Secretary-General's press encounter at the Presidential Palace

SG: Bon Dia! It's a great pleasure to meet with you. I thank you for this opportunity. I am honored again to visit Portugal for the third time as Secretary-General of the United Nations, but this time for the NATO Summit meeting on Afghanistan. I had very good, constructive discussions with His Excellency President [Anibal Cavaco] Silva on matters of common concern. I first congratulated the President and his Government for the election as a non-permanent member of the Security Council, starting from next year, and that testifies to Portugal's strong commitment and leadership role and to multilateralism, and their contribution they have demonstrated to areas around the world: Timor Leste, Afghanistan, Guinea Bissau and their strong commitment for Millennium Development Goals and peace and security issues. I ensured him that I would work very closely with Portuguese representatives in the Security Council. We discussed the situation in Guinea Bissau and Timor Leste and also today's meeting on Afghanistan. I am very grateful for the strong support of the Portuguese Government to the objectives and goals of the United Nations and I would continue to benefit such commitment to multilateralism and their experience and expertise in many parts of the world. Thank you very much and obrigado.

Q: Sir, what did you and the President discuss?

SG: What we discussed is that starting from January next year, we will have a very important issues of referenda in Sudan, and this is one we expect the Portuguese, as a member of the Security Council, will have to work very closely. We need to do more on the situation in Guinea Bissau and I asked the President Cavaco Silva to provide more police officers in Timor Leste and I identified female police officers and I appreciate the 195 police officers from Portugal with Mr. [Luis Miguel] Carrilho as the Force Commander. And there are many areas. I want strong support for the Millennium Development Goals and peace and security issues.

Q: About Guinea Bissau, recently, CPLD said it was important to have an international force in Guinea Bissau; the United Nations will support that decision?

SG: Guinea Bissau is one of the very important items on agenda at the United Nations and I have been working very closely with Portuguese representative and Brazil and Angola and other countries. Particularly, I welcome the emerging partnership between ECOWAS [Economic Community of West African States] and Portuguese-speaking countries, and we are also concerned about this political situation as well as the humanitarian situation, very dire economic and social conditions. We agreed that we have to work more, first of all to stabilise the political situation and to mobilize socio-economic resources to them. Thank you very much.