SG: Thank you very much, Mr. Minister, for your kind welcome and hospitality. Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen of the press. It is a great pleasure for me to visit Portugal at the very early stage of the presidency of the European Union, also the early stage of my tenure as Secretary-General. I am very pleased and look forward to continuously working together with the Government of Portugal and with the Presidency of the European Union.
The European Union is an essential partner to the United Nations in terms of goals and objectives of the United Nations Charter. The European Union has been taking the leading role in the area of peacekeeping, human rights, financial contribution to the regular budget and development strategies including the MDGs. I am very happy about such a strong partnership, assurance and commitment from the Presidency of the European Union. As the Minister has just said we have discussed a wide range of issues concerning the geopolitical issues starting from the Middle East, Kosovo and the situation in Darfur and elsewhere. And also we have discussed briefly, but I am sure that over the lunch we will be able to discuss all long-term global issues, such as climate change and also the Millennium Development Goals. I hope that under the leadership of the Presidency of the Portuguese Government, the European Union will take a much stronger role in addressing all important challenges we face in close coordination with the United Nations. Thank you very much.
Q: Good afternoon, I would like to know if after what Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that this morning you still believe that the EU-Africa Summit will take place this year in December.
SG: I commended and appreciated the joint strategy of the European Union for Africa. In fact, addressing the African challenge is on top of my agenda starting from addressing the situation in Darfur, Somalia and Israel as well as helping African people overcome abject poverty and sanitation [problems] and fighting against HIV/AIDS. All these are very important to promote a balanced and harmonious development of the whole international community. In that regard I support this joint strategy of the European Union. I hope that under the leadership of Portugal as President of the European Union you have good cooperation with the African Union. As a Secretary-General I am also very much committed in very closely coordinating and working together with the African Union.
Q: Secretary-General I would like to ask you if, in your point of view, what are the main issues you would like to see addressed by the Presidency? And also to ask you if you have discussed East Timor in today's meeting and the future of the UN mission there.
SG: On the Timor-Leste issue, I discussed this matter in the morning with President [Anibal] Cavaco Silva and the Defence Minister. I am going to discuss this again over lunch with Foreign Minister Amado. I appreciate and commend the active participation and contribution of the Portuguese Government to Timor-Leste even before the independence of Timor-Leste. We are encouraged by the successful presidential and parliamentary elections in Timor-Leste. I hope that the European Union and also the Portuguese Government will continue to participate in such areas as humanitarian assistance to Timor-Leste. We need to help them to recover socially and economically in their efforts after successful political process.
Q: Which are the main issues in your view to be addressed in the Portuguese Presidency?
SG: I have just to mention that there are many challenges that the Portuguese Presidency should address. I think the Kosovo issue is very important and serious. We need to have early resolution on this issue. I have strongly supported the recommendation submitted by my Special Envoy Mr. [Martti] Ahtisaari. I know that any further delay or prolongation of this issue will very negatively impact the situation in Europe. At the same time, because of this inability to make progress over Russian opposition, we need to address this issue in a more comprehensive and strategic way. This is what I have discussed with Foreign Minister Amado. We will continue to discuss this matter so that we will be able to have an early resolution of this issue.
Q: Other issues on peacekeeping that also have to be handled eventually by the Portuguese Presidency would be UNMIT [the UN Mission in Timor-Leste]; besides UNMIT, the UNIFIL [the UN Interim Force in Lebanon] and the Middle East. Besides this participation, are there any other things that you believe that the EU Portuguese Presidency will be able to address in future?
SG: I hope the European Union under the Presidency of the Portuguese Government will actively support these ongoing hybrid operations and support the AMIS [African Union Mission in Sudan] as well as AMISOM [the African Union Mission in Somalia]. We would like to closely coordinate and consult on addressing global warming and climate change issues. As you know I am going to convene a high-level meeting on September 24 and this is the issue which was discussed during the last Heiligendamm G8 Summer meeting. I would expect that the European Union will take active participation and play a leading role in this matter.
Q: I would like to ask you, what is your opinion on the present crisis in the Palestinian territories? As you know President [Mahmoud] Abbas and the State of Israel have agreed on the possible deployment of a multinational force. Is this issue still on the agenda of the UN?
SG: We discussed this matter again and this is a source of serious concern. In addition to all security concerns in the Palestinian territories, the United Nations has broad humanitarian responsibility assisting the people in Gaza. Among 1.4 million Palestinians in Gaza, the United Nations has been responsible to provide humanitarian assistance to at least two thirds of them. We are still having limitations in fully providing [assistance]. We need to have a fuller opening of crossings so that humanitarian assistance could be smoothly delivered. At the same time we hope that there will be some political solution to this issue. As a participant of the Quartet, the Quartet has strongly supported President Abbas's mandate and authority. We have been trying to strengthen his authority there. President Abbas should also take some political leadership to have a dialogue among themselves, and we are going to discuss [that] in the forthcoming Quartet meeting.
Q: My question to the Secretary-General is about Kosovo. We (inaudible) today that the Assistant Secretary of State of the United States saying that an agreement with Russia (inaudible).
SG: First of all, as this process is going on, I would strongly urge Kosovo not to take any premature unilateral action. This will be seriously damaging and negatively affect ongoing negotiations on this issue. There is no such time limit which I may say to you, what I am trying as the United Nations Secretary-General, in close coordination with the international community, particularly the European Union, is that we need to have a resolution, action on this matter as soon as possible. There are concerns on the part of some Member States, but this is a sui generis issue, it would not create any precedent to any future potential issue. And this is something which has been discussed during the past many, many years with the direct involvement of the United Nations. Therefore as I said we need to have a comprehensive look at this with a strategic mind. I think the European Union's unity is most important at this time. The European Union should provide leadership with strategic ideas of providing necessary incentives and visions to Serbians so that their concerns will also be addressed at the same time. Again, there [should] be no such unilateral action on the part of Kosovo.
Q: The first question is on climate change. There are some complaints by UN bodies on bio-fuel use. What's your position on that? The second question will be on UN reform and how that is going.
SG: First of all, in addressing this global warming issue, there is no such “one-fits-all” answer. Bio-fuel is one of the ways which we can use such technology in addressing this mitigation and adaptation. We need to use all national resources and also technologies. I think the international community at this time, if we address this issue now -- we have resources available; we have many innovative technologies. Therefore, it needs some comprehensive ideas in addressing this issue with the collective participation and support from all international community. This is absolutely necessary at this time.
On UN reform, as you are very well aware, on 29 June, the General Assembly of the United Nations has taken a very important decision by adopting in consensus a resolution approving my reform proposals, mainly restructuring the peacekeeping operations department, creating a new department of field support. This, as well as creating an office of a high-level representative, who will be in charge of disarmament and non-proliferation issues. These are two areas of very important restructuring and reform. Of course, there is the on-going issue of the system-wide coherence, to make the United Nations work and deliver as one. I'm very much committed to further reforming this organization so that we will be able to see a more effective, efficient and more relevant global organization in addressing all the challenges which we face in this era.
Thank you.