ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN BELGIUM, 16-18 FEBRUARY

Secretary-General Kofi Annan departed New York on Sunday, 16 February, for Brussels, where he arrived, via Paris, the following morning.

He held a number of bilateral meetings, the first being with the Prime Minister of Turkey, Abdullah Gul, with whom he discussed Iraq and his efforts to conclude an agreement on Cyprus by the end of February.  He then had an audience, one on one, with Belgium’s King Albert II.

Later that day, at a summit of the European Union, the Secretary-General urged European heads of State and government to keep the focus on Iraq and its obligations to disarm and to “avoid the tendency of turning on each other”.

“We should approach this issue positively,” he told journalists after addressing the closed summit meeting.  “What is required at this stage is cooperation, persistence and constant pressure”.

“It is imperative that the Iraq leadership understand the gravity and the urgency of the situation,” he added.  “I urge the Iraqi leadership to choose compliance over conflict.”

The Secretary-General had been invited by the European Union to participate in the extraordinary summit called to forge a common position on Iraq.  He shared with the press afterwards some of the ideas he had put to the heads of State earlier.

He reflected on the impact of the crisis on the United Nations.  “If the Security Council manages to resolve this crisis successfully and effectively,” he said, “its credibility and influence will be considerably enhanced.”

“If on the other hand, the international community fails to agree on a common position,” he went on, “and action is taken without the authority of the Council, then the legitimacy and support for that action will be seriously impaired.”

Before meeting with the heads of State, the Secretary-General met with Pat Cox, President of the European Parliament, and eight leaders of political groups.  Cox told the media afterwards that the Parliamentarians had emphasized their “very strong commitment to the multilateral process and to a strong and central role of the United Nations” on Iraq.

On returning to his hotel, he met with the Belgian Foreign Minister, Louis Michel, for a detailed discussion of Iraq.

Costas Simitis, the Prime Minister of Greece, then came by, and again the discussions centred on Iraq and Cyprus, including the impact of the latest Greek-Cypriot elections on the peace process. 

In the evening, as the European leaders sat down to a working dinner to try to agree on a statement on Iraq, the Secretary-General flew to Rome.