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23 September 1999

The Presidents of Albania, Rexhep Meidani, of Cyprus, Glafcos Clerides, and of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, addressed the General Assembly on the fourth day of its general debate, presided over by President Theo-Ben Gurirab. Also speaking in the debate are the Crown Prince of Monaco, the Foreign Ministers of Canada and Egypt, and the Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization and President of the Palestinian Authority, Mr. Yasser Arafat.

This afternoon, Presidents Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea will address the Assembly. Speaking in the general debate will be Prime Minister Pakalitha Bethuel Mosisili of Lesotho, Prime Minister Salim El-Hoss of Lebanon, as well as the Foreign Ministers of Luxembourg, Kuwait, Uruguay, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Indonesia, Turkey, Romania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Copies of the Assembly President’s appointments for today are available in room 378 and on the Internet. Prior to presiding over this morning’s plenary, the President met with Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz of Pakistan. Mr. Aziz highlighted several themes he said deserved attention: the whole question of humanitarian intervention, the real meaning of multilateralism, and the issues of sovereignty and self-determination. These were among the interesting topics coming up, and he believed the Non-Aligned Movement should take a collective stand. Responding, the President expressed his concern about the notion of humanitarian intervention, seeing it as a new interpretation of the UN Charter. He suggested the formation of think tanks to consider this and other emerging issues.

The Assembly President then met with President Obasanjo of Nigeria. The Nigerian Head of State observed that the century and the millennium were ending with an African as President of the General Assembly, another as Secretary-General of the United Nations, still another as Chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement and a fourth as Secretary-General of the Commonwealth. This was a clear indication of the role that Africa was playing in the world politically. All that remained, he said, was for Africa to match that role economically. "We can and we should. We must begin as the architect of our own future", he said. "The twenty-first century should be one of prosperity for Africa", he continued. "We cannot achieve it unless we work together. If we do not, we may suffer the ‘eclipse of States’". For his part, the Assembly President recalled that the founders of the Organization of African Unity had promoted the concept of pan-Africanism. In that context, he said he would encourage the African Group here at the United Nations to hold and work together.

This afternoon, the Assembly President will meet with President Meidani of Albania; with the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Ahmed Esmat Abdel Meguid; and with Mats Karlsson, Vice-President of the World Bank. At 7 p.m., he will attend a dinner in his honour, hosted by the Foreign Minister of Germany, Joschka Fischer. The dinner is an annual affair hosted by Germany, which brings together African Foreign Ministers and Heads of Delegation to exchange views and update each other on world issues and on the agenda of the Assembly.

The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) met this morning to organize its work. The related document is A/C.1/54/1. The Committee approved its programme of work but postponed the election of its three Vice-Chairmen and Rapporteur.