UN General Assembly
2012

﻿I would like to congratulate the President on his election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-seventh session, and to thank him for the inspiring speech he made at the opening of the general debate (see A/67/ PV.6). We are confident that the spirit exemplified in that speech will guide him during his presidency. Let me also take this opportunity to express my appreciation to the outgoing President. The reason I am here on this rostrum, making my maiden speech to the General Assembly as Head of Government of the new Ethiopia, is because we lost our leader only a little more than a month ago. The passing of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is a huge loss for Ethiopia, and undoubtedly for Africa as well. He was a man of prodigious intellect who was uncompromising in his insistence that Ethiopians and Africans should own and protect their development strategies and their approaches to governance and democratization. The late Ethiopian Prime Minister, and the party he led, have facilitated the emergence of a new Ethiopia, rekindling