Luxembourg Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Jean Asselborn, yesterday presented a speech on behalf of the Grand Duchy to the UN General Assembly, speaking on the recent agreement adopted by majority consensus to relocate 120,000 refugees across Member States and pledging that "other decisions will follow shortly".
Before an audience composed of a large number of Heads of State and Government and Foreign Ministers in New York, Jean Asselborn lamented the excessive duration of the war in Syria, stating that despite policies to welcome refugees and help them integrate in European life "we will not however be able to merely manage the crisis, by treating its symptoms; we will also have to tackle the root causes of migrations and the refugee flux, of the inequalities of development, particularly in Africa, of conflicts and violence, of a rule of law, of persecutions and of human rights violations, of impunity".
The Minister continued by defining Syria as having become "a synonym for war, violence and exodus", in which 220,000 people have lost their lives with no retribution. The Minister then called for a "global" and "integrated" approach to solving the crisis.
The speech followed a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in which Minister Asselborn also participated on 29 September 2015, which was followed by the traditional 'Transatlantic Dinner' where discussions focused on the latest developments related to the Syrian conflict.
The Minister had also previously engaged in a public debate of the UN Security Council (UNSC) concerning settling the conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa, a meeting of the expanded Quartet on the Middle East, a meeting on the regulation of the veto in the UNSC in the event of mass atrocities; a meeting of OSCE peacekeeping operations; and the informal ministerial meeting of the network for the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The Foreign Minister also used the opportunity of his final two days in New York to engage in bilateral talks with several Heads of State and government and Foreign Ministers in order to take stock of current issues in international politics.
He met with the Secretary General of the Arab League, Nabil Elaraby, to outline a broad overview of political developments in the Arab world, particularly with regard to the latest developments in Syria and Iraq. He also met with President of Austria, Heinz Fischer, and the Swiss Minister of Foreign Affairs, Didier Burkhalter, to take stock of the bilateral relations between the two countries.
Photo by MAEE (Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Luxembourg, Jean Asselborn)
