Jimmy Carter Trip Reports Archive: 2006-2009

Dec. 14, 2009
Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to Cyprus, Dec. 8-11, 2009
On The Elders' third trip to Cyprus, I joined Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Lakhdar Brahimi. This concentration of our visits on Cyprus was because of the importance of a successful effort to bring peace and unity to the troubled island, and the growing likelihood of success.

Dec. 1, 2009
Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to Thailand, Vietnam, China, and Cambodia for the 26th Annual Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project, Nov. 12-23, 2009
The primary purpose of our trip was to join 3,000 other Habitat for Humanity volunteers in the countries named, plus Laos, to build 166 homes - part of 50,000 to be completed in five years. With U.S. diplomats and foreign leaders, we also learned as much as possible about the host nations.

Nov. 2, 2009
Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Dubai, Oman, Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey, Oct. 18-30, 2009
Our goal in visiting the Arab nations was to describe work of The Carter Center and seek financial assistance for our health programs in Africa. At each stop, our hosts were also quite interested in our efforts to promote peace between Israel and its neighbors.

Oct. 9, 2009
Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to Dominican Republic and Haiti, Oct. 6-8, 2009
A group representing The Carter Center flew to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, to help finalize and publicize an agreement between Haiti and the Dominican Republic to eliminate malaria and lymphatic filariasis from the Island of Hispaniola. Our International Task Force for Disease Eradication had identified this as a worthy project, as this is the only island in the Caribbean on which the two diseases still exist.

Aug. 31, 2009
Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on the Elders Visit to the Middle East: August 22-29, 2009
Rosalynn and I arrived in Jerusalem before the other Elders, and on Monday we met with Ahmed Tiki, an Arab-Israeli who is a member–and deputy speaker–of the Knesset. He reminded us that 20 percent of Israeli citizens are Arabs: they hold about 10 percent of the legislative seats, are severely restricted from acquiring additional property or traveling to Palestine, have only six percent of government jobs, and no Arab is among the 600 employees of the Central Bank.

June 17, 2009
Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to Lebanon, Syria, Israel, West Bank, and Gaza - June 2-17, 2009
The purpose of this trip was to join other Carter Center observers during the Lebanese election and to visit leaders involved in the overall peace process in Syria, Israel, and Palestine. In Lebanon, approximately 60 Carter Center observers from 23 nations were led by David Carroll, and former Yemeni Prime Minister Abdulkarim al Eryani was my co-chairman.

May 6, 2009
Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil: April 27 – May 5, 2009
Along with Rosalynn, John Hardman, Jennifer McCoy, Francisco Diez, and Melissa Montgomery, I visited leaders in these four nations to pursue the following objectives of The Carter Center.

Jan. 22, 2009
China Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter: Jan. 10-16, 2009
Rosalynn and I flew from Atlanta to Shanghai and then to Beijing to commemorate the 30th anniversary of normalizing diplomatic relations with Deng Xiaoping and to expand our Center's working relations with government ministries. Accompanied on the trip by Melissa Montgomery, we were met by John Hardman and Yawei Liu, and the next day joined Henry Kissinger, Zbig Brzezinski, Brent Scowcroft, six former U.S. ambassadors, and other Americans who have played important roles in China.

Dec. 18, 2008
Paris, Lebanon, and Syria Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter: Dec. 5-16, 2008
I flew to Paris with Jeffrey and met with other Elders at Le Bristol, an excellent hotel. Since Desmond Tutu and Graça Machel had to attend a funeral in S. Africa, Mary Robinson & I shared the chairmanship. We reviewed our previous experiences in Sudan (Darfur), Cyprus, and S. Africa (Zimbabwe), and my substitution for the Elders in the April Middle East trip.

Nov. 25, 2008
South Africa and Zimbabwe Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Nov. 20-24, 2008
As president, I worked actively with African leaders and the British to change the apartheid regime of Rhodesia into a democratic Zimbabwe in 1980. Eight years later, The Carter Center established one of our first Global 2000 agriculture projects in Zimbabwe - so successful that we soon shifted our emphasis to more needy countries.

Oct. 13, 2008
Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to Cyprus: Oct. 7-10, 2008
Representing the Elders, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Lakhdar Brahimi, and I visited Cyprus, hoping that our expression of interest would encourage the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders in their effort to resolve the long-standing dispute over the division of the island. I was involved in this challenging diplomatic task even before becoming president in 1977.

July 23, 2008
Report of Trip to the Arctic Region by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Observations on Global Climate Change: July 10-18, 2008
We flew with Ted Turner and Sally Ranney from the Americus airport to Goose Bay, Newfoundland, where we re-fueled and then went to the northernmost airport in the world at Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway, at 78º N latitude. We first visited the newly constructed seed storage vault, where 500 seeds of as many agricultural crop species as possible will be stored indefinitely, replaced as the germination time expires.

