Minister Ahern Visits Five Capitals as Special Envoy of UN Secretary General

Dermot Ahern TD, Minister for Foreign Affairs, is to visit five capital cities in the next 48 hours as he continues his mission as Special Envoy of United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan.

Minister Ahern today meets with his counterpart in Copenhagen, Denmark before travelling on to The Hague, in the Netherlands. Tomorrow, the Minister visits the Serbian capital, Belgrade, before concluding that day's journey in Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia. The Minister concludes his UN tour with a visit to Vienna on Friday.

Minister Ahern said: “As one of five Special Envoys, we have a relatively short period of time to take soundings on the views and concerns of UN States in relation to the Secretary General's reform programme. The far reaching reforms package will be debated at the UN September Summit in New York.”

“My task is to brief Foreign Ministers and leaders throughout Europe and beyond on the agenda for action to move the world decidedly towards important goals:
• Promoting UN reform
• Halving poverty in next ten years
• Reducing the threat of war, terrorism and deadly weapons
• Advancing human dignity

I will be in New York next week to report back to the UN Secretary General on my consultations to date.”

Minister Ahern has already visited Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy, San Marino and held consultations with Ministers from other EU member states.

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