UN General Assembly
2008

It is indeed my pleasure, on behalf of the leadership, people and Government of the Sudan, to greet the General Assembly as it meets in its sixty-third session. We wish its deliberations every success and hope to witness tangible progress on all the issues and challenges that must be given priority by this Organization. We refer, of course, to the maintenance of international peace and security; realizing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs); containing the food crisis, poverty, hunger, climate change and water shortages; and reactivating the role of the United Nations in a changing world. We are indeed delighted to see Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann chairing this session. We are confident that, with his wisdom, experience and perspicacity, we may indeed be hopeful and optimistic that the international community will realize its ambitions for global development, reconstruction and prosperity. I also wish to strongly commend and thank Ambassador Srgjan Kerim for the competence with which he conducted the work of the sixty-second session. We also thank the Secretary-General and his