April 22, 2008
Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan: April 13-22, 2008
Rosalynn, Jeff, and I arrived in Israel Sunday, 4/13/08, after a very exciting and successful election monitoring mission in Nepal (see prior trip report). Since Israel had declined to approve a previously planned visit by three of us Elders (Kofi Annan, Mary Robinson, and me), I expected a similar negative reaction when I substituted this trip on behalf of The Carter Center. Sure enough, all my requests to meet with ministers of the government were publicly rejected and, more seriously, three requests from our Secret Service detail to work with Israeli security were rejected.

April 15, 2008
Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to Nepal: April 6-14, 2008
The Carter Center has been deeply involved in Nepal since 2003 in attempting to assist with ending a 10-year revolutionary war and find a peaceful resolution of differences among the political factions. I visited Nepal in June and November 2007 to help encourage an election for a constituent assembly to write a new constitution, and our team gathered these last few days to monitor the twice-postponed event.

April 8, 2008
Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to Accra, Ghana, and Abuja, Nigeria: March 30 - April 3, 2008
The primary purposes of our trip were to enhance the long-stalled eradication of Guinea worm in Ghana, to conduct our annual Guinea worm eradication meeting in Nigeria, and to induce the Nigerian government to acquire 9 million treated bed nets to combat malaria and lymphatic filaria. In addition, I wanted to have political discussions with Presidents Kufuor and Yar'Adua concerning their electoral processes.

Dec. 10, 2007
Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to China, Dec. 2-8, 2007
As has been our custom every few years since leaving the White House, Rosalynn and I wanted to go to China to discuss ongoing projects of The Carter Center, plan for future ones, and especially to meet the new leaders recently chosen in the 17th National People's Congress.

Nov. 27, 2007
Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to Nepal, Nov. 20-24, 2007
The Carter Center has had long-term observers in Nepal since last February, preparing for elections in June and then in November, both postponed.

Oct. 15, 2007
Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to London, Khartoum, Juba, Darfur, Luneburg: Sept. 28 – Oct. 5, 2007
Jeff and I arrived in London, joined Bob Pastor and Lakhdar Brahimi, and met with former Prime Minister Tony Blair at the home of DCM Richard LeBaron. We then met with Baroness Shriti Vadera, Under-Secretary for International Development, especially for Sudan, and she is very eager to help. Prime Minister Gordon Brown called me from a meeting at Chequers to express his support and to request a future meeting.

June 27, 2007
Nepal Visit, June 11-16, 2007: Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter
The purpose of my visit to Nepal was to help support the peace process through a series of meetings with our Carter Center long-term observers, U.S., Indian, and U.N. officials, other diplomats, civil society leaders, "marginalized groups," and representatives of the many political factions.

Feb. 19, 2007
Trip Report of Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter: Africa Trip, Feb. 6-16, 2007 (Ghana, Sudan, Ethiopia, Nigeria)
From The Carter Center, Rosalynn and I were joined by Dr. John and Laura Hardman, John and Becky Moores, and Dr. Don and Ernestine Hopkins.

Nov. 9, 2006
Nicaraguan Elections: Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter November 4-7, 2006
The purpose of this trip was for The Carter Center to monitor our fourth Nicaraguan election. The first was in 1990, while the U.S. Contra War was still being waged. The Carter Center has had six delegations of pre-election observers in the country this year and seven long-term observers since September. A number of our major suggestions have been adopted by the Supreme Electoral Council.

Nov. 6, 2006
Jimmy Carter's Trip Report: India and Thailand, Oct. 25-Nov. 3, 2006 (PDF)
The purposes of our trip were to have diplomatic discussions with top Indian officials, to participate in an award ceremony for the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Partnership Awards, to build Habitat homes near Mumbai, India, and to visit the tsunami damaged area on the east coast of India and Thailand.

July 7, 2006
Jimmy Carter's Nicaragua Trip Report: July 3-6, 2006
Returning to Nicaragua was almost like going home. The troubled nation presented an important political issue with the overthrow of the dictator Somoza during my administration as president, followed by the fragmentation of the revolutionary front into competing political factions that resulted in the election of the leftist Sandinistas in 1984.

Jan. 30, 2006
Palestinian Elections: Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter
For the third time, The Carter Center agreed to monitor the elections in the West Bank and Gaza, beginning in January 1996 with the choice of Yasir Arafat as president and 88 members of the Palestinian Authority.

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