ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN GERMANY 1-4 JULY
The Secretary-General flew from Budapest, Hungary, to Hanover, Germany, on Saturday, 1 July, where he was welcomed by Mayor Herbert Schmalstieg and signed the citys Golden Book for visitors.
On Sunday morning, he visited EXPO 2000, said to be the largest international exhibition ever held, with nearly 200 countries and organizations participating. He toured the United Nations pavilion, which was build exclusively with private funds. Featuring high-tech, interactive technology, the United Nations exhibit, he said, should explain to all those who see it that their agenda is ours as well and that it is an instrument in their hands, which they can use to push forward the cause of progress and peace (See Press Release SG/SM/7478).
He toured the German pavilion, then was the guest at a lunch co-hosted by Ambassador Birgit Beuel, Commissioner-General of EXPO 2000, and Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Germanys Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development.
After lunch, he toured the African pavilion, which houses exhibits from over 40 countries and organizations.
He then travelled by helicopter to Hamburg, where he was greeted by Foreign Ministry State Secretary Gunter Pleuger.
That evening, he attended a dinner in his honour hosted by First Mayor Ortwin Runde.
On Monday morning the Secretary-General inaugurated the new Headquarters of the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea. The Tribunal was set up in October 1996 to adjudicate maritime disputes under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. He was welcomed by Tribunal President Chandresekhara Rao and local officials. He toured the premises, met the judges and was introduced to the building's architect.
In an inaugural ceremony, the Secretary-General described the new building as "a work of art in its own right". He thanked the people and Government of Germany for endowing the new Headquarters. On the Tribunal itself, he said it exists to help put global values into practice, to permit "societies and cultures to coexist, blossom and flourish". "The language of the global community is international law", he concluded, "Let's accept it, embrace it, implement it and firm it up" (See SG/SM/7477).
President Rao then hosted a luncheon in honour of the Secretary-General before his departure by helicopter to Berlin.
He began his official programme in Berlin immediately on arrival with a meeting with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. At a press conference afterwards, the two said that they had discussed United Nations reform, and the Chancellor commented that he had underestimated the progress that has been made on reform. They discussed the goals of the Secretary-General's Millennium Report, including debt relief and efforts to include developing countries in the global market. Chancellor Schroeder said that Germany would live up to its commitments to United Nations peacekeeping.
Asked what the United Nations could do to protect minorities in Kosovo, the Secretary-General said, "I think the United Nations and the Kosovo Force (KFOR) troops are doing whatever they can to protect all minorities in Kosovo." He added that, "where there is such enmity between two communities, it is not easy to wipe it away overnight".
He then visited the Bundestag, or Parliament Building, where he met with the Bundestag President, Wolfgang Thierse. The President affirmed his intention to come to New York to attend the Millennium meeting of parliamentarians in August at United Nations Headquarters. The Secretary- General laid out his objectives for that meeting, as well as for the Summit itself. They discussed ways to enhance parliamentarians' participation in the work of the United Nations.
Still at the Bundestag, the Secretary-General met with Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, with whom he reviewed his recent visit to the Middle East and efforts to clear up the remaining problems on the Israeli-Lebanese border. They also discussed the Millennium Summit, United Nations and Security Council reform, peacekeeping efforts in Sierra Leone and the future of peacekeeping.
The Secretary-General and the Foreign Minister then had informal discussions with the Bundestag's Committee on Foreign Affairs. After that, the two men walked through the Brandenburg Gate.
In the evening, the Secretary-General received a courtesy call from former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, and was guest of honour at a dinner hosted by the President of Germany, Johannes Rau.
On Tuesday, 4 July, the Secretary-General began the final day of his official visit to Germany with a meeting with Angela Merkel, Chair of the Christian Democratic Union and leader of the opposition.
He then joined Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to open Urban 21, an international conference hosted by the German Government on the future of cities.
Noting that within 25 years, two-thirds of the world's population will be living in urban areas, the Secretary-General focused attention on the growing number of urban poor. "We need more than new technology and scientific progress" to improve the human condition, he said, we also need radical changes "in the way we think about each other and our shared lives in an interdependent world". He described sprawling shanty towns as miserable
places to live, but said they are also "wellsprings of entrepreneurial energy and self-help". We know what to do, he added, and we have the resources, "were they not tied up in weapons spending or wasteful subsidies, or lost to corruption and mismanagement". What is missing, as usual, he concluded, is political will. "We need to make the urban revolution work for people", he said, "not against them" (see SG/SM/7479).
He then flew to Geneva, Switzerland where, on 5 July, he opened proximity talks on Cyprus.