UN General Assembly
2004

First of all, on behalf of the members of my delegation and on my own behalf, I would like to congratulate you, Sir, upon your election to the presidency of our Assembly. Your election is a great tribute to both our subregion in Central Africa and to your country, the Gabonese Republic. It is also a sign of recognition of your abilities as a statesman and a guarantee of our work’s success. My thanks and my congratulations also go to your predecessor and his team for their dedication and the enthusiasm with which they did a great deal of work — which was much appreciated by all — in a particularly tense environment marked by animated debates about the Iraqi crisis. Finally, I would like to pay a particular well- deserved tribute to the Secretary-General of our Organization, our brother Kofi Annan, whose commitment and unceasing efforts to establish lasting peace and sustainable development in the world are praiseworthy. He can count on Chad’s support for all of the initiatives that he is still undertaking with courage