STATEMENT ATTRIBUTABLE TO THE SPOKESPERSON

OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

 

On the visit of the General Assembly President to Egypt

 

 

As a result of no noon briefing today, please find below a summary of

the official programme of UN General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim of

his visit to Egypt.

 

General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim wrapped up a two-day visit to

Egypt today where he met with President Hosni Mubarak yesterday, and

with Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit today and delivered a lecture to

the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affaires. He travels to Israel tonight

where is scheduled to have talks with President Shimon Peres and Foreign

Minister Tzipi Livni as well as attend the conference, “Facing

Tomorrow.” President Kerim is also expected to meet with Palestinian

President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah tomorrow afternoon – this meeting

was facilitated by President Mubarak of Egypt.

 

 

Meeting with Egyptian President and Foreign Minister

 

The discussions with the Egyptian President and with the Foreign

Minister focused on the food crisis, UN reforms and the current

situation in the Middle East.

 

President Mubarak informed the GA President that he would attend the FAO

summit in Rome on the food crisis. President Kerim stressed the need for

the Secretary-General’s Task Force to work speedily to assess the

situation and propose solutions to the crisis and noted that it would

take more than efforts by FAO to solve the problem as the crisis was of

a broader political and economic nature.

 

In their focus on UN reforms, President Mubarak and President Kerim

discussed the central role of the General Assembly as the only truly

legitimate global forum for all nations to discuss issues of global

concern. They also ways talked about ways and means to strengthen the

General Assembly and increase its legitimacy, including by tackling

priority issues substantively and tacking concrete action on key global

challenges. Strengthening the role of the General assembly was also

discussed during the meeting with Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit and the

Foreign Minister suggested that one way to this was to increase the term

of the President of the General Assembly to two years from the current

one year.

 

Security Council reform was also discussed, with President Kerim

stressing the intermediary solution as the way forward. President

Mubarak noted that this approach offered a way out as a gradual approach

was the best way to go.

 

Progress on the Millennium Development Goals was discussed – including

also the current efforts to prepare the Doha review conference on

Financing for Development. Egypt is one of the facilitators (along with

Norway) of the FfD process. President Kerim invited President Mubarak to

the 25th September high-level MDG meeting organized jointly with the

Secretary-General. President Kerim stressed that Egypt - given its

strong recent progress on health and education MDGs and its reforms to

attract foreign investment - had a lot to offer and a big role to play

on MDGs. President Mubarak said he would consider attending and

supported stronger partnerships with private sector and civil society as

a means to accelerate progress.

 

When meeting the Foreign Minister, President Kerim was also briefed on

the current situation in the Middle East including on the latest state

of the peace process – also on the situation in Lebanon and the recent

development concerning Darfur.

 

 

Speech to Egyptian Council for Foreign Affaires focuses on food crisis

and Security Council reform

 

President Kerim in his lecture to the Egyptian Council for Foreign

Affaires — delivered yesterday — dealt in detail with the food crisis

and Security Council reform. He began by paying tribute to the active

role of Egyptian diplomacy in world affaires, including in the work of

the United Nations. He also underlined the importance of regional

initiatives and the work of regional bodies, such as the League of Arab

States in international affaires but noted that regional solutions in

themselves were insufficient in the face of global challenges and

regional actions had to feed into a common effort through the web of

existing international institutions, primarily the United Nations, and

they had to be based on shared values and shared responsibilities.

 

As regards global problems, the President especially focused on the

current food crisis. He stressed that the food crisis offered a win-win

opportunity for the international community to collectively agree to

policies that promote trade efficiency while also boosting agricultural

production and reducing the vulnerability of the poorest around the

world.

 

He pointed out that as President, of the United Nations General Assembly

he would support immediate action on the food crisis.

 

He commended the Secretary-General for establishing an interagency Task

Force to address the widespread hunger, malnutrition and social unrest

that soaring food prices have brought adding however, that there was a

need to go further to identify the scope, nature and the implications of

the food crisis, followed by concrete measures for its resolution.

 

Apart from the food crisis the other issue President Kerim discussed in

his lecture at length was the current status of the Security Council

reform process. He stressed that as the Chairman of the Task Force

working on this issue he believed there was a realistic chance to make

progress. Member States by now – after over a decade of discussions knew

quite well the various positions which all had been put on the table.

 

Member States of the General Assembly were currently discussing a set of

negotiables on the basis of seven principles that the President proposed

in December. This should, hopefully lead to a compromise text that would

then be taken up in an intergovernmental format.

 

 

New York

12 May 2008