As-salamu alaykum, and good afternoon.
It's a real honour to be here today, and I'm very happy to have been invited to this very unique occasion.
Let me from the onset greet and thank the municipality, who has facilitated this event and also thank our dear friend, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as of course, the Libya Iron and Steel company, which is indeed a very impressive building, and let me also, greet all the delegates in the room, because, in fact, you have been today, at least giving me a lot of evidence that there is a lot of capable delegates in this room, future delegates, present delegates.
So, big congratulations, and also really, my best wishes to all of you.
When I walked into this building, or this room, it really gave me a sense of being in the General Assembly. I'm going to the General Assembly next week; we have a week of meetings, including with our Secretary-General and the Deputy Secretary-General, and we often meet in the General Assembly Hall. And when you get into that hall, you get a very special feeling. When you take the floor in the hall of the General Assembly, you feel the winds of the world, sort of very close by, and I hope that many of you have felt this greatness of being able to be in company with friends, enemies, -you're not all friends- but still working towards finding solutions to make the world a little better place than what it is.
And that is actually a very unique sense of privilege; it's a unique sense of contribution that, at least in my close to 35 years with the United Nations, I have had the privilege to experience and more than that. I've seen it, I think, in most of the regions; I've seen evidence of this quality of the human being.
And I think the United Nations is the platform where these qualities of humanity, solidarity, and also dialogue come to the forefront. So you've spent 3 days debating, discussing. Being frustrated, I heard some of you in the coffee break, you've had, you wanted to get decisions through resolution through either the Security Council or the ECOSOC, or the General Assembly, and you couldn't; you had to compromise.
And this is, in fact, also one of the essences of multilateralism. Multilateralism is not sort of a big party among friends; multilateralism means that you work across nations, nations that do not always share the same political beliefs; they don't have the same religion -In fact, they share very little, except that we share this world- and we also meet at the United Nations.
There is no such other organization, which gathers small countries with large countries, and then in the General Assembly every once vote, count the same, and so this is a very unique place.
And you have learned how to compromise and you have learned how to speak your cause, but in a respectful way. And so these are qualities and experiences; it's not only serving the United Nations, and the world is also serving you, your communities, your families, but also Libya, and God knows that Libya needs these qualities: Mediation, compromise, negotiation, trying to find unity where today there is division. So, I really look forward to seeing you throughout the years that I will be working here in Libya, and how you will contribute to these goals here in Libya, and maybe to say a few words about the relationship between the United Nations and Libya; in fact, it's a very long relationship: In 1949, It was in the General Assembly, the decision 2 establish Libya as an independent state based on that resolution, and with the hardwork with many Libyans, Libya became an independent state in 1951, so it all started in the United Nations of course way beyond that you have a long history, but our relationship goes back to 1949.
And that is a long history, And in fact, I have had the privilege now being able to work here in Libya through a year. I've seen many of the good sides of the cooperation we have here; we have, of course, the political mission, as well as the presence of many UN agencies, funds, and programs. I've seen a very rich, friendly cooperation; sometimes, tough conversations that always end in compromise and agreement that, yes, together, we can do better and be more useful to Libya.
Also, to say that Libya is not simply let's say a member of the United Nations, or let's say the host of United Nations here in Libya. But you're actually active participants, as you know, for example, right now, and I thought it would be interesting for you to know that Libya served as the governing body of the International Labour Organisation last year, and this year, so you have actually platforms where you can use your influence in decisions that matter for the world.
You also recently submitted your application to be a member of the Security Council, a membership from 2028 to 2029, under the slogan "Advancing justice for security at peace." This was a formal submission of your application in September this year, during the General Assembly's high-level forum in New York.
What you discussed today matters, as I said, to the world, but it also matters to Libya. And this is part of where the United Nations brings the big picture, the big scene with each country. It's a connector and this is part of the beauty and in fact The United Nations is for the people and is by the people, and you will have heard in the beginning my colleague Tarik, who quoted the first sentences of the charter, the UN charter that actually was the reason why we celebrate the United Nations Day every year on the 24th of October. So this was 2 days ago, and that was the adoption of the UN Charter, and the UN Charter, in fact, has a very powerful beginning: "WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person," And to me these words echo when I started back in the 1990s, or today, for me, they echo enormously relevant, and they were very relevant, back in 19 44 45, when the charter was ratified, because at that time, the world just came out of a devastating, Second World War. So the world is not free from war -unfortunately- but at least we have one place in the world where we sit down as nations, even nations that are at war with each other; they sit down, and they talk, and I can tell you in the General Assembly Hall, yes, there are a lot of formal statements. Still, as I mentioned to some of you during the break, the real work happens during the breaks.
Between sessions, when countries stand together, delegates spend endless hours discussing and actually reaching agreement. Okay, you don't agree with everything I don't agree with everything that you say, but let's agree on these 23 things that are so important. For advancing peace, justice, and security, it's not always successful, but very often you get small advances, and without those small successes, the world would be an even worse place to live in.
And this I can say with great confidence. The United Nations is not going through an easy time. We have a very big shift coming up. We have a new Secretary-General; we don't know yet. Who is going to be? It's always until the last minute, quite a surprise sometimes, but we are confident that the world leaders will select the best person for the job. And that is, of course, something that we follow with great interest.
So, in closing, I would like to thank you, and I won't take much more of your time. But again, I just would like to say how impressed I was with your interventions.
As I said, you know, I felt I was back in New York in the General Assembly Hall and listening to a very important interventions and knowing that these interventions are not just said lightly, they are not put down on paper only by the capital. No, there's a lot of negotiation, debate, creation of different alliances, coalitions, and constellations in order to have something useful coming out of each session. And this is actually part of the beauty, so let me thank the Dialogue and Debate Association for very impressive work. I know that we worked with you in some cities in Libya; and we would like to continue and strengthen that work. And a warm thanks to all of the delegates, and I call you delegates now. I'm sure you've gotten to know the country you defended and spoken for, and that it's also been a very good learning opportunity for all of you. I hope, and I'm fairly convinced that at some point when I'm retired that if I ever can retire from the United Nations, then I will see some of you up on the podium in the General Assembly or who knows maybe in the security council.
So I look forward to that. And so maybe just to say that the Charter begins with the peoples, and those words include all of you, each one of us, so I really would like to thank you again and wish you all the success and do if you come to Tripoli, do look, come and visit.
Thank you very much, Shukan.
