ACTIVITIES OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL IN SINGAPORE, 13-15 FEBRUARY

The Secretary-General travelled from Bangkok to Singapore on the afternoon of Sunday, 13 February. That evening, he had dinner with Ambassador Tommy Koh of Singapore.

The Secretary-General began his official visit in Singapore on Monday, 14 February, with a meeting with Foreign Minister Shanmugam Jayakumar.

They discussed Indonesia's democratic transition and its effect on the region. They also touched on Myanmar, East Timor and regional issues.

He also met that morning with President S.R. Nathan and Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. After his meeting with the Prime Minister, in response to a question from a journalist, the Secretary-General said he had accepted, “with regret”, the resignation of the head of the United Nations humanitarian programme in Iraq, Hans von Sponeck.

After a lunch hosted by the Foreign Minister, the Secretary-General delivered the eighteenth Annual Singapore Lecture on the Rule of Law. “All States”, he argued, “but small States especially, have an interest in maintaining an international order based on something better than the grim maxim that “might is right” -– based, in fact, on general principles of law which gives the same rights to the weak as to the strong”. He went on, “...every society must have a language; the language of global society is international law” (see Press Release SG/SM/7299).

In the late afternoon, he met with Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's first Prime Minister and now its Senior Minister. Again, their discussions focused mainly on the situation in Indonesia.

The Secretary-General gave a press conference before attending a dinner hosted by the Prime Minister.

The Secretary-General departed for Jakarta, Indonesia, on Tuesday morning, 15 February.