UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met Burkina Faso’s Foreign Minister Karamoko Jean Marie Traoré in New York on 28 September for talks focused on security, climate change and the partnership between the United Nations and Burkina Faso.
According to an account of the meeting issued by Burkina Faso’s Foreign Ministry, Guterres stressed that the United Nations’ programme of action in Burkina Faso was based on priorities set by the national authorities.
The talks also covered Africa’s role in the UN’s future work.
Guterres highlighted the need to address what he described as Africa’s under-representation on the UN Security Council and in the governing bodies of the Bretton Woods institutions.
He also cited unsustainable debt and insufficient funding for climate-change adaptation among the challenges still facing Africa.
The Burkinabè minister, for his part, praised the UN’s work on the ground in Burkina Faso. He offered his “warmest and most sincere congratulations” to Antonio Guterres on the legacy he is preparing to leave after 10 years at the helm of the organisation.
Karamoko Jean Marie Traoré also criticised what he described as “distorted” narratives about the situation in the Sahel.
According to the minister, the countries of the Confederation of Sahel States (AES), comprising Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, have succeeded in better identifying the causes of their security challenges, which, he said, had become “an instrument of foreign policy for certain states”.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, attended by a Burkinabè delegation.
HO/ac/Sf/lb/as/APA