 | On the second day of his visit to New York, the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Danilo Türk, held a meeting yesterday evening local time with Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, President of the 63rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly. It was a brief courtesy visit, during which both leaders focused on the linking and uniting role of the United Nations in the world and on its plans for the future. They also touched on progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, the fight against climate change and human rights issues.
Dr Türk then attended the opening of the high-level meeting “Africa’s development needs: state of implementation of various commitments, challenges and the way forward” and a roundtable discussion where he spoke on two key issues important for Africa’s comprehensive development. Firstly, he highlighted economic growth in Africa, currently running at around 6% and stable, but not yet reflected in Africa’s social development. In President Türk’s view, economic growth is still too low given Africa’s poverty level and needs; it should indeed be strengthened. New and innovative approaches to financing Africa's development should therefore be adopted in order to achieve this objective. The second area highlighted by Dr Türk was education. The President pointed out that debate on this issue has primarily been focused on basic education, with higher education and research not being sufficiently emphasised. The President pointed out that long-term development can only be achieved provided that Africa’s education systems become fully developed, and advocated the creation of African higher education and research centres.
President Türk held two bilateral meetings yesterday afternoon local time, the first with Dr Heinz Fischer, the Federal President of the Republic of Austria. Dr Türk and Dr Fischer discussed the recent parliamentary elections in Slovenia and the forthcoming ones in Austria. They briefly exchanged views on the situation in Georgia and Kosovo and touched on the current crisis in the world’s financial markets. The Slovenian President extended an invitation to Dr Fischer to pay an official visit to Slovenia, which the Austrian President accepted with pleasure.
Dr Türk then held a meeting with the Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Haris Silajdžić; both leaders discussed relations between the two countries in great detail, the fundamental framework for the development of political cooperation being the endeavours on the part of Bosnia and Herzegovina to forge closer ties with the European Union. Since Bosnia and Herzegovina concluded a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the European Union during the Slovenian EU Council Presidency, both Presidents also discussed further steps to be taken to move Bosnia and Herzegovina closer to EU candidate status. Dr Türk highlighted the importance of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a symbol of co-existence between various nations, which plays an important role for Europe as a whole. Both leaders also discussed economic cooperation between the two countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s economic vision, and the upcoming official visit to the country by the Slovenian President. |