S/PV.5815 Security Council

I thank Ambassador Pascoe for his briefing. Expression of thanks to outgoing members of the Council The President: As this may be the last meeting of the Security Council for December 2007, I would like, on behalf of the Council, to express the most sincere appreciation of the Council to the five outgoing members — the Congo, Ghana, Peru, Qatar and Slovakia. I know I speak on behalf of the Council when I commend those five members for their hard work and contributions during their 2006-2007 term on the Security Council. I think that when members of a family leave the family, it is mainly a moment of sadness — a moment in which we acknowledge what the members have given to the family. As in any family, there are moments of discussion — “frank discussion”, as we say in our language — but it is precisely through the possibility of having frank discussions and exchanges of view that we enrich ourselves and achieve results. It is through the efforts and points of view of everybody that we reach our goals. I feel that, along with the sadness, there is also a sense of the special bond that we have built among us all in this period. We will remember. I urge all my colleagues to take care. In accordance with the understanding reached in the Council’s prior consultations, I now invite Council members to informal consultations to continue our discussion on the subject.