UN General Assembly
1993

Mr. President, it gives me great pleasure to see you, a son of the Caribbean, presiding over the General Assembly at this forty-eight session with the skill, competence and wealth of experience we have come to associate with you. My delegation is confident that under your leadership this session of the General Assembly will complete its vitally important agenda. I also wish to express to your predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Stoyan Ganev of Bulgaria, our appreciation for the most able manner in which he presided over the forty-seventh session. 16 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session May I take this opportunity also to welcome formally to the United Nations the six countries - the Czech Republic, Eritrea, Monaco, the Slovak Republic, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Andorra - which joined the Organization this year. Today the global community is at a crossroads in history, poised between the prospect of peaceful economic progress through globalization and technological advancement and a relapse into conflict fuelled by poverty, political tyranny and ethnic strife. This situation has