ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN JAPAN, 20-23 JANUARY
Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Tokyo in the afternoon of Sunday, 20 January, where he met with United States Secretary of State Colin Powell for a half-hour review of world issues, starting with Afghanistan.
Both men were in Tokyo to attend the International Conference on Reconstruction Assistance to Afghanistan. They discussed the financial needs of the country, with the Secretary-General, emphasizing the urgent need for emergency assistance to carry the Interim Administration through the first year. They shared their mutual concern about security.
Lakhdar Brahimi, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, described progress in forming a group to lay the groundwork for a Loya Jirga, or supreme council meeting of Afghan leaders, to advance the political process.
The conversation then shifted to the gradual lessening of tensions between India and Pakistan and the need to stay focused on the still-dangerous situation, as both sides had hundreds of thousands of soldiers on the mutual border.
They discussed the deteriorating situation in the Middle East, the encouraging direction of the current talks between the Cypriot leaders and the humanitarian crisis generated by the volcano eruption in Goma.
The Secretary-General and the Secretary of State also met one-on-one before sitting down with their delegations.
In his second meeting of the day, the Secretary-General spoke with representatives of United Nations agencies to plan strategy for the next day’s donors’ meeting on Afghanistan. He said that donors had to send a strong message of support, providing short-term funding as well as committing firmly to long-term reconstruction. At that meeting were Mr. Brahimi, United Nations humanitarian chief Kenzo Oshima, High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) head Carol Bellamy, among others.
On Monday morning, the Secretary-General met informally with the co-sponsors of the International Conference on Reconstruction Assistance to Afghanistan for a brief exchange before the Conference opened. He chatted with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, the Conference host, United States Secretary of State Colin Powell, European Commissioner for External Relations Chris Patten and the Economic Minister of Saudi Arabia, Ibrahim bin Abdul-Aziz al-Assad. He also met face to face for the first time with the Chairman of the Afghan Interim Authority, Hamid Karzai.
The Conference was opened by Sadako Ogata, the Special Representative of Prime Minister Koizumi for Afghanistan, who emphasized the need for a seamless transition from relief and recovery to reconstruction. The Prime Minister then spoke, pledging $500 million from Japan within the next two and a half years. He also mentioned that the demining of Afghanistan was a priority for his Government.
The Secretary-General then took the floor, calling for $1.3 billion to meet Afghanistan’s immediate needs, saying that relief, recovery and reconstruction are inextricably linked. Two months from today, he said, 1.5 million Afghan girls and boys will return to school -- teachers must be paid and supplies and safe learning spaces must be provided.
“The people of Afghanistan”, he said, “battered yet resilient, are looking to us for assistance. We must not and we cannot turn our backs on them.
“I hope that we will be able to look back on this conference”, he went on, “and say that the international community recognized its responsibilities, heeded its conscience and showed ... the compassionate face of our common humanity.
“The people of Afghanistan have a hard road ahead of them”, he concluded. “Let us not leave them to travel it alone”. (See Press Release SG/SM/8108.)
At the end of the first day of the two-day conference, the needs for 2002 were met and the requirements for the first two and a half years were on the way to being achieved.
In the margins of the Conference, the Secretary-General held four bilateral meetings that morning.
He met with German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, whom he thanked for Germany’s military and financial contributions to security and reconstruction in Afghanistan.
India’s Minister for Disinvestment and Development for the Northeastern Region, Arun Schourie, told him that India was committed to contributing to the rebuilding of Afghanistan, and was ready to offer everything from computer technology to the training of diplomats.
The Secretary-General then saw Ireland’s Foreign Minister, Brian Cowen. They discussed primarily Afghanistan, Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.
His final meeting of the morning was with Clare Short, United Kingdom Secretary of State for International Development, who raised a large number of issues from Afghanistan to conflict in Africa to United Nations reform.
In the afternoon, the Secretary-General began his official visit to Japan with an audience with His Majesty the Emperor of Japan at the Imperial Palace.
He then met with the Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, who asked him how the conference was going. “It’s off to a good start”, he replied, and thanked the Prime Minister and the Japanese people for their generous contribution to Afghan reconstruction. The Secretary-General mentioned two areas of concern. First, that Afghanistan was going to need humanitarian assistance over and above the reconstruction funds. A fourth year of drought was possible and it would take three years to resettle the millions of Afghan refugees and displaced. Second, because security was essential for reconstruction, the army would have to be built at a sustainable level and police trained and deployed throughout the country. This would be costly, he warned.
