UN chief to visit China and attend ASEAN [and Cambodia]

October 20, 2010
The Sydney Morning Herald
AFP

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (pictured) will visit China and attend an ASEAN summit on a four-nation Asian tour starting next week in which the Burma election and human rights could be key topics.

Ban will go to Thailand and Cambodia, before the key summit in Vietnam and talks with China's President Hu Jintao in Beijing, UN spokesman Farhan Haq told a press briefing.

The UN leader will hold talks with Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and other Thai government representatives during a brief stay in Bangkok on October 26 before moving on the same day to Cambodia.
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In Phnom Penh, he will meet with King Norodom Sihamoni and Prime Minister Hun Sen. Ban will also visit the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), the UN-backed tribunal dealing with mass killings and other crimes committed under the Khmer Rouge three decades ago.

Ban moves on to Vietnam on October 28 to attend a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the UN, and meet with President Nguyen Minh Triet and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, officials said.

The UN leader has urged ASEAN to put more pressure on Myanmar to free Aung San Suu Kyi and other opposition figures ahead of the country's much criticised election on November 7.

Ban will start the key China leg of his tour on October 30 in Shanghai.

He will attend the closing of the World Expo in Shanghai before a brief visit to Nanjing and then head for Beijing for the talks with China's president and other leaders.

The visit will come as China maintains its angry campaign against the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo.

Ban has not criticised China but said the Nobel award recognised a "growing international consensus for improving human rights practices and culture around the world."

It will be Ban's fourth visit to China since taking over as UN secretary general in 2007. He was previously there in July 2009 and twice in 2008.