This is the spirit of unity in diversity that underlies the recent economic and social progress the country has been experiencing. Success in making and strengthening peace in Mozambique has put us in a position of actively contributing to the solution of existing and potential conflicts. Our presence here is in the context of that spirit. We all agree that globalization presents us with great challenges. We had hoped that the globalization process would result in increasing economic opportunities for all, especially the developing nations.
Evidence shows that there is an increasing marginalization of some parts of the world.
Perhaps this dialogue is the right moment for us to understand our past, to interrogate the present globalization process and together, by bringing our diversity to the dialogue, imagine and shape the future of human civilization. In Mozambique, experience taught us that through dialogue we could build peace and development, which are two faces of the same coin. There can be no peace without development and there can be no development without peace. We should avoid the risk of the line dividing the poor and rich being mistakenly taken as the line allegedly dividing races or cultures. We commit ourselves to make our modest contribution to this dialogue among civilizations in recognition that tolerance and respect for diversity must prevail as envisaged by the United Nations founding fathers.