MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ban Ki-moon in Argentina; Falklands/Malvinas question on the table

The UN Secretary General is campaigning for a second term

UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon is in Buenos Aires for a two-day official visit and will be meeting President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Monday morning. Foreign Affairs minister Hector Timerman is expected to bring up the “question of Falklands/Malvinas”.

He will also visit the former ESMA Argentine Navy School of Mechanics clandestine detention centre and will take part in an assembly with Human Rights Secretary Eduardo Luis Duhalde. Later he will give a speech at the Foreign Ministry.

On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman will host a gala lunch in honour of Ban Ki-Moon, and will then fly to Montevideo.

Timerman and the UN General Secretary, who is seeking re-election, are expected to talk about Argentina’s claim of sovereignty over the Falkland/Malvinas islands.

In Uruguay Ban Ki-moon will meet with President Jose Mujica, Vice-president Danilo Astori and will be addressing Parliament.

The UN Secretary General will visit the UN Peace Keeping Missions National School in Uruguay and will be meeting Uruguayan officers and soldiers veterans of UN missions.

Uruguay is the country with the largest per capita contribution to UN peace keeping missions.

From Uruguay, Ban Ki-moon flies to Brazil where he has a full agenda of political meetings beginning with President Dilma Rousseff. He is expected back in New York on June 18.

Ban Ki-moon is the eighth UN Secretary General. He took the post January first 2007, following 37 years in the Korean diplomatic service. At the moment of his election in 2006 he was Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade minister.