14 December 2000

The General Assembly adopted a resolution on the follow-up to the Millennium Summit, which had been prepared by the Office of the President. After the adoption, the President thanked the Delegations stating that consensus would not have been possible without the co-operation and support of all Delegations. He said the Millennium Summit had indeed created a momentum and a new spirit of political wills that would help in achieving the goals set in the Declaration. The President thanked all Delegations for their flexibility, and emphasized that through this kind of consensus building and teamwork many issues could be achieved. The President promised to continue working with all Delegations on the follow-up to the Summit. The full text of the resolution is available on the "Statements and Messages" page.

Eleven other resolutions were also adopted by the General Assembly today relating to humanitarian assistance, including on natural disasters and strengthening coordination of United Nations emergency humanitarian assistance. One resolution concerned the closure of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. In his remarks on this resolution, President Holkeri noted that the explosion of the nuclear power plant, which occurred more than fifteen years ago, was a major global technological catastrophe as well as an eye opener in many respects. The full text of his remarks is available on the "Statements and Messages' page.

The General Assembly also paid tribute to the late Prime Minister of Tuvalu, H.E. Mr. Ionatana Ionatana, who died 8 December 2000. The full text of the statement attributed to the Spokeswoman for the President on the occasion is available on the "Statements and messages" page.

The President attended a luncheon, hosted by the Permanent Representative of Romania, H.E. Mr. Sorin Ducaru, on the occasion the Romanian Presidency of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the year 2001.

Later in the day Mr. Holkeri attended a dinner hosted by the Permanent Representative of France, H.E. Mr. Jean-David Levitte, on the occasion of the end of the French Presidency of the European Union.