[The President started with an opening statement in Spanish welcoming the Secretary-General to Honduras]
Q: [Translated from Spanish] Good afternoon Mr. President and Mr. Annan. Do the representations of the third world countries really generate an impact in this organization and make discrimination in relation to any particular conflict in the world?
SG: I think, let me start by saying that as the President mentioned earlier, the UN is working very effectively with Honduras. I've been very impressed to see what is going on here and to see how well the UN team is working here with the government. I think the UN in a way is more important for smaller countries, and our programme to fight poverty, to fight disease, to promote education, to promote good governance and transparent government, and to protect the planet is something that rings a cord with leaders and people from smaller countries.
I think on the question of whether small countries have an impact in the UN, I think they can and do have impact sometimes but when they are organized and participate fully, they have the weight and the numbers to have an impact. The UN is an organization of states large and small, and decisions are taken collectively. Obviously some of the bigger countries have many more assets and can bring greater pressure to bear. But if all the member states participate and do their bit, the third world and the smaller countries can have their weight felt in the organization.
Q: [Translated from Spanish] Welcome Mr. Secretary-General I hope this is not the first or the last time you come to Honduras. El Salvador has not obeyed the border judgements given by the International Court of Justice in 1992, and Nicaragua also has not obeyed the sentence of the Central American Court on the 35% tax on Honduran products. Will the UN intervene?
SG: I think what is important here today we have leaders in the three countries that I expect can and should work together. I trust that through leadership, wisdom and cooperation of the leaders, these issues can be resolved and I would urge that we go that route. If by some future date my good offices are needed they will be available if the parties want it. But I am confident that if the three leaders really put their heads together they can resolve this problem to the satisfaction of all.
President: [The President then made a comment in Spanish.]
Q: [Translated from Spanish] Good afternoon Mr. President and Mr. Secretary-General. My name is Liliam Bonilla from television. What impact would globalisation have in the Central American Region (area) if the area countries resist integration since the divisions are more notorious each time and judgements are not respected.
President: [The President replied in Spanish.]
SG: I think the President has answered the question.
Q: [Translated from Spanish] To conclude this section of questions Mr. Gustavo Palencia from the International Press Agencies will ask the following question. Mr. Secretary-General you will attend tomorrow a conference on Development. Why do you believe the developed countries should increase their support to the poor countries and what would happen if they don't do it. On the other hand, what measures should take the developing countries to acquire those benefits as counterparts to achieve that development.
SG: I think I expect the donor countries and the developed countries to help, because we are all coming to recognize that we live in an interdependent world and that we cannot continue to accept a situation where the poor and the rich live side by side, where men's poverty in extreme wealth exist in the same area and we do nothing about it.
We are also learning to recognize that what happens in one part of the world can affect all of us, and I think it is in the self interest of the richer nations to help the poor. I think it is a question of conscience and morality, but recently we also realize that if we do not deal with some of the root causes and some of the problems that we see around the world from poverty to conflict prevention, to diseases, these situations are often exploited by those who would use terrorism to justify their actions. So in the end development and security are linked, and I think there is a greater awareness of this, and we will, I hope, see determination on the part of the donor governments to do more to help the poor.
On the side of the poor countries they have to get their act together too. They have to deal with corruption; they have to have a transparent and democratic government based on rule of law. We have to help strengthen their institutions, and develop right regulatory systems. And when I am talking of corruption, we should also try to find ways and means of repatriating back to the countries moneys that have been salted away by corrupt leaders, which could help alleviate the poverty in the countries concerned.
And, so I am going to Monterrey hoping that we will have a deal, a deal on the table that the third world would do more to improve their own domestic situation to create an enabling environment which will release the energy and creativity of their people and that the developed world will open up their markets for the products coming from the developing world. They would cease subsidising their producers who compete with the third world, that we will get increased development assistance. There will be effective action on dept relief, and that we would also have some discussions on how the global economy is managed, and how we factor in the views and the voices of the third world. Thank you.
President: [The President, speaking in Spanish, then thanked the Secretary-General.]
SG: And thank you very much, Mr. President. And I want to also thank the people of Honduras for the warm reception they reserved for Nane and myself and the team from New York and I hope the cooperation between the UN and Honduras will be strengthened even further. Thank you very much. *****