Activities of Secretary-General in Indonesia, 10-14 October
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres arrived in Bali, Indonesia, from New York on Wednesday, 10 October.
On Thursday morning, the Secretary-General met with Joko Widodo, President of the Republic of Indonesia. They discussed Indonesia-United Nations cooperation on sustainable development, Indonesia’s contribution to United Nations peacekeeping and its upcoming seat on the Security Council. They also spoke about partnership between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United Nations, and regional matters, including the situation in Myanmar.
Later that same day, the Secretary-General attended the Leaders’ Gathering of ASEAN. In his remarks, he said that our world is simply not going far enough and fast enough to realize the Sustainable Development Goals. He stressed two areas of particular concern to him - inequality and climate change. (See Press Release SG/SM/19292.)
On Friday, 12 October, the Secretary-General flew to Sulawesi Island where an earthquake and a tsunami struck at the end of September. The Secretary-General visited Palu with the Vice-President of Indonesia, Muhammad Jusuf Kalla, and also met the Head of the Indonesian National Disaster Management Authority, Willem Rampangilei, and the Governor of Central Sulawesi, Longki Djanggola.
He first went to Balaroa where he saw the scale of the devastation generated by the liquefaction phenomenon which occurred during the earthquake. Speaking to press, he said he had made the visit to express the United Nations full solidarity with the people of Sulawesi and of Indonesia. He paid tribute to their resilience, commended Indonesia’s response to the disasters and appealed to the international community to support reconstruction.
In Palu, the Secretary-General also visited people affected by the disasters at a hospital which was partly destroyed during the disasters. He then met with displaced people at a camp in Jalan Balaikota and also spoke to bereaved families and to schoolchildren and their teacher in the camp. He flew back to Bali late in the afternoon.
On Saturday, 13 October, the Secretary-General participated in various sessions of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund annual meetings taking place in Bali.
In the morning, he addressed the International Monetary and Financial Committee Board. He told the gathered Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors that the global community needed to act now to set a path of growth that is socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable. (See Press Release SG/SM/19294.)
Later, he held a bilateral meeting with Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group. The two of them took part in a panel on “Mitigating Famine Risks”.
In the afternoon, the Secretary-General attended the Climate Finance Ministerial Meeting. He said that we risk irreversible catastrophe if we don’t act more quickly and with more ambition. He added that limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees will require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society – especially how we manage land, energy, industry, buildings, transport and cities. (See Press Release SG/SM/19295.)
Also, that afternoon, he spoke at the Development Committee and called on the global community to mobilize resources and technologies to better the lives of people. (See Press Release SG/SM/19296.)
That evening, the Secretary-General left Bali to make his way back to New York, where he arrived early on Sunday morning, 14 October.