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Daily Press Briefing Statements made by [Please note that only the original French text issued by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs may be considered official.]
FRANCE/PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY Foreign Minister Hubert Védrine met this morning with Palestinian Minister for Planning and International Cooperation Nabil Shaath. The minister asked Mr. Shaath about his analysis of the situation and how the current conflict might be stopped. He then recalled the French positions, which are unchanged, and expressed support for the Jordanian-Egyptian initiative. This initiative has to be given every chance to succeed.
FRANCE/MOROCCO Prime Minister Abd ar-Rahman Youssoufi of the Kingdom of Morocco will make an official visit to France on May 2 and 3, 2001. He is coming for the fourth annual French-Moroccan meeting of heads of government. He will be accompanied by a delegation comprising six members of his government (foreign affairs, economy, justice, social affairs, education, small business development). The meeting affords an opportunity to continue the current renewal of bilateral cooperation and deepen the political dialogue between our two countries. With regard to cooperation, the agenda will include education, the institutional environment for economic activity, social development, support for small business development, the mobilization of non-state actors, especially the Moroccan community in France, taking into account the recommendations of the interim report prepared by the high-level committee, composed of Mr. Paye and Mr. Benhima, established at the meeting in Fez. The political consultations will focus on European issues, multilateral negotiations (WTO, global warming, cultural diversity, three-way cooperation in Africa (training for African students in Morocco, projects for local cooperation). The situation in the Near and Middle East, the Balkans (France and Morocco have sent contingents to Bosnia and Kosovo) and Africa (Morocco is taking part in MONUC in the DRC with French logistic support) are also part of our two countries' joint field of action and discussion. The two prime ministers will have several meetings, privately and at a plenary session for the two delegations. The members of the government in the Moroccan delegation will also have separate working sessions with their French counterparts. Mr. Youssoufi will be received by the president on May 2. The last French-Moroccan meeting at this level took place in Fez and Marrakech on November 4 and 5, 1999. There was no meeting at head-of-government level in 2000 because of the state visit by His Majesty Mohammed VI from March 19-22, 2000 then the French presidency of the European Union. The annual meetings between heads of government of the Kingdom of Morocco and France were agreed in 1996 during the state visit to France by His Late Majesty King Hassan II.
FRANCE/LEBANON Prime Minister Rafic Hariri of the Lebanese Republic will stop in France after his visit to the United States for a series of meetings. He will have a working breakfast with the foreign minister on May 2, 2001 before meeting with the president (for that meeting I refer you to the Elysée spokesperson). The meeting will be an opportunity for Mr. Védrine, who wasn't able to see Mr. Hariri in Beirut, to discuss his trip to Lebanon and Syria, certain bilateral issues and the regional situation.
ICTY Carla del Ponte, Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, will visit France on May 2. She will have a joint meeting with the foreign minister, Defense Minister Alain Richard and then with the Justice Minister, Ms Lebranchu. Ms del Ponte's visit is part of a European tour which began in Brussels and Stockholm at the end of February. This is her second visit to Paris--the first was in January 2000 --since being appointed to the post of chief prosecutor in September 1999. The meeting will be an opportunity to review the very close cooperation that France has established with these two courts. - There is cooperation in quite diverse areas: the search for witnesses, arresting and handing over accused persons, freezing assets, communication of documents and expert testimony. - France also provides substantial material support to the two international criminal tribunals through its financial contribution (with $6.16 million for the ICTY and $5.5 million for the ICTR in 2000 in assessed contributions, France is one of the leading contributors--plus it has also made voluntary contributions) and the imprisonment on French territory of persons convicted by the ICTY (agreement signed in February 2000, the bill approving it will probably be submitted to Parliament this year).
HCCI Charles Josselin will participate in a plenary session of the high council for international cooperation (HCCI) on May 2 as he has done several times since the establishment of the High Council. The meeting will be devoted primarily to the preparation of the third United Nations conference on the least developed countries which will be held in Brussels from May 14-20. I'd like to remind you that the HCCI was set up as part of the reforms to France's cooperation mechanisms which were implemented by the government. Presided by Jean-Louis Bianco and consisting of representatives from civil society, the HCCI has been asked to make recommendations to the prime minister concerning France's policy on development. The minister will give a speech at the plenary meeting on May 2 on government policy to assist the LDCs. The address will be followed by an in-depth debate with the members of the HCCI. After the meeting (at about 5:00 p.m.) the minister delegate will answer questions from the press.
