UN General Assembly
1997

the region and their cooperation with their immediate environment is strengthened by the efforts our country is making, under the impetus of President Ben Ali, to construct a Euro-Mediterranean area that will serve as a framework for cooperation among the Mediterranean riparian countries, for solidarity among their peoples and for cultural and social dialogue in the context of the noble values and principles in which we all believe. Our country has already assumed a distinctive role in ensuring the success of the various meetings and conferences held to this end, from the preparatory meeting of the region's Ministers for Foreign Affairs held in Tabarka, Tunisia, to the Barcelona conference and the meetings that followed. Our country gave concrete expression to this option in 1995 by signing an association agreement with the European Union. We believe that it has become imperative to respond favourably to the willingness of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya to settle the Lockerbie question in a fair and honourable manner in the framework of proposals made by the League of Arab States, the Organization of African