ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN SWITZERLAND, 30 JANUARY – 1 FEBRUARY
Secretary-General Kofi Annan flew from Brussels to Geneva in the early afternoon of Friday, 30 January.
He met there with Presidents Luis Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, Ricardo Lagos Escobar of Chile and Jacques Chirac of France to discuss a fresh initiative to combat global hunger and poverty.
After that meeting they issued a joint declaration, which suggested, among other things, exploring the possibility of levying an international tax to raise funds for development. They unveiled the plan at a public meeting (see Press Release SG/SM/9142).
Before the press conference the Secretary-General met privately with President Lula, and after it he had a session with President Lagos Escobar.
On Saturday, the Secretary-General held a series of meetings with the leaders of Cameroon and Nigeria to discuss follow-up to the 2002 World Court ruling on their border dispute.
He first sat down with his advisory team on the issue, headed by Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah. He then met separately with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and the President of Cameroon, Paul Biya. The three men then had private discussions over lunch.
In the afternoon, the three delegations had a plenary session, at the end of which they issued a joint communiqué and then spoke to the press. The Secretary-General summarized the communiqué in his opening statement.
He said this had been the third tripartite summit on the subject of the land and maritime boundary dispute between the two States. He praised the two national leaders for their “incredible leadership” in agreeing to abide by the Court’s decision before it was rendered and then by setting up mechanisms for its smooth implementation.
He said that the two Presidents had agreed to strengthen confidence-building measures through an exchange of ambassadors, the opening of consular services along their common border and the introduction of joint patrols of security forces. He also said they would consider a treaty of friendship and non-aggression between their two countries. He called on the international community to support the efforts being made, in particular by providing financial assistance for the demarcation process as well as for the implementation of confidence-building measures. “Could you imagine if they had not had the foresight” to agree to abide by the Court ruling, he asked, “the amount of resources the international community would be required to devote to the crisis?” (see Press Release SG/SM/9143).
They agreed to meet again in one year’s time.
The next morning, before leaving for New York, the Secretary-General and his wife Nane paid a private visit to the grave of Sergio Vieira de Mello, his Special Representative who, along with 21 other United Nations colleagues, was killed in an attack on United Nations headquarters in Baghdad on 19 August 2003.