Gilmore to meet Ban Ki-Moon at UN in New York

Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore will meet United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-Moon and other foreign leaders when he attends the UN general assembly this week.

Mr Gilmore, who arrived in New York tonight, will hold talks with US diplomat Richard Haass, the chair of Northern Ireland's all party-talks on flags, parades and contentious issues on tomorrow.

On a five-day trip to the US, Mr Gilmore will discuss the war in Syria, US immigration reform with members of the Irish-American community and investment opportunities in Ireland with US businesses.

The Labour leader will join US secretary of state John Kerry, EU Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and Bill and Melinda Gates of the Gates Foundation tomorrow to address the opening of the UN special event on the Millennium Development Goals, anti-poverty targets set by world leaders to be met by 2015. The meeting will involve discussions around new developments to be met beyond 2015.

“Ending global poverty remains the single greatest challenge we face as an international community, which is why we have placed it at the heart of Ireland’s foreign policy,” said Mr Gilmore, ahead of the development meeting at UN headquarters in New York.

The Tánaiste will also speak with US politicians on immigration reform during his visit to New York. He will also host trade and investment events with Enterprise Ireland, the IDA and Tourism Ireland.

Announcing that the Government would provide €200,000 towards the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons under an agreement brokered by the United States and Russia, Mr Gilmore said that the process implementing the Assad regime's chemical stockpile must be "quick, credible and comprehensive."

The Government, which has already donated almost €11 million in humanitarian aid in response to the Syrian crisis, will provide the €200,000 to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the international body which is expected to approve the plan to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons later this week. Ireland is a member of the organisation’s executive council.