ICRC president visits Portugal
23-05-2007 News Release 07/65
Geneva (ICRC) – Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), has arrived in Lisbon for a one-day visit during which he will hold talks with the president of the Portuguese Republic, Professor Aníbal Cavaco Silva, the Minister of State and Foreign Affairs, Mr Luis Filipe Marques Amado, and the Secretary of State for National Defense, Dr João Mira Gomes.
The talks are expected to focus on the situation from a humanitarian perspective in some of the ICRC’s main areas of operations, notably in the Middle East, Sudan's Darfur region and Afghanistan, on the relevance of international humanitarian law in today's conflicts and on issues related to cooperation between the European Union and the ICRC. Portugal will hold the European Union presidency for six months from July 2007.
The ICRC president is also to meet with the president and senior officials of the Portuguese Red Cross.
For further information, please contact:
Vincent Lusser, ICRC Geneva, tel +41 22 730 24 26 or +41 79 217 32 64