UN General Assembly
2002

﻿At the outset, I should like to tell you, Sir, how pleased my delegation is to see you presiding over the work of the fifty-seventh session of the General Assembly. To your predecessor, Mr. Han Seung-soo, I should also like to express my sincere and warm congratulations on the competence, devotion and authority with which he guided the work of the fifty-sixth session. I should also like to express again to Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the Organization, the warm congratulations and profound gratitude of the Government of Mali for the effectiveness and wisdom he has shown in managing the concerns of the international community in a particularly difficult context. I take this opportunity to reiterate to the Secretary-General the thanks of His Excellency Mr. Amadou Toumani Touré, President of the Republic of Mali, for the confidence that the Secretary-General has placed in him in seeking solutions to certain conflicts that are shaking Africa. He expresses Mali ‘s readiness to continue to work for the preservation of international peace and security, particularly in Africa.