will be heard. . . Some say that speaking out is not enough, that words will never effect change," he said, "but I say it is a beginning." (See Press Release SG/SM/6756-HR/4385 of 16 October.)
In the afternoon, the Secretary-General met with members of the Washington Post editorial board, then paid a brief visit to Timothy Wirth, President of the United Nations Foundation, and his staff. The Secretary- General then attended the opening of the new BBC Bureau on M Street. He departed in the evening for New York.
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