UN General Assembly
2005

Allow me to congratulate you most warmly, Sir, on your election as President of the General Assembly. Through you, I would like also to thank your predecessor, Mr. Jean Ping, for the manner in which he conducted the preparatory work for the summit of Heads of State and Government which has just taken place. We are very grateful to him for having successfully met that challenge. Even though we had hoped for a more ambitious agreement, the summit allowed us to create a much- needed new impetus and new strategic guidelines for our Organization. Only a stronger and more legitimate United Nations will be able to respond to the challenges of the twenty-first century and implement the collective security consensus that we endorsed in the summit's outcome document. Belgium is a strong advocate of efficient multilateralism. I emphasize the word "efficient" because this is not just a declaration of faith. We need credible structures and strong institutions capable of effectively implementing our international commitments and addressing our common concerns. It