23 January 2001

The President met with the Permanent Representative of Chile, H.E. Sr. J. Gabriel Valdés to discuss reform of the working methods of the General Assembly. The President asked the Ambassador to act as facilitator to assist the President in this undertaking and the Ambassador accepted. The President's statement concerning this can be found on the "Statements and Messages" page.

The President held his regular monthly meeting with the chairs of the Regional Groups in order to convey information to the Member States on certain priority issues. Among the issues discussed was the General Assembly special session on HIV/AIDS and the appointment of the co-chairs for the 2nd UNICPOLOS meeting this spring on Oceans and the Law of the Sea. The President also informed the chairs about his nomination of Ambassador J. Gabriel Valdés of Chile, to act as facilitator in the process of reform of the working methods of the General Assembly. The President stressed that with the support and co-operation of Member States he hopes to achieve some concrete results during this session to make the GA more effective. On the issue of follow-up to the Millennium Summit the President informed the chairs that he would continue to keep this issue very high on his agenda.

The President had a luncheon meeting with the President of the Security Council, H.E. Mr. Kishore Mahbubani of the Republic of Singapore and the Deputy Permanent Representative of the Republic of Singapore, Ms. Christine Lee. Among other issues they discussed the meeting of the Security Council, scheduled for Friday, which will concern the situation in East Timor.

The President also met with the Permanent Representative of El Salvador, H.E. Mr. Jose Roberto Andino Salazar concerning the holding of a Plenary meeting to adopt a resolution on the recent earthquake in El Salvador. The President promised that such a meeting would be held at the earliest opportunity.

The Permanent Representative of Saudi Arabia, H.E. Mr. Fawzi Bin Abdul Majeed Shobokshi made a courtesy call on the President.

Later in the day, the President attended a dinner hosted by the Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom, H.E. Mr. Jeremy Greenstock, in honour of the Permanent Representative of the United States, H.E. Mr. Richard Holbrooke.

The President issued a statement regarding the death of President Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The full text of the statement is available on "Statements and Messages" page.