This is just a procedural suggestion that I hope our colleagues will agree with. I thought that, as a gesture of courtesy, we might allow the departing members of the Council to speak first, in alphabetical order. If the President agrees with my suggestion, after we have heard the departing members …
First, a quick personal note of thanks to you, Mr. President. I have just received the revised programme for the month, and I am glad that you have agreed to our suggestion to move the wrap-up session from 27 to 21 December. As we said, that is an important occasion for the members who are leaving t…
The hour is late. I will try to be quick. In some ways, that is easier for us, because many of the key points that we had wanted to make have already been made by several speakers today. They include the fact that the plundering of the resources of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is unacceptabl…
The hour is late. We will be brief. On the Middle East issue, it is clearly very difficult to get consensus or unanimity within the Security Council. But we believe that there is total consensus today on one point: the situation in the Middle East is dangerous and getting more dangerous. No one can …
We would like to thank the Secretary-General for his comprehensive report on the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH). We also thank Mr. Hédi Annabi for his clear briefing on the Mission.
It is clear that the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Jacques Klein, and h…
My delegation would like to commend Ambassador Shamshad Ahmad of Pakistan and Ambassador Inocencio Arias of Spain, the two Vice-Chairmen of the Working Group, for their untiring efforts in chairing several meetings and in producing the Group’s report. Singapore concurs with its recommendations. We a…
Please allow me to begin by commending you, Madam, for organizing this wrap-up meeting.
Actually, I would like to begin with a plea to my colleagues to try as much as possible to institutionalize these wrap-up meetings, because they can be useful on many counts. First, of course, we can review what…
I did not intend to be the first speaker, but I find that unless one raises one’s hand very quickly one may end up being the last speaker. Madam President, I would like to join you in thanking Judge Jorda, Judge Pillay and Ms. Del Ponte for the briefings they gave us. The work being done by them is …
We, too, would like to thank Mr. Hédi Annabi for his comprehensive briefing. We also want to join our colleagues in
congratulating the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Mr. Haekkerup, the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the Organization for Securit…
I join Ambassador Kuchinsky in thanking Mr. Oshima for his briefing. Madam President, you have told us that in this meeting we will not make any statements but have a question- and-answer session. In that spirit, I would like to make three points — my questions will be rolled into three points.
The…
The history of the United Nations is replete with summits and declarations. They come, and they go. Nothing much changes. It is therefore easy to become cynical both about summits and their results. If we do not want the Millennium Summit and its results to be tarnished with such cynicism, we have t…
It does seem strange to congratulate Minister Han Seung-soo on his appointment as President of the General Assembly so late in this session. But we live in unusual times. The United Nations needs clear leadership. With his distinguished track record in public service in the Republic of Korea, we are…
First of all, I would like to join my colleagues in welcoming the Minister of External Relations of Angola to the Council, as well as the other ministers who are present here today. We also thank Under-Secretary-General Gambari for the statement that he made at the beginning of the meeting.
From th…
I would like to thank the Secretary-General and his Special Representative to Afghanistan, Ambassador Brahimi, for their valuable briefings. I also wish to commend the presidency of Jamaica for convening this important open debate of the Security Council on Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is a global conc…
First, I would like to begin by joining you, Mr. President, and all our colleagues in the Council in conveying our condolences to the Government and the people of the United States and to the bereaved families of those who perished in today’s air crash. We do not yet know what caused this crash, but…
We meet at a time when the dialogue among civilizations is being
threatened by extremists more eager to kill than to talk. Public statements have been made in support of violence and murder. Worse, they joyfully assert a state of war between civilizations.
These statements are false. They are a de…
We would like to begin by welcoming the Foreign Minister of Liberia to today’s debate, as well as the members of the Panel of Experts and representatives of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Madam President, we thank you for arranging this public debate on the Panel of…
Last year the General Assembly adopted resolution 55/215 entitled “Towards global partnerships”. Through this resolution, we recognized the potential contribution that non-State actors can make towards realizing the United Nations goals set out in the Millennium Declaration. There are at least two g…
In view of the fact that Ambassador Jean-David Levitte referred to some of my points, I just wanted to clarify the situation for the record.
First, Ambassador Levitte said that we liked to debate for the sake of debate. On this issue, we were not really trying to debate, but we were very puzzled by…
First of all, I would like to welcome you, Minister Cowen, to New York. Since this is the last day of the Irish presidency, we would like to congratulate you and your team. It has been a difficult month, and your team has done a sterling job.
We would also like to welcome our friends, Mr. Sergio Vi…
