Gul heads to UN for key meetings

With Turkey chairing the United Nations Security Council this month, President Abdullah Gul will travel to New York on Friday to participate in a number of key meetings. Gul's delegation includes Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, Environment Minister Dervis Eroglu, and senior Foreign Ministry officials. Next Thursday the president will chair a summit on peace-building and peacekeeping efforts during a summit that is expected to produce a presidential statement on how the UN could take a more active role. Gul will also address the summit of Least-Developed Countries on Tuesday, which will convene a meeting in Istanbul next year. The president is expected to deliver nine speeches and attend some 20 bilateral meetings. He will also meet with the international press and speak at Columbia University and the Council on Foreign Relations. Davutoglu's New York itinerary includes a meeting on the Middle East and Pakistan, which is struggling to recover from August's devastating floods. The foreign minister will also meet with his counterparts from Black Sea countries and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), and is expected to address such subjects as disarmament, Sudan, and mediation efforts to solve international problems. He will also chair a meeting on terrorism at the UN Security Council and deliver a speech at Harvard University. Turkey's temporary seat on the UN Security Council will end on Jan. 1.