UN General Assembly
2011

Allow me to congratulate you, Sir, on your election to the very important post of the highest representative of the General Assembly at its sixty-sixth session. A few days ago New York City and the entire world remembered the tenth anniversary of the tragic events of 11 September. I should like to use this opportunity to pay homage to all the victims and to the firefighters and other rescue workers who died in connection with the 2001 attacks. We should not forget them. The main topic suggested for the sixty-sixth session — the mediation of disputes by peaceful means — is at the very core of the United Nations Charter, and I can assure members it is also at the core of the foreign policy principles of the country I have the privilege to represent, the Czech Republic. Nineteen years ago the dissolution of Czechoslovakia was negotiated peacefully from within, without any need for external mediation. Our experience tells us that if a solution to any country’s aspirations to sovereignty and freedom, or a solution to