The Prime Minister responded that Japan would help to the extent possible.
The Secretary-General mentioned the upcoming international conferences on financing for development and sustainable development, and said he was counting on full Japanese participation. He also said that while he understood the reasons why Japan was reducing its development assistance to poor countries, he hoped that Japan could sustain its leading role as an aid giver.
The Prime Minister said that as a priority Japan was working to overcome the stagnation that has plagued the economy for a decade, but it would maintain a long-term perspective on aid.
In the evening, the Secretary-General met with Japanese Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka. They discussed the results of the first day of the Afghanistan donors’ conference. Their talks also touched on tensions between India and Pakistan, the stalled Middle East peace process and the fight against terrorism.
Afterwards, their talks continued over a dinner, which was hosted by the Foreign Minister in honour of the Secretary-General and the senior-most members of his delegation to the Afghanistan donors’ conference, High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers, United Nations Development Programme Administrator Mark Malloch Brown, United Nations Children’s Fund Executive Director Carol Bellamy and United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator Kenzo Oshima.
The Secretary-General met on Tuesday morning with members of the Parliamentary Group for Japan’s Contribution to the United Nations, who said that most were in their thirties or forties and were dedicated to improving Japan’s relations with the United Nations. The Secretary-General thanked them for Japan’s hosting of the donors’ conference on Afghanistan and for Japan’s generous pledge for reconstruction of that country. He then made two points. There should be no trade-off, he said, between the war against terror and respect for human rights. And in the post-11 September environment we should not lose sight of the pre-11 September priorities of fighting poverty, correcting inequity and improving the environment.
Their discussions touched on environmental issues, United Nations management, Security Council reform and relations with non-governmental organizations.
He then met with former Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party who is influential in financial policy. Mr. Miyazawa asked about Afghanistan’s absorptive capacity for the aid being pledged. The Secretary-General replied that the United Nations had very precise objectives for humanitarian projects in the shorter term, more general project ideas for the medium term and broad objectives for the long term.
The Secretary-General urged Mr. Miyazawa to get actively involved in Japan’s preparations for the United Nations conferences on financing for development and sustainability coming up later in the year. They talked of ways to increase investment flows to developing countries.
At a press encounter afterwards, the Secretary-General said he was encouraged by the results thus far of the donors’ conference on Afghanistan, saying “it’s gone very well”. He hoped there would be sufficient funds for the recurrent costs of the Interim Administration. He praised Interim Administration Chairman Hamid Karzai’s statement that he would welcome international auditors to see that the money was well spent. “That was just the right approach and the right tone”, he commented. Asked if this means the problems of Afghanistan are solved, he replied, “No, no, no, no. We are off to a good start but we have many hurdles ahead of us.”
The Secretary-General was then hosted at lunch by another former Prime Minister, Yoshiro Mori. Mr. Mori is also a member of the Liberal Democratic Party and an influential voice in foreign affairs. Also present was the head of the broadcasting giant NHK, Katsuji Ebisawa, the CEO of Kikkoman, Yuzaburo Mogi, who is an active participant of the United Nations Global Compact, the Chairman of the Parliamentary League for the Promotion of United Nations Activities, Yoshiro Hayashi, and Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe.
The Secretary-General asked Mr. Mori about his recent visit to Uzbekistan. They spoke of the role of Afghanistan’s neighbours in the search for regional stability. Mr. Ebisawa described NHK’s efforts 20 years ago to build up Afghanistan’s broadcasting system. They talked of the war against terror, the upcoming financing for development conference, globalization and the Global Compact, Japan’s foreign aid programme, Japan’s relations with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as well as relations between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea.
In the afternoon, the International Conference on Reconstruction Assistance to Afghanistan concluded, announcing pledges and contributions of over $1.8 billion for 2002 and more than $4.5 billion total. In a television interview afterwards, the Secretary-General said that the Conference had been “remarkably successful.” Asked what kind of Afghanistan he would like to see in 10 years, he responded, “an Afghanistan that is stable, an Afghanistan that has become a more or less normal State”. He then added, “and an Afghanistan that is also left alone -- no meddling from the neighbours”.
He then had a private meeting with Sadako Ogata, Prime Minister Koizumi’s Special Representative for Assistance to Afghanistan.
His last official meeting of the visit was with members of the opposition Democratic Party, headed by its President, Yukio Hatoyama.
In the evening he attended a private dinner hosted by Japan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Yukio Satoh.
The Secretary-General departed Japan for Pakistan in the morning of Wednesday, 23 January.