Bangladesh would like to take the opportunity to pay special thanks to Mr. Giandomenico Picco, Personal Representative of the Secretary-General on the UN Year of Dialogue among Civilizations for his creative and articulate initiatives in this regard. The United Nations, which represents the diversity that we are, must institutionalize dialogue for promoting peace and harmony. The objective of dialogue would be to inform peoples of different cultures and civilizations of the benefits of cultural pluralism and exchange. It is necessary to promote dialogue as the accepted mode of behaviour for settling disputes and differences. To develop and sustain a real dialogue, we must expand it beyond the confines of the United Nations and state to state interaction.
Civil society has to be proactively involved.
Communities would have to take it up. The academia and the media are important vehicles for advancing dialogue. Most importantly, the dialogue must take place at the people to people level if it is to sustain and pick up momentum for benefiting humankind. Let me conclude by expressing our deep appreciation of the Islamic Republic of Iran and with a special tribute to President Mohammad Khatami for his visionary leadership in promoting dialogue among civilizations. All of us are in deep debt of Iran for advancing such a worthy cause for the benefit of humankind.