Secretary-General's press encounter following a meeting with Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi of Japan

I am very pleased to be visiting Japan at this crucial moment in world affairs.

As you know, and you have heard from the Foreign Minister say, we had a very constructive exchange of views on a wide range of urgent issues, including Iraq, Afghanistan and she has given you the whole list of issues we discussed and I would not want to repeat them.

I was pleased to be able to brief the Foreign Minister on the fact-finding mission to Iraq led by my adviser Mr. Lakhdar Brahimi. I have studied the team's report and recommendations. And I think the team has laid the groundwork for further progress. But there are a number of important issues and questions to be addressed.

I will release my report of the team's work in Iraq tomorrow in New York and I am sure copies will be available to all of you very quickly thereafter.

Let me stress that the international cooperation would be essential as we move ahead and help the Iraqi people regain their sovereignty and build a peaceful, democratic and stable Iraq. In that regard, we also discussed the important work that can be done by the “friends of Iraq” group, which has been established in New York and met just before we came here and the Japanese Ambassador was also there.

The Foreign Minister and I also talked about a number of issues that may not be on the front page of our newspapers or on our television but they also deserve urgent attention. We talked about the issues of development, diseases, HIV/AIDS, the African development that Japan has paid so much attention to and conflict prevention. And I am pleased to say that Japan plays a leading role in these areas as well, and the Foreign Minister assured me of the Japanese commitment to development and of course we are all engaged in implementation of the MDGs –Millennium Development Goals.

On the work of the Panel, I was very pleased to see the support for their work and the fact that they are going to be analyzing threats and the challenges we face and try and help us devise collective response to these challenges.

I hope the work of the Panel will allow us to adapt the United Nations and make it the effective organization that it ought to be. And I think after 58 years in existence, we perhaps have picked up some baggage that we need to look at ourselves critically and see the challenges we face and if the problems and the nature of the challenges we face have changed, the responses have to change, too. And I hope that the Panel, which is hard at work, will help give us some answers. And I am also very happy that we have the experience and wisdom of Sadako Ogata as member of the Panel. And I met her earlier today and I was happy to be able to review with her, for her to brief me on the work of the Panel.

My discussions with the minister reaffirmed that strong and valuable partnership between the UN and Japan. At the time when there are so many common concerns, it is encouraging to know that the United Nations and Japan can count on each other.

Domo arigato gozaimashita.