Closing Remarks by Ambassador Bagher Asadi, Chairman of the Group of 77 (Islamic Republic of Iran), at the Closing Session of the High-Level Segment of the Resumed COP-6 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Bonn, 22 July 2001

Mr. President,
Honourable Ministers,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It could not have been a happier occasion for the Chairman of the Group of 77 than this very moment to take the floor to express our best words of felicitations on an achievement of historical significance and import. An accomplishment under very trying circumstances, an honourable deal indeed.

Allow me, Mr. President, my Dear Minister Pronk, to congratulate you and your colleagues, and Mr. Michael Cutajar and his colleagues in the Secretariat, for your hard work and perseverance for so many months now, and more specifically, since last week here in Bonn ­ not to mention a sleepless night of marathon negotiations. Excellent outcome for real good work. Three cheers for all of you.

Mr. President,

The agreement we have just reached is the final outcome of a multilateral process that has gone through a winding, bumpy road ­ all of us directly engaged in the process know what exactly that means. But, notwithstanding all kinds of difficulties and the rather familiar pull and push in international, intergovernmental negotiations, we, the intergovernmental body in its entirety, managed to rise to the challenge of the moment and finish the unfinished work in the Hague. The significance of what we have achieved here in Bonn does not merely relate to the climate change process and the further operationalization of the Convention and progress on the Kyoto Protocol - important as they are. Rather, it signifies the centrality of the concept of international cooperation for higher common objectives of the global community. The success in Bonn cannot but be the very direct outcome of dialogue, mutual understanding and a sense of conciliation and compromise.

Everybody here remembers vividly the message in the statement I read on behalf of the Group of 77 and China last Thursday. It was a message of engagement, commitment and hope. We said it in as clear and unambiguous words that we came here with the resolve to make the Bonn meeting a real success. We promised to extend a helping hand to the international community on an important and yet sensitive area of global commons. We came here for real, genuine cooperation with our developed partners in the North.

This occasion and this moment confirm what I said at the very beginning of that statement ­ with allusion to a Persian proverb that “words coming from the heart, do indeed touch the heart.” We reached out, and they reached out. And here is the outcome; representing the triumph of multilateralism and cooperation over unilateralism. This should, no doubt, augur well for the future of this process and other multilateral processes. Let us hope the achievement here today would prove conducive to the early re-engagement of all members of the international community in the continuation of the process.

Mr. President,

I would like to seize the opportunity to express my deep gratitude and appreciation to all the negotiating partners for their openness, sense of conciliation and cooperation, and above all, the political will and the political acumen not to miss the chance ­ fleeting as such moments are. I should as well express my best sincere words of gratitude to the members of the Group of 77 and China, and the Coordinators, for their excellent work, support and cooperation throughout the process. It was only through the solidarity of the Group that negotiation on behalf of the developing world could be undertaken, with mandate and authority. I thank all my dear brothers and sisters in the Group. Let me assure them all that the work of the Group will be pursued with the same sense of commitment and vigour, for the unity and solidarity of the Group.

Mr. President,

I end these closing words on a note of renewed hope and resolve for further cooperative work lying ahead us all.

Thank you very much, Mr. President.