Kuwait Times

Published Date: September 18, 2009

UNITED NATIONS: His Highness the Prime Minister of Kuwait Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah is due to take part in the deliberations of the UN General Assembly, which opens here next Wednesday and to attend a round table on climate change next Tuesday.

Sheikh Nasser, accompanied by a high-powered delegation which includes Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, will head Kuwait's delegation for the second time this year, Kuwait's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Abdullah Al-Murad told KUNA.

Al-Murad said that Sheikh Nasser addressed last year's session of the General Assembly and also chaired a roundtable on education and health.

Al-Murad added that the prime minister is due to take part next Tuesday in the summit conference on climate change to be hosted by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and attended by some 25 heads of state and government. "His selection by the Secretary General for the second consecutive time to carry out this task is a success to the Kuwaiti diplomacy.

During the meeting, Sheikh Nasser is expected to center on topics related on ways of coping with climate change, mainly from the economic aspect, as well as energy, environment and development. Other matters to be tackled include desertification and those related to island states.

The summit is due to be opened by Ban, followed by a speech by US President Barack Obama. Other chief delegates and world experts are due to take part in the high-level meeting.

Al-Murad said that the secretary general's choice of climate change as theme to this year's summit goes back to the importance and danger of this matter, as well as changes in many fields due to global warming and the framework meeting due in Copenhagen this December to discuss all matters related to this phenomenon such as the environment and desertification.

He noted that Sheikh Nasser agreed to head one of the summit's roundtables "out of his strong keenness to give a clear idea of Kuwait's outlook on these very critical matters, particularly related to transforming our economies to become flexible in light of the effects of climate change and ways of achieving development in the interest of this general and future generations.

Murad said that as an energy-producing and exporting country, Kuwait should be present in such meetings to respond to any claims of contributing to the global warming phenomenon and thus negatively affecting the climate. He said that the Kuwaiti delegates are also invited to another roundtable Tuesday afternoon to tackle the same matter.

During his stay in New York, Sheikh Nasser is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with several heads of state and government, including the permanent members of the Security Council and Arab officials to discuss regional and international issues, Murad said.

Kuwait's prime minister is due to deliver a speech on September 25 in which he will present his country's views on many political and other matters.
A day earlier, he will attend a rare Security Council summit to be presided over by President Obama. Only the 15 council members will attend the meeting which will discuss nuclear non-proliferation and later vote on a US draft resolution that calls for stepping up efforts on this issue, in an indirect reference to Iran and North Korea.

Sheikh Nasser is scheduled to meet with the secretary general next Monday and be one of his guests at a lunch banquet. He will also attend a reception to be hosted by Obama.

The Kuwaiti premier will attend a meeting in New York to be hosted by former US President Bill Clinton on his international initiatives.

Sheikh Nasser will also be among Arab and foreign leaders attending a meeting marking the 60th anniversary's celebrations of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to be chaired by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Al-Murad said that Sheikh Mohammad will accompany Sheikh Nasser on most of his functions, as well holding bilateral meetings with his counterparts in Arab and foreign nations.

Sheikh Mohammad is due to attend during the first week the annual ministerial meeting between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on many key issues. The meeting will later be joined by foreign ministers of Egypt, Iraq and Jordan.

He will also attend meetings of regional groups, including the annual meeting of Arab foreign ministers to coordinate views on the General Assembly agenda, and the annual meeting of Islamic foreign ministers with their Latin American counterparts.

Sheikh Mohammad's busy scheduled will also include a foreign ministers' meeting of the GCC Troika (Oman as current chair, Kuwait the next chair and the council's secretary general) with their counterparts in India, China, Japan, Australia, in addition to Latin America.

On the Kuwait-Iraq issue, Al-Murad said, "Nothing has changed until now," adding that Security Council will meet to review the secretary general's report on the matter.

He said the council is not likely to discuss the report this month under the US chairmanship, reminding that the five permanent members tackled the reports but did not reach a tangible result, except the re-endorsement of Resolution 833 on the Kuwait-Iraq borders as a "safety valve" to safeguard international peace and security.

Meanwhile, he expressed satisfaction at the report by head of the Gaza investigative committee, Richard Goldstone, assigned to investigate Israel's mass violations and possible war crimes in the Strip late last year and early this year. - KUNA