Obama, Ban ki-Moon Discuss Key Global issues
Wednesday, March 11, 2009 at 11:06 am
UNITED NATIONS: United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and United States President Barack Obama discussed a host of issues, including facilitating cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan, when the two leaders met in Washington, according to
a U.N. announcement.
Both leaders agreed on stepping up US-UN cooperation in dealing with global problems, the announcement said.
“The United Nations and the United States share common visions and objectives for peace, stability, development and human rights,” Ban told reporters after the meeting at the White House.
Calling 2009 a “make-or-break” year, he said that collaboration is essential to address the crises on many fronts to turn this year into a “make-it-work” one, “full of optimism and resolution.”
The talks at the White House in Washington covered numerous issues confronting the international community, including the global economic crisis and the need to assist the world’s poorest and most vulnerable.
Ban and Obama jointly called for strengthening efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight ambitious anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline, noting that strides can be made even in a difficult economic climate.
With the next meeting of the so-called Group of 20 (G20) nations scheduled to be held this weekend in London, the Secretary-General said that “the leaders of industrialized countries should keep their commitments on the Millennium Development Goals and official
development assistance [ODA], and help developing countries overcome food security and also help them to adapt and mitigate climate change.”
During their talks, the leaders underscored the importance of reaching an international agreement on climate change, with nations expected to agree on an ambitious successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases at a UN conference in Copenhagen in December, to both save the earth and promote sustainable economic recovery.
Ban, who arrived in Washington from a visit to Haiti with former US President Bill Clinton, told journalists that “the whole world is looking, to the US President for leadership on climate change, which he characterized as, an issue of our era.”
The leaders also discussed at length the situation in the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur at length.
Other issued discussed today included boosting civilian support for Afghanistan, facilitating cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Middle East peace process and assisting Iraq in its transition phase.
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