UN General Assembly
2005

First of all, let me take this opportunity to congratulate Mr. Jan Eliasson on his election to the high position of President of the General Assembly and to wish him every success in guiding the work of the session. I would also like to thank his predecessor, Mr. Jean Ping, for his able leadership as the President of the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session. It is obvious that the years-long process of reorganizing the entire system of international relations, in particular reform of the United Nations, has been unreasonably delayed. The 2005 summit was an important stage in exploring mutually acceptable formulas and in adopting goals whose implementation will lead us to the achievement of development and security. Some of the decisions taken at the summit were medium-term and others long-term in nature. But, in our view, our primary task is to ensure their full implementation and not to allow inertia to impede this, as has been the case in the process of implementing the Millennium Development Goals. Strengthening the capacity of the United Nations