This is a country I know very well since in the late 1990s I served as concurrent Ambassador of the Republic of Korea. I am looking forward to having a very constructive dialogue with the leadership of Slovenia starting from today over dinner with President Turk.

I am deeply disappointed by the failure of the Security Council today over the situation in Syria. I had expected that the Security Council and the international community should have been united to send out a strong and united voice to save human lives. So many people have been killed during the last 16 months.

I met and had very good discussions with the Chinese leadership, including President Hu Jintao, and Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan had also visited Moscow. I know that all the world leaders are working very hard at this time.

Now that draft resolution has been vetoed, now it is up to the Member States of the Security Council what will be the future of the United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria. At this time, I’m urging again the world leaders, and particularly the Security Council, to be united, to take collective action to address these issues.

Of course it is [for] the parties of Syria – both Government and opposition forces – to stop the violence. I again urge that we must bring this violence to a stop so that the Syrian people will be able to resolve this issue through a political resolution.

I will continue to discuss this matter with Member States. Thank you very much.