Your Majesties,
Heads of States and Governments, President of the General Assembly,
Secretary-General,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is a pleasure to address this General Assembly under the able leadership of President María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés.

Madame President,

This Organization needs good leadership and I am sure that you will ably take us in the right diection. I offer my congratulations to you and your Government for your election.

New Zealand spoke elegantly about the fate of Pacific Island countries vis-à-vis the imminent threat of climate change.

Madame President,

When the armed conflicts that dominated the world in the first four decades of the last century ended, the world slipped into another war; the Cold War. A period of suspicion and deceit; an era deeply rooted in clandestine engagement, reminding us of a great Englishman’s word that the truth is so precious that it must be protected by lies.

The fight continues today, waged between the bigger and the richer with the might of wealth and on the principle and the notion that might is right, with the smaller economies aligned and marginalized, becoming again the spoils of now an economic war; now fostering new economic colonies.

As in all wars many people become innocent victims, and are often filed away simply as collateral damage, as spoils of war, becoming possessions of victors and allies.

Madame President,

We open another General Assembly with our world facing record and serious challenges.

And yet, we dare ask ourselves this question: Is Pluto a planet or not? Is that a relevant question to our current Earth conditions? Perhaps Pluto can wait.

Our aim today must be to improve on the United Nation as forum on which we work to prevent this from continuing, to seek curative measures, to slow and to stop this economic war, and as an end, hopefully to accelerate the effort to close the gap of economic imbalance.