Activities of Secretary-General in Washington, D.C., 4 August

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon travelled to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday morning, 4 August, to meet with United States President Barack Obama.

He told reporters afterwards that they had had an extremely constructive meeting.

They discussed Syria, Yemen and South Sudan.  On Yemen, they talked about the grave humanitarian situation, where more than 21 million people are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.

On South Sudan, the Secretary-General said that the United Nations is working very hard with the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the African Union so that an agreement between the parties can be adopted at the 17 August summit meeting of IGAD.

He congratulated the President on his announcement earlier this week of the Clean Power Plan, which he said would power economies and generate jobs, and they discussed ways to move forward on an ambitious agenda to deal with climate change.

Following his meeting at the White House, the Secretary-General was hosted for lunch at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace by its President, William J. Burns.

The Secretary-General returned to New York later that day.