Activities of Secretary-General in Turkey, 13-16 November

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon left New York on Friday, 13 November, to participate in the G20 Summit in Antalya, Turkey.

Upon arrival on Saturday, he met with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey, with whom he discussed the Summit’s priorities.  They also exchanged views on the situation in Syria, and the Secretary-General thanked Turkey for hosting such a large number of refugees.

On Sunday, 15 November, the Secretary-General gave a press conference during which he reiterated his profound condolences to the people of France following the terrorist attacks in Paris and stressed that terrorism is a threat to all humankind.  He also said that after years of division, the Vienna talks on Syria were a rare moment of diplomatic opportunity to end the violence and advance the search for a negotiated political solution.

During a working lunch on climate change, the Secretary-General told G20 leaders that they had wide-ranging political and moral responsibilities — not just to their own citizens, but to the world, in making the Paris Climate Conference a success.  (See Press Release SG/SM/17327.)

He also attended a working session on growth strategies and employment, as well as a working dinner with the G20 leaders on terrorism and the refugee crisis.

On the margins of the Summit, the Secretary-General met with President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil.  Ahead of the twenty-first Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21), the Secretary-General hoped that Brazil would exert its political influence and creative ideas with Latin American countries and the Caribbean.  The two leaders also agreed that climate finance requires both public and private funds.

The Secretary-General left Antalya for New York on the morning of Monday, 16 November.  On his way, he met in Istanbul with the city’s Mayor, Kadir Topbaş, and was back at New York Headquarters in the evening.