THE COMING week will see a flurry of Irish Government activity in the US on a scale that is usually reserved for St Patrick’s Day, with four Ministers and a TD on official business in North America.
Most notably, Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore will attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York, while Minister for Finance Michael Noonan will represent Ireland at the International Monetary Fund-World Bank meetings in Washington.
Mr Gilmore’s first trip to the UN will be a veritable baptism of fire. He is scheduled to deliver six speeches there, including the Irish Government annual statement to the assembly on September 26th. He will also attend bilateral meetings with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, the head of the Arab League and about a dozen foreign ministers, including those of Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority.
The authority’s application for a UN Security Council resolution that would recognise Palestine as a member state will dominate the week. US president Barack Obama’s address to the General Assembly on Wednesday morning will be listened to intently as the world waits to see how he will explain the US position.
President of the authority Mahmoud Abbas, will address the General Assembly on Friday, about the time the Palestinians file their resolution.
The US has said it will veto the Palestinian resolution, but would prefer to avoid doing so by finding a formula to restart negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. If the US vetoes the resolution and the Palestinians then take it to the General Assembly, the Republic will have to decide whether to vote to recognise a Palestinian state.
The task is complicated by the fact that the EU – which traditionally has not voted as a bloc on Middle East issues – is attempting to reach a unified position.
Every vote counts and the Republic’s support is sought by all. Mr Gilmore spoke on the telephone with his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman recently, and will meet him, as well as the American Jewish Congress and Palestinian foreign minister Riad Malki, later this week.
Mr Ban has described this as “an age of anxiety”, and the UN, whose relevance was routinely questioned only a short time ago, is being asked to lead the follow-up to the “Arab Spring”, especially the transition in Libya.
Mr Gilmore will speak at the high-level meeting on Libya tomorrow. Both he and the Minister of State for Trade and Development Jan O’Sullivan will also attend the ministerial level meeting on nutrition, where Mr Gilmore will speak.
This is the follow-up to an initiative last year by US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and then minister for foreign affairs Micheál Martin.
Mr Gilmore will also address meetings concerning the Horn of Africa, where Ireland has sent famine relief and an expert mission to Somalia, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the follow-up to the Durban conference on racism.
In addition to bilateral meetings focused on the Middle East, Mr Gilmore will talk to the foreign ministers of Russia, Georgia, Serbia and Bosnia, in the context of Ireland’s presidency of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe starting next January.
He also has a full schedule of engagements with the Irish community. Tomorrow afternoon, the IDA has organised meetings with several potential US investors in the Republic.
At the same time, Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation Richard Bruton is leading a four-day trade mission to the US southeast. On Thursday evening Mr Gilmore will deliver the keynote address at Irish Americamagazine's reception honouring leading Irish Americans on Wall Street. On Friday evening he will meet groups from the Irish community before a reception at the Consulate General.
Over the weekend he will visit senior citizens at the Emerald Isle Immigrant Center in Woodlawn, meet the chairman of the New York GAA Larry McCarthy, attend a literary event with Seamus Heaney at Glucksman Ireland House and attend one of 15 Irish plays staged in New York by the First Irish Theatre Festival.
Meanwhile, Mr Noonan will arrive in Washington on Thursday night to attend the plenary session of the IMF meeting on Friday morning. When the late Brian Lenihan attended the meeting last year, in the run-up to the EU-IMF bailout, the Republic was the centre of attention.
Now, with the Republic receiving high marks from the IMF for adhering to the terms of the bailout, and with yields on Irish bonds considerably lower than those on Greek and Portuguese bonds, the spotlight has shifted to Greece and the European debt crisis in general. Mr Noonan is nonetheless expected to meet IMF officials overseeing the Irish programme.
The IMF-World Bank meeting is the equivalent of the UN General Assembly for the financial world. Patrick Honohan, the governor of the Central Bank, and top officials from the National Treasury Management Agency will also be in Washington for the meetings.
The Irish Ambassador will hold a reception for Mr Noonan on Saturday night.
The Minister will then attend the Institute of International Finance (IIF) dinner, where the outgoing head of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, will be the guest of honour. Mr Noonan will deliver a keynote address to the IIF on Sunday the 25th.
Pat Breen, the Fine Gael TD from Clare and chairman of the Oireachtas committee on foreign affairs and trade, will also make an official visit to Washington this week. Mr Breen will meet his United States counterparts on Capitol Hill and will also have meetings with the Irish community.