Activities of Secretary-General in Panama, 9-10 April
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, accompanied by Madam Ban Soon-taek, arrived in Panama City, from New York on Thursday, 9 April, to attend the seventh Summit of the Americas.
On Friday, 10 April, the Secretary-General had a working breakfast with José Miguel Inzulza, Secretary-General of the Organization of American States (OAS), and Luis Almagro, Secretary-General-elect of the OAS.
The Secretary-General then met with Presidents Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado of Honduras, Salvador Sanchez Ceren of El Salvador and Otto Fernando Pérez Molina of Guatemala, who handed over their Plan for the Alliance of Prosperity in the Northern Triangle.
He also held bilateral meetings with President Danilo Medina of the Dominican Republic, President Juan Carlos Varela of Panama, Vice-President and Minister of Foreign Affairs Isabel De Saint Malo de Alvarado of Panama and President Raúl Castro of Cuba.
Early in the afternoon, the Secretary-General met with United Nations staff working in Panama in the City of Knowledge complex.
He then addressed the CEO Summit of the Americas "Working Together: Public-Private Partnership For Sustainable Development", saying that around the world, business and investors are growing to recognize that business health and the health of societies is intertwined and that we have to build on this momentum and bring on board those companies still doing business that put profit before progress. (See Press Release SG/SM/16652.)
The Secretary-General later visited the Museum of Biodiversity of Panama and gave an interview to TVN Noticias, before attending the opening ceremony of the seventh Summit of the Americas.
In his remarks at the event, he said that the Americas were overcoming long-standing divisions in historic ways, and that the presence at the meeting of President Raul Castro of Cuba embodied a goal long expressed by many in the region. He also said that much of the Americas had made impressive progress in fighting poverty, but that the challenge was pursuing prosperity with equity. (See Press Release SG/SM/16654.)
The Secretary-General proceeded to the official dinner given for the opening of the Summit, before leaving Panama City overnight for Doha, Qatar.