FRANCE/GERMANY Bruno Delaye, director general for international cooperation and development at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will meet the newly appointed French members of the Franco-German High Council for Cultural Affairs on May 2. Formed in January 1988 after the Franco-German summit in Frankfurt, the Franco-German High Council for Cultural Affairs emerged from the shared wish to give new impetus to bilateral cultural cooperation and help it cross a qualitative threshold. The High Council is an agency, independent of the government authorities, whose purpose is to develop model actions for cooperation in the arts and the cultural field, and to present to the governments proposals to sustain such cooperation. In the wake of this initiative, institutions have been set up in the same spirit, for instance the Collège Franco-Allemand for higher education--which in January 1, 2000 gave rise to the Université Franco-Allemand--the Centre Marc Bloch for research in social sciences in Berlin, the Franco-German ARTE channel, the Forum Franco-Allemand for employment and just recently, in 2000, the Franco-German academy for the cinema. After being in existence for 12 years, the High Council has been radically revamped and its missions redefined. It is to: - contribute to the deepening of artistic and intellectual dialogue between the two countries; - enhance mutual understanding in professional circles and more generally encourage a rapprochement in the civil societies, and their greater involvement in Franco-German cultural relations. To this end, the High Council is organizing meetings and colloquia for professionals of both countries in the cultural domain, for specialized agencies such as the Action française d'Action Artistique, with the help of interested regions. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture and Communications have appointed the following persons members of the High Council for 2001-2004: - Jean-Marc Ayrault, deputy mayor of Nantes, - Daniel Benoin, director of the Comédie de Saint-Etienne, - Dominique Ferriot, professor, Conservatoire national des Arts et Métiers, - Etienne François, professor, historian, - Alain Grund, president of the International Union of Editors, - Jean-Hubert Martin, artistic director, Fondation, - Margaret Menegoz, movie producer and distributor, - Jean-François Michel, director, Export Office for Music, - Jean-Marie Valenin, professor, German scholar, - Daniel Vernet, journalist (Le Monde). Chantal Colleu-Dumond, director, Abbaye royale de Fontevraud, was appointed secretary general of the HCCFA.
OFPRA The Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA) a public establishment under the authority of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has published the report of its activity for the year 2000. The report is available on the Internet at www.France.diplomatie.gouv.fr With a total of 38,747 first applications for the year 2000, OFPRA was faced last year, for the fourth year in a row, with an increase in the number of applications, up 25.4% over 1999, when 30,907 applications were received. There has been a strong influx of asylum-seekers in particular from Turkey, Algeria, the CIS countries, Haiti, and West Africa. The number of requests for re-examination, also up significantly, was 1,028, bringing the number of applications to be processed to 39,775. The number of decisions taken by OFPRA ( 30,278) also increased by 25.4% over 1999.
WESTERN SAHARA. On April 27, the Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 1349 extending the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) until June 30, 2001. The extension, advocated by the secretary-general in his last report, will allow James Baker, the secretary-general's personal envoy to continue his contacts with the parties. We hope that they will lead to progress in the search for a lasting solution acceptable to all the parties, in agreement with the United Nations principles.
FYRM (What is France's reaction to the deadly attack in Tetovo on April 28?) We strongly condemn the terrorist act perpetrated on April 28 by Albanian extremists against Macedonian forces, in which eight Macedonian soldiers were killed and several others seriously wounded near Tetovo. There is no future for those, wherever they are, who resort to violence and wish to oppose the process of democratization and reconciliation in the region. We again call on all citizens and political leaders in the FRYM to promote and intensify dialogue. The first measures agreed on April 24 by the representatives of the main parties go in the right direction. Dialogue must be continued, there is no other path for the FRYM.
FRANCE/GERMANY (Do you have any comment on Mr. Schroeder's remarks on the future of Europe?) Mr. Schroeder has made a new contribution to the debate on Europe's future. This is in line with the German positions that are well-known to us. It incorporates the themes cited by President Rau a short time ago. The future of the European Union and preparations for the expansion in 2004 are among the issues discussed regularly in the context of the meetings à cinq, from Blaeshseim to Herxheim. Mr. Fischer and Mr. Védrine are pursuing a detailed and constructive dialogue./. Embassy of France, April 30, 2001
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