Activities of Secretary-General in Germany, 16-18 February
On Thursday afternoon, 16 February, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres arrived from Cairo, Egypt, in Bonn, Germany, to attend the meeting of foreign ministers of the G-20.
In the early evening, he took part in the first working session of the G-20 on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
He met with Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, before attending a dinner with the Foreign Ministers and senior officials from other organizations taking part in the G-20 meeting.
The following morning, on Friday, 17 February, the Secretary-General held meetings with Norway Foreign Minister Børge Brende; Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan; Indonesia Foreign Minister Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi; and Foreign Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Boris Johnson.
The Secretary-General then took part in the G-20 second working session on the theme “Maintaining Peace in a Complex World.”
He met with France Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault before participating in a G-20 working lunch where foreign ministers discussed Africa.
Before departing Bonn in the afternoon, the Secretary-General met with Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se of the Republic of Korea.
The same evening, he arrived in Munich and spoke to the reporters with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, underlining his belief in multilateralism, noting the extremely relevant role that Germany plays in the UN and other international institutions. The Secretary-General also spotlighted Germany and the Chancellor’s role as a symbol of tolerance in the current climate of populism and xenophobia.
He ended his evening with a meeting and a dinner with Chancellor Merkel.
On Saturday morning, 18 February, the Secretary-General addressed the Munich Security Conference, where he stressed the importance of preventive diplomacy, mediation and a strategy to address root causes in order to prevent conflicts. He also emphasized the importance of aligning the sustainable development and peace agendas to peace and security challenges.
He then held meetings with, in the following order: Almazbek Atambaev, President of Kyrgyzstan; Madeline Albright, former United States Secretary of State; Massoud Barzani, President of the Kurdistan Regional Government; Ilham Heydar oglu Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan; Giorgi Kvirikashvili, Prime Minister of Georgia; Javad Zarif, Foreign Minister of Iran; Haider Al Abadi, Prime Minister of Iraq; Harjit Sajjan, Defence Minister of Canada; Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President of the European Commission; Ayman H. Safadi, Foreign Minister of Jordan; Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); and Fatou Bensouda, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
The Secretary-General departed Munich in the evening.