UN General Secretary Praises, Encourages Germany

United Nations General Secretary Kofi Annan applauded Germany’s role in Afghanistan and said the country would be called upon to contribute more to the world in the future during a speech before the country’s parliament on Thursday.

Annan was in Berlin as part of a week-long trip through England and Germany. The UN General Secretary will meet with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, Foreign minister Joschka Fischer and a host of other cabinet politicians during his stay in Berlin.

He was one of the few non-Germans to give a speech before the German Parliament, joining Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Jacques Chirac.

The general secretary, who last year won re-appointment to the post he has held since 1997, recognized the more prominent role Germany has begun taking in the world.

As evidence he gave the recent appointment of German foreign policy expert Michael Steiner to the top job in the United Nations' Kosovo operation and the interest the country showed in Afghanistan even before Sept. 11.

"Let me also salute you for your contributing generously to faraway war-torn countries with no direct link to your own, as you are doing now in Afghanistan and you have already done in Sierra Leone for example - ensuring, in the eloquent words of your Federal President, that there are no zones of indifference," he said.

Germany in aid leadership role

Annan said Germany "will be called on to do more for both sustainable peace and sustainable development," in the months and years to come.

The UN hopes the country will join Europe in increasing aid to Africa, an issue Annan raised earlier in the week during his visit to London. In 2000, Germany contributed more than 920 million euro in development aid to the continent, a number that has increased in the past year, according to the country’s Office for Economic Cooperation and Development.

"You Germans, who rebuilt your own country so magnificently after the second world war, with the help of your friends and allies in the international community, are perhaps better placed than any other people to understand what I mean," he said.

The General Secretary also praised the country’s gains on the diplomatic front – successfully transforming ist "unlimited solidarity" with the United States into a critical solidarity. Both Annan and German President Johannes Rau, whom he spoke with Wednesday night, emphasized the importance of doing everything possible to stop a United States attack on Iraq.

The two also discussed expanding the UN building in Bonn to create an international conference center that would host future talks, like the Afghanistan conference last year. Annan signed a contract together with Rau, a representative of Bonn and the premier of Bonn's state, North Rhine Westphalia, pledging to build a "UN Campus" in the city's old government quarter.

Extending peacekeeping in Afghanistan

Annan also said he hoped the mandate of the United Nations Peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan beyond its June deadline.

"Peacekeepers should leave as soon as they can ... but they should never be withdrawn abruptly or prematurely – which is why I very much hope the present International Security Force in Afghanistan can be extended beyond ist present mandate."

Germany has several hundred soldiers involved in the 4,000 strong peacekeeping force. Great Britain currently heads the force, but there is renewed talk of Germany taking on the leadership role after April.