Gabon, 2009

First, I

would like to warmly congratulate Mr. Ali Abdussalam

Treki on his election to the presidency of the General

Assembly at its sixty-fourth session. I would also like

to pay a well-deserved tribute to Father Miguel

d’Escoto Brockmann, President of the Assembly at its

sixty-third session, for the work he accomplished

during his mandate. And I reaffirm the confidence and

support of my country for the Secretary-General as he

continues his efforts as the leader of this Organization.

Gabon has just gone through a critical phase in its

history as a nation. With the loss of President Omar

Bongo Ondimba on 8 June, our country saw the start of

a delicate period of political transition, during which

we had to dig deep to find the strength necessary to

confront our destiny. Under the relevant provisions of

our founding laws and the leadership of interim

President Rose Francine Rogombé, we were able to

bring our electoral process to a successful conclusion,

culminating in a vote on 30 August. As a result of this

unprecedented election, Mr. Ali Bongo Ondimba was

officially proclaimed the elected President of the

Republic by the Constitutional Court, which under the

law has a month to examine claims or appeals resulting

from the election before the elected President takes

office, given that nine unsuccessful candidates have

appealed to the high court.

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As members know, ensuring such an important

democratic transition in the brief time allocated under

the law was very challenging for our country, and I am

proud to say that we have met it, considering what was

at stake and what we knew had to be done. I submit

here my own tribute to the people of Gabon, the

majority of whom have proclaimed their support for

the values of peace and democracy. I would also like to

thank the peoples of Africa and of the entire world, as

well as the representatives of States and international

and civil society organizations who came to observe

the elections in Gabon and to nourish our democratic

process with their experience. As we open a new page

in our march towards progress and development, we

know we can rely on the international community and

on the friends of Gabon all over the world to confront

the challenges of today and tomorrow.

As regards those challenges, we are determined,

today more than ever before, to spare no effort to

establish good political and economic governance and

to consolidate our gains and our legacy in the areas of

stability, peace and democracy. We are also motivated

by our determination to pursue our endeavours in

maintaining regional and international peace, by

strengthening our links of solidarity and fraternity with

all our neighbouring countries.

The sixty-fourth session of the General Assembly

is opening its deliberations in an international context

marked by a number of successive crises: economic

and financial, food, energy and environmental. We

must bring urgent and lasting responses to these

various crises by acting collectively to curb them and

ensuring that our peoples achieve the development they

desire with all their heart. The United Nations

Conference on the World Financial and Economic

Crisis and Its Impact on Development, held in New

York from 24 to 30 June, was an important initiative,

enabling us to express our concerns and declare our

commitment to fighting the crisis and its repercussions

for our countries.

The unity we reached on measures to be taken to

deal with the crisis will require the complete and

unified participation of our countries in developing

appropriate solutions. Beyond the specifics relating to

each country, we must make sure together that the

measures and actions taken to fight the crisis be

proportional in scope to its gravity and intensity.

The food crisis was at the centre of our

discussions during the sixty-third session of the

Assembly and was the focus of two important

declarations, one adopted at the High-level Conference

on World Food Security, held in Rome from 3 to 5 June

2008, and one adopted at the thirteenth African Union

Conference of Heads of State and Government, held in

Sirte in July. We must now implement the declarations

and measures adopted as a result of meetings held at

the international and regional levels. It is only through

strict adherence to our commitments that we will be

able to identify the adverse effects of such crisis

situations on the development of our respective States.

The challenge of feeding a planet whose

population is growing is intimately linked to the

questions of the environment and climate change. The

harmful effects of global warming on our ability to

increase agricultural production in such a way as to

bring about a lasting solution to the food crisis are no

longer in doubt. I am pleased once again that this

question was chosen as a theme for the recent high-

level dialogue organized by the Secretary-General on

the sidelines of the current session, with a view to the

forthcoming Copenhagen Climate Conference in

December. In this regard, we reaffirm our support for

Africa’s common position on climate change, adopted

in Addis Ababa in August by the heads of State or

Government of the African Union.

My country, Gabon, whose forests are among

those that make up the great Congo basin, has adhered

unreservedly to the various international conventions

concerning the struggle against climate catastrophe and

the protection of biodiversity. We have resolved to

assume our share of responsibility by dedicating 11 per

cent of our territory to humanity, by creating, among

other things, 13 national parks.

The interdependence of the crises the

international community faces highlights, now more

than ever before, the need to breathe new life into

efforts to ensure international peace and security, but

also to conduct collective action at the global level. It

is with this conviction that Gabon has submitted its

candidacy for a non-permanent seat in the Security

Council for the period 2010-2011, for which it was

endorsed by the African Union at its thirteenth

Conference of Heads of State and Government, held at

Sirte in July.

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My country is also convinced that this

Organization cannot remain frozen, but must evolve in

order to enable it to adapt better to the current

international context. It is for this reason that world

leaders, through the Millennium Declaration

(resolution 55/2) and the 2005 World Summit Outcome

(resolution 60/1), reaffirmed the need to strengthen the

United Nations to allow it to fulfil its principal

missions more effectively.

In that regard, my country welcomes the progress

made since the 2005 World Summit in implementing a

great many of the important recommendations of the

Outcome Document in the framework of the United

Nations reform process. While pleased with these

major advances, we must continue our efforts to bring

these reforms to completion. Building a more just and

secure world capable of responding to its peoples’

profound aspirations depends on it.