It is not customary for the Secretary-General to appear at regular reviews of the East Timor issue; I think his presence here earlier this morning was a very powerful demonstration of the strong support that he and the United Nations have given East Timor — support which has, frankly, brought us to …
We would first like to welcome Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Nebojša Čović and the Special Representative of the Secretary- General, Mr. Michael Steiner, to the Security Council. We thank them for their comprehensive and informative statement and briefing, respectively. Together with the excellent repor…
Allow me at the outset to say that my delegation would like to associate itself fully with the statement that will be made later by the Permanent Representative of Cambodia on behalf of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
I am also very pleased to be the first of many, hopefully, t…
The Security Council is meeting once again, for the third time in just over a week, to consider the dangerous situation in the Middle East, especially in the occupied territories. We will not repeat the points made in recent debates. However, it bears reiterating that the Security Council is determi…
We would first like to welcome Ms. Catherine Bertini, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), to the Security Council and thank her for her comprehensive briefing. We would like to pay our tribute to her for the outstanding achievements that she has made, as so eloquently described by …
We have listened carefully to the debate so far. Having done so, we are struck by three paradoxes, the first of which is that this weekend, as several speakers have commented, is one of the world’s holiest weekends: Passover, Good Friday, Easter. This holy weekend is being celebrated at one of the w…
I would like to begin by thanking Mr. Hédi Annabi for the very valuable comprehensive briefing that he gave us, and I certainly want to join our colleagues in welcoming the two positive developments relating to self-government and the transfer of the prisoners back to Kosovo.
We would also like to …
At the outset, let me thank the Deputy Secretary-General, Ms. Louise Fréchette, for introducing the Secretary-General’s latest report on the situation in Afghanistan, which is both informative and comprehensive.
Singapore is in full agreement with most of the points made in the report. A recurring …
First, let me join others in thanking Under-Secretary-General Oshima for his extensive and comprehensive briefing and the Norwegian presidency for its delegation’s efforts to keep the important issue of protection of civilians in armed conflict high and firmly on the Council’s agenda. It is indeed i…
I, too, would like to join you, Sir, in warmly welcoming Mr. Yusuf Hassan Ibrahim, the Foreign Minister of Somalia, and to thank him for the rather comprehensive statement
that he gave us in the private meeting earlier, which I found to be very helpful.
I also want to congratulate you for putting …
The Council, Sir, is greatly honoured that this meeting is being personally chaired by the Foreign Minister of Norway, because this demonstrates your country’s commitment to this issue and to other issues in the Horn of Africa. Certainly, we would like to begin by congratulating you on your initiati…
At the outset, we would like to express how honoured we are to see you, Sir, in the chair for today’s public meeting on Bosnia and Herzegovina. Your chairing of the meeting clearly shows the importance that Norway attaches to the issue.
We are also honoured by the personal participation of the Secr…
Once again, the Security Council is meeting on the situation in the Middle East, as the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians shifts to a deeper and more dangerous level.
Singapore is deeply distressed that the escalation of violence has continued unabated, resulting in the senseless loss of s…
We join others in thanking Mr. Oshima for his excellent briefing and for the comments expressed regarding the very important work done by his team. We also join others in welcoming the Vice-Minister’s presence here today and thanking him
for his very important statement. Finally, we associate ourse…
We welcome, as others have, the High Commissioner back to the Council and thank him for his very comprehensive briefing. His presentation is a timely reminder of the links between the issue of refugees and the maintenance of international peace and security.
The targeting of refugees and internally…
First of all, we hope that the Chinese delegation will convey our delegation’s tribute and best wishes to Ambassador Shen.
Let me also congratulate Mauritius for its very successful presidency of the Security Council this month. Successful presidencies are not accidental; they are the result of pai…
Before I begin my prepared text, I would like to make a few preliminary observations.
We began our discussions this morning in this Chamber with a very important meeting with Mr. Karzai, the head of the Interim Authority in Afghanistan. It is no secret that the United Nations faces formidable chall…
We, too, would like to begin by thanking Under-Secretary-General Jean-Marie Guéhenno for his usual comprehensive briefing. We would also like to thank the Secretary- General for his report and, like our colleagues, we would also like to pay a special tribute to Mr. Hans Haekkerup, who demonstrated w…
Let me join our colleagues in offering you, Mr. President, our warmest congratulations on a successful presidency. We also want to thank you for this wonderful gift of the songs of Habib Koite, who we understand is Mali’s greatest singer.
We also agree with your opening observation that these wrap-…
This afternoon we are going to have a wrap-up meeting on the work of the month, but since it is likely to be the last meeting of the year we thought it might be useful to review the successes and the failures of the year as well. We were going to say this afternoon that Angola was clearly not
a suc…
