Secretary-General's press encounter with Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger [unofficial transcript]

SG: Thank you very much. Danke schön, Herr Minister.

Meine Damen und Herren,

It is a great pleasure to visit Vienna again, to participate in this celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the Vienna International Centre. And thank you very much for this kind hospitality and the very generous contribution and commitment by the people and Government of Austria, working together for the common goals, objectives and ideals of the United Nations.

When we look outside this building, we can see how the United Nations has changed its host city, Vienna. At the same time, the work that is being done here in Vienna is more central to the goals of the United Nations than ever before.

When this building opened 30 years ago, we were in the middle of the Cold War. And fortunately, the era has now ended. But we still have many challenges. We still have to deal with nuclear disarmament, prevention of nuclear proliferation issues, and they are in fact joined by new risks and new challenges today, with the financial crisis, the food crisis and climate change.

Every day, the organizations in the Vienna International Centre are working to empower two billion people, so that they can be lifted from abject poverty, by supporting competitive industry, good governance, the rule of law and sustainable development.

The United Nations in Vienna is also working to address the number one existential threat to humanity and to Planet Earth -- that is climate change. After visiting Vienna and also attending Alpach Forum, I am going to visit the North Pole to see for myself the melting glaciers on the North Pole. As you know, two years ago, in 2007, I visited Antarctica, and now I am going to visit the opposite pole of the Earth. This will be a very important experience, a unique experience for me. I am going to send out to the international community a strong message, so that we will be committed even further to seal the deal in Copenhagen in December this year. This is absolutely and crucially important for the future of our humanity and for the future of our Planet Earth. In that regard at today's ceremony, the Austrian band “My Excellence” has joined me in calling on world leaders to Seal the Deal on Climate Change –with their own song, “Seal the Deal”. That I really appreciate.

I thank the Government and people of Austria and the City of Vienna for making an investment in the United Nations, making an investment in multilateralism, making an investment for the common future of our world. Last year, as you may remember, I was here to inaugurate the M building –this is a fantastic, state-of-the-art building, which will provide good facilities for world leaders and diplomats to discuss all the common goals of the international community.

The work of the last three decades would not have been possible without you, ladies and gentlemen, the people and Government of Austria. You [members of the media] have ensured that people are informed of our work and the global challenges we are addressing. At this time I would like to congratulate again the Government of Austria for [its] excellent leadership and performance as a non-permanent member of the Security Council in addressing major challenges this world is now facing: peace and security, human rights and development, the protection of civilians, promotion of the rule of law and good governance. I count on the continued leadership and commitment of the Austrian Government for the common goals and objectives of the United Nations. I am committed to work together with you.

Thank you very much.

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, can I ask you, there are critics, notably in the United States, that say the United Nations is lacking influence, is an outdated toothless organization. What's your response to that? Secondly, the Security Council has enacted sanctions against North Korea, but many Member States don't seem to enact them. So what's your response to that?

SG: With the change of time, with the change of the situation in this world, even with that, the United Nations still stands at the centre of all the international community in leading to address major challenges of the international community. The United Nations, being an intergovernmental body, composed of 192 Member States, needs your strong commitment and contribution. On the basis of this contribution we can work together with the Member States to address the poverty issues, promoting human rights, providing humanitarian assistance to billions of people, and to address global issues like climate change. I am very proud and I am very grateful to all Member States which have been generously contributing. And I am also very proud of the United Nations staff and all the humanitarian workers, and I will continue to work with the Member States so that the United Nations can deliver real results for real people. That's our commitment. In this regard I am very proud of Austria, as one of the most important and very generous contributors to this.

And for your second question: The Security Council has taken very strong and unanimous action on this North Korean nuclear programme. It is absolutely necessary, it is crucial that the Member States fully comply with the Security Council resolutions, which are binding. And all the Member States, regardless of whom, are obliged to comply with the Security Council resolutions, including on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), and all Member States should also fully cooperate so that this resolution can be implemented.

Thank you.

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, we just now listened to the “Voices for Peace”, and all of us were impressed. But I would like to draw your attention that these “Voices for Peace” are totally marginalized in the Middle East. So I would like to comment on the current status of the Middle East, and the efforts done by the United Nations. Thank you very much indeed.

SG: Peace and stability in the Middle East has great implications for peace and stability not only in the region, but all around the world. There have been many initiatives, many diplomatic efforts by the Americans, Israelis, the Western World and also from the Arab World. Unfortunately, with all these initiatives and agreements, we have not seen peace.

Recently we have seen some encouraging developments of the situation in the Middle East: we have seen [progress towards] the establishment of a national unity government in Lebanon through the election of the President and the elections, and we have seen an increasingly reconciliatory relationship between Syria and other Arab countries, and there have even been indirect talks between Syria and Israel. There have been continuing negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian authorities.

What is important at this time is that, while we believe that the Arab Peace Initiative provides the cornerstone of this Middle East [process], at the same time we also value the bilateral negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian authorities. It would be crucially important that the Palestinian people should be united among themselves, and should be able to carry on these negotiations.

And again, there have been increasingly positive developments of the situation, which have been initiated by the new US Administration, by President [Barack] Obama's Administration now taking the lead to address this issue. I hope that we will see some positive results coming from this American administration's direct engagement in this. As a member of the Quartet I have been actively participating in the Middle East peace process, and again, it is also very important that Israel and other parties concerned should keep all these commitments in accordance with the roadmap initiated by the Quartet. And I will continue to be engaged in this.

Thank you very much.