Daily Press Briefing
Statements made by
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson
(excerpts)
(Paris, December 20, 2006)
[Please note that only the original French text issued by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs may be considered official.]
FRANCE/PORTUGAL/SPAIN
European Affairs Minister Delegate Catherine Colonna will go to Lisbon and Barcelona on Thursday, December 21.
In Lisbon the minister will have a working meeting with Manuel Lobo Antunes, Secretary of State for European Affairs. The ministers will discuss preparations for the Portuguese presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2007 and French–Portuguese relations.
A press briefing will be held after the meeting;
In Barcelona, Ms Colonna will have talks with José Montilla, president of the Generality of Catalonia.
The minister will then take part in the award of the Pyrenees Prize, organized by the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Barcelona, which will be held at the Princess Sofia hotel. The prize is awarded annually to a business, entity or individual that makes a special contribution through their activity and dynamism to the development of trade between France and Spain.
Gilles de Robien, Minister for National Education, Higher Education and Research, will visit Namibia on December 20 and 21.
The visit will strengthen our dialogue with Namibia and give fresh impetus to bilateral scientific and education cooperation.
The minister will confirm France is willing to be closely involved in the implementation of Namibia’s educational program, ETSIP (Education and Training Sector Improvement Program), and to take joint decisions on areas for French intervention in general and technical education, and occupational training.
In the scientific domain the minister’s visit to the observatory at Gamsberg will also give new impetus to our cooperation. The upcoming conclusion of a quadripartite convention (France, Namibia, Germany, South Africa) is to be announced at this time.
Lastly the minister’s visit will enable him to show the French authorities’ support for the proposed establishment, in January 2007, of a French-German bilingual pre-school section at the German school in Windhoek.
Q - The six countries handling the Iranian nuclear issue have failed to iron out their differences over the draft resolution. Do you think the resolution will be adopted before Christmas?
The talks are continuing. We are still within the timetable we’ve set.
Q - On Wednesday Sergei Lavrov rejected the inclusion of individual sanctions on Iranian officials. Is France, like the United States, determined to get a vote in the Security Council this week? Will the Europeans give up unanimity to maintain the individual sanctions or give up individual sanctions to preserve unanimity?
As we’ve just said, we’re within our timeframe. We think it is important to preserve the Security Council’s unity on this question, without in any way altering the scope of the resolution. That is why the discussions are continuing, particularly on the form that restrictive measures would take on entities and individuals responsible for the targeted sensitive activities.
Embassy of France, December 20, 2006