ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN SWITZERLAND AND FRANCE, 31 MAY – 2 JUNE
The Secretary-general arrived at Lausanne, Switzerland, via Geneva on Sunday, 31 May.
His first meeting of the day was with Adolf Ogi, his Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace, who briefed him on United Nations’ efforts in coordinating sport-related initiatives and promoting partnerships.
Then the Secretary-General met with a delegation from Switzerland headed by President of the Swiss Confederation, Pascal Couchepin. During their discussion, which was focused on Iraq, the Secretary-General said he was pleased with the adoption of Security Council resolution 1483 and explained the role that the United Nations would play under the resolution.
In the evening, the Secretary-General attended a dinner offered by the Federal Council of Switzerland in honour of the invited heads of State and government to the Summit of the Group of 8 (G-8).
On Sunday morning, the Secretary-General arrived at Evian, France by boat to attend the G-8 Summit. After a working lunch hosted by French President Jacques Chirac, the heads of delegations moved to a closed working session.
The Secretary-General began his remarks at the session by saying that sustained growth and development require not only sound national and global economic policies and the absence of conflict nationally and regionally, but also a universal sense of global security.
He then went on to say that since the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals, the proportion of people living in extreme poverty has actually increased in all areas except East Asia and, to some degree, South Asia.
He underscored that formidable challenges lie ahead if we are to even come close to meeting the Millennium Goals, which set out to halve the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day by 2015. He told the G-8 leaders that we are still far from our goal of finding the extra $50 billion a year to achieve the Millennium Goals and appealed for more and better aid. (See Press Release SG/SM/8730).
That evening, the Secretary-General attended a working dinner for leaders from the G-8, and the presidents of members of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), also there for the G-8 meeting.
In his remarks, the Secretary-General stressed two issues: food security and HIV/AIDS. On the first issue, he warned, “If we don’t want food shortages and famines to recur, we must have a long-term strategy that emphasizes investments in rural infrastructure and agricultural research.”
On HIV/AIDS, he appealed to the G-8 leaders to endow the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria with further resources it needs to achieve the shared goals. (See Press Release SG/SM/8731.)
The Secretary-General departed Lausanne on Monday morning and arrived back in New York that afternoon.