Annan meets with blue-ribbon panel on new global security threats

Wrapping up his three-week-long trip to the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan met today in Baden, Austria, with his blue-ribbon panel on new global security threats and reform of the international system.

Mr. Annan appointed the 16-person High-Level Panel on Threats Challenges and Change last November to analyze future threats and recommend ways to respond collectively to them. It is to present its findings later this year.

Former Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun of Thailand chairs the High-Level Panel. Its other members include Robert Badinter of France, Member of the French Senate and former Minister of Justice; João Clemente Baena Soares of Brazil, former Secretary-General of the Organization of American States (OAS); former Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway and former Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO); and Mary Chinery-Hesse of Ghana, Vice-Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission and former Deputy Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Also on the panel are Gareth Evans of Australia, President of the International Crisis Group and former Minister of Foreign Affairs; David Hannay of the United Kingdom, former UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and UK Special Envoy to Cyprus; Enrique Iglesias of Uruguay, President of the Inter-American Development Bank; Amre Moussa of Egypt, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States; and Satish Nambiar of India, former Lieutenant General in the Indian Army and Force Commander of the UN Protection Force in the former Yugoslavia (UNPROFOR).

The remaining members are Sadako Ogata of Japan, former UN High Commissioner for Refugees; former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov of the Russian Federation; former Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Qian Qichen of China; Nafis Sadik of Pakistan, former Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA); Salim Ahmed Salim of Tanzania, former Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity (OAU); and Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft (ret.) of the United States, former US National Security Adviser.

The Secretary-General will return next week to New York.