BELGIUM: UN's Ban Ki-Moon visits NATO headquarters and King in Belgium on first trip outside North America

Record ID: 560789

  • Title: BELGIUM: UN's Ban Ki-Moon visits NATO headquarters and King in Belgium on first trip outside North America
  • Date: 25th January 2007
  • Summary: (BN12) BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (JANUARY 24, 2007) (REUTERS) WIDE EXTERIOR OF NATO HEADQUARTERS NATO FLAG EXTERIOR OF NATO HEADQUARTERS
  • Embargoed: 9th February 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Belgium
  • Country: Belgium
  • Reuters ID: LVA517MVIKZI85NEC5C2PXME5QHC
  • Story Text: New UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon held meetings with the Secretary General of NATO and Belgium's King in Brussels on Wednesday (January 24).
    Ban met with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop de Scheffer. The pair later spoke to reporters, highlighting the need for international co-operation in regions including Afghanistan, Kosovo and Darfur.
    "If we look around, we look at Afghanistan - NATO's first priority and most important operation - the United Nations are in the lead, with the Afghan government. And it is crucial that the UN and NATO and the European Union and other international organisations work very closely together," de Hoop de Scheffer said.
    "At the organisational level we have had very good co-operation and assistance. We are working for a common purpose and objectives - that is peace and security and prosperity and protecting human rights around the world," Ban added.
    Scheffer also said he hoped a meeting of NATO foreign ministers on Friday (January 26) would focus on Afghanistan and Kosovo.
    On Tuesday, (January 23) a suicide bomber set off explosives outside a NATO base in Afghanistan, killing 10 people, officials said. A NATO spokeswoman said no NATO troops had been hurt.
    Last year was the bloodiest in Afghanistan since U.S.-led troops drove the Taliban from power in late 2001.
    NATO's commander of forces in Afghanistan, General David Richards, said in a newspaper interview this week more troops were needed and NATO must apply itself more energetically for one more year.
    There are now about 40,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, the most since 2001.
    Ban, a South Korean, later met Belgium's King Albert II at the royal palace in Brussels. He is on his first trip outside North America since becoming the United Nations' eighth secretary-general on January 1.
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