Secretary-General's remarks upon presenting his Special Envoy for Stop Tuberculosis, Mr. Jorge Sampaio

SG: Let me, first of all, say that I'm extremely happy to have former President [of Portugal] Jorge Sampaio here. He is going to serve as my Special Envoy for Stop TB [tuberculosis] campaign, and the whole campaign against TB. And I really look forward to his joining the team. He's going to bring incredible leadership to this effort. He has the skills, the leadership and the relationships around the world to be able to play this role as effectively as anyone could. So I'm really happy that you have accepted this assignment. And I would want to sign the 'Stop TB' campaign call.

This is an important campaign and I hope [that] other world leaders will sign the commitment, and that we will all work in a persistent and consistent manner to stop this disease. My Special Envoy will continue his work and work with us to implement the global plan [to stop] this destructive [disease] between 2006 and 2015. I think we can do it and we should all chip in and make it happen.

And in fact today when we discussed the HIV/AIDS conference, I attended a global coalition meeting which is headed by Richard Holbrook and brings together a group of about 215 big companies which have joined to assist in AIDS and they have decided to add on TB. So I have asked him to see you, for the two of you to get together and discuss this. The announcement was made today. So you have brought good fortune to the programme.