Papandreou, Moon, discuss migration, climate change

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and visiting United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, during the latter’s visit to Greece, discussed on 4 November the repercussions of climate change on modern migration movements. Greece attaches great importance to the United Nations, of which it is a founding member, while there is a tradition of long-term and multilateral cooperation and dedication to the principles of international law, Papandreou said, stressing the UN’s decisive mission for global peace and cooperation. Their meeting also covered issues of Greek interest, such as the Cyprus problem and the name dispute with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). Papandreou said that climate change would probably emerge as the foremost problem of the planet and that dialogue on this issue would reach a peak in Copenhagen in December. The Greek premier announced that he would be attending the climate change summit himself and expressed hope that we can reach a binding agreement. Concerning modern migration movements and Greece’s chairmanship of the 3rd Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), Papandreou said that he had emphasized in talks with Moon the need for development in both the countries of origin and the countries that received immigrants so that, when migrants returned to their countries they would transfer know-how, experience and capital to these.