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Federal Councillor Didier Burkhalter meets Serbia's Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, future president of the UN General Assembly
03.07.2012Federal Councillor Didier Burkhalter, head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, today held talks with the Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic. Their discussions focused on issues in the UN General Assembly (UN GA), where Vuk Jeremic will be president in the autumn. Mr Jeremic also met former Federal Councillor Joseph Deiss, president of the 65th UN General Assembly.
As president of the 67th session of the UN General Assembly, Serbia's Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic will succeed Qatari Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser in September. The talks in Bern on 2 July gave Federal Councillor Burkhalter the opportunity to assure Foreign Minister Jeremic of Switzerland's support during his coming period of office and to explain Switzerland's priorities within the UN and in the 67th session of the General Assembly.
These priorities include the UN reform agenda, in particular reform of the working methods of the UN Security Council and the expansion of the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP). The priorities also include security aspects such as the strengthening of mediation in order to prevent conflicts. In connection with international security Federal Councillor Burkhalter and Foreign Minister Jeremic also discussed the situation in Syria. On 30 June the Syria Contact Group held a conference in Geneva to discuss possible solutions to this problem.
The two ministers also discussed the establishment of a high-ranking forum for sustainable development as a follow-up to the Rio Sustainability Conference in June as well as the importance of international Geneva and its role as European UN headquarter.
An other topic of conversation was the co-operation between the UN and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Switzerland and Serbia submitted a joint candidature for the chairmanship in office of the OSCE and they hold these positions in 2014 and 2015 respectively in close consultation with one another.
Before the discussions with Federal Councillor Burkhalter, Mr Jeremic met former Federal Councillor Joseph Deiss, who was president of the 65th UN General Assembly (2010 to 2011), for talks about the UN GA and for a working dinner.
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs
Internet: http://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home/recent/media.html
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Last modification: 20.09.2011