UN General Assembly
1993

suffered the terrible impact of drought over the last 20 years, welcomes the setting up of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for the elaboration of an international convention to combat drought and desertification. At the two substantive Committee sessions held respectively in Forty-eighth session - 1 October l993 47 Nairobi, in June this year, and in Geneva, in September this year, there was an evaluation of the problem of desertification. Information was exchanged and data that can be taken into account in future negotiations were collected. My delegation hopes that the current negotiations on the convention to fight drought and desertification will lead to a real commitment so that the international conference scheduled for Paris will be a real success. The issues I have just raised show that the problems of keeping peace and maintaining international security, as well as the problems of economic, social and environmental development, are all major challenges that continue to face mankind as it approaches the threshold of the third millennium. My delegation feels that to meet these challenges we