OREANDA-NEWS. April 22, 2011. Dmitry Medvedev and Ban Ki-moon discussed the state of affairs at the United Nations and the role of the organisation in ensuring international peace in the context of recent events in the Middle East, North and West Africa, and particularly in Libya and the Ivory Coast.

During the meeting contemporary international issues, such as ensuring nuclear security on the Korean peninsula, among others, were also discussed.

Dmitry Medvedev offered Ban Ki-moon his condolences following the tragic deaths of UN staff in Afghanistan and Congo.

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PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Mr Secretary-General, let me offer you a warm welcome.

I believe that your visit to the Russian Federation will be productive and useful. Naturally, I intend to talk with you about the role, place and current state of affairs at the United Nations as a leading global forum and the basis for global security.

Recently, many turbulent events have taken place in our world, some of which have been addressed by United Nations resolutions.

It makes sense to discuss the current global situation, and the situation at various flash points such as the Middle East and North Africa, as well as resolving the problem of the North Korean nuclear programme, among other issues. These are matters that have traditionally fallen within the remit of the United Nations and that are crucial, both for the world and for Russia.

I would like to take this opportunity to offer you, as Secretary-General of the United Nations, my condolences for the tragic deaths of UN staff in Afghanistan and Congo. These deeply sad events show that our world is not a safe place at all, and that we must truly intensify our efforts to improve the basis of the international rule of law and promote development of democracy and respect for human rights in every corner of our planet.

Once again, you are truly welcome.

UN SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON (in Russian): Dear Mr President, I am very pleased to be here with you today.

DMITRY MEDVEDEV (in English): Excellent.

BAN KI-MOON: Thank you. I’m learning and trying to pick up some words.

DMITRY MEDVEDEV (in English): You speak perfect.

BAN KI-MOON (in Russian): Thank you.

Mr President it’s a great honour for me to pay this visit to you and have meeting on the matters of our common concerns and interests for the international community. As Secretary-General of the United Nations I cannot overemphasise the importance of strong partnership between the Russian Federation and United Nations. In that, your leadership is very much important and highly appreciated. It has been a great pleasure for me to work with you on all matters.

This morning I had a very good meeting with my dear colleague Foreign Minister Lavrov and I’d like to continue this discussions.

I’m coming from Ukraine where I participated in the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl accident and participated in the Summit for Safe and Innovative Use of Nuclear Energy. And I’m also coming from my meeting with world leaders on situation in Libya. I have convened the meeting with heads of international and regional ogranisations in Cairo where African Union, League of Arab States, Organisation of Islamic Conference, and European Union participated. I convened this meeting where we agreed that the international community should work together very closely and in accordance with Security Council Resolution.

I’d like to also discuss in more detail how we can work together on global governance issues. As G8 and G20 and BRICS member Russia has a special role to play in addressing all global and regional conflict issues, global challenges like climate changes, sustainable development, food crisis and also situations, as you said, in the Middle East, Libya, Cote d'Ivoire, again Korean Peninsula, North Korea nuclear issues, humanitarian issues. Those are some areas of my agenda and I would like to really count on your strong support and leadership guidance.