In his ongoing tour of the United States and Belgium, the OIC Secretary General Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu has taken up several issues of global importance and has met with many top leaders including former US Secretary of State Madeline Albright. A scheduled meeting with Hillary Clinton, the present US Secretary of State, at the State Department had to be rearranged for a later date as she is recuperating from a medical operation. However, Prof. Ihsanoglu had an extended telephone conversation with her and exchanged views on ways and means to further the engagement between the OIC and the US in the coming period, according to Maha Mostafa Akeel, the Managing Editor of the OIC Journal. Secretary Clinton is said to have offered her thanks for the OIC's positive response to President Obama's Cairo speech while the Secretary General stressed the necessity of translating the goodwill statements of the President into policies and also implementing those policies through concrete programs and projects. Prof. Ihsanoglu also took up issues with Secretary Clinton like the follow up action on the new global polio initiative with the OIC as announced by President Obama in Cairo, implementation of the mother and child services framework document signed in December 2008 between the US and the OIC, and the appointment of a new US Special Envoy to the OIC. Later, technical meetings took place between the OIC delegation and the US Departments of State and Health Services. In Washington, the Secretary General addressed think tank meetings organized by the Atlantic Council and Rumi Forum, and he also gave a press conference at the National Press Club. The OIC Secretary General while in Washington had a telephone conversation with UN Secretary General Ban-ki Moon to discuss the alarming situation in Somalia and exchanged views on the steps that could be taken in support of Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmad and the Transitional Federal Government. The same issue was one of the subjects discussed on Thursday by the OIC Secretary General and the EU Commissioner for External Relations Benita-Ferrero Waldner during the meeting of the Secretary General with the Ambassadors of the OIC member states based in Brussels. At the meeting, the Secretary General repeated his strong appeal to the international community and OIC member states to provide support to the Transitional Federal Government in Somalia. While in Belgium, Prof. Ihsanoglu is expected to address in Brussels the opening session of the Crans Montana Annual Forum and attend, as a panelist, a special session on the response of the Muslim World to President Obama`s Cairo speech.
