Activities of Secretary-General in Germany, 29 January–1 February
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, accompanied by Madam Ban Soon-taek, arrived in Berlin on Wednesday afternoon, 29 January, after an overnight flight from Cuba to Paris and an onward flight to the German capital.
His first meeting was with Thomas de Maizière, the German Interior Minister. On the way to the ministry he stopped at the Brandenburg Gate.
Later, the Secretary-General held a working dinner with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Those discussions continued on the morning of Thursday, 30 January, at the Foreign Ministry after an earlier meeting that morning with Gerd Müller, the Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The Foreign Minister and Secretary-General gave a joint news conference before then attending and addressing the inaugural session of the Secretary-General’s Scientific Advisory Board, along with Irina Bokova, the Director-General of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). (See Press Release SG/SM/15624.)
That afternoon, the Secretary-General met with the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Joachim Gauck, at his official residence.
Then, the Secretary-General transferred to the Federal Chancellery where he met Chancellor Angela Merkel. They also gave a joint press conference.
In the evening, the Secretary-General took part in a discussion with young people active in the United Nations Association of Germany and later met with senior members of the association. The events were hosted at the Permanent Representation of Hamburg, a city which is also one of Germany’s federal States.
Early on Friday 31 January, the Secretary-General left Berlin to fly to Bonn, where he visited the United Nations campus, which houses 18 United Nations agencies. He met the heads of those agencies and held a town hall meeting in the atrium of what was once the German parliament building before unification.
The Secretary-General then visited the German History Museum, where he also met the Lord Mayor of Bonn and the Minister for Federal Affairs, Europe and Media of the federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
That same afternoon the Secretary-General flew to Munich to take part in the fiftieth Munich Security Conference and for a series of bilateral and multilateral meetings.
He first met Sebastian Kurz, the Federal Minister for European and International Affairs of Austria. The Secretary-General then spoke to a small group of Austrian reporters.
In the evening, the Secretary-General and the Joint Special Representative for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, met with Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, and United States Secretary of State John Kerry to discuss the Geneva peace talks on Syria.
The Secretary-General also met later that evening with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Leonid Kozhara.
The next morning, Saturday, 1 February, the Secretary-General met with Ukrainian opposition leaders, including Vitaly Klitschko.
He then addressed the Munich Security Conference. (See Press Release SG/SM/15626.)
The Secretary-General had a bilateral meeting next with the Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Garibashvili, and was then briefed by the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano.
The Secretary-General gave a press conference and then took part in a meeting of the Principals of the Middle East Quartet.
Before leaving Munich for New York, the Secretary-General met with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.
The Secretary-General arrived back in New York on Saturday evening.