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Thank you so much.

We are 4 minutes away from noontime, so I say good morning to all of you.

And I’m very happy to be before you as the newly sworn in president of the General Assembly 81st session.

The first thing that I want to say very clearly to my friends of [the press], I’ll work very closely with you.

This is my style back home. I work openly with the media, and this will be no different. From time to time, I’ll come to you, we’ll huddle together. I’ll try to get your wisdom on matters.

I want it to be a two-way traffic, not just that you ask me a question and I respond. That is something which I will pursue, please make it easier on me.

As I shared this thought with you in June after I was elected, that we have a heavy responsibility before us during this 81st session. The Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ multilateralism as a whole is being tested in ways we have never seen before and I’m around for many, many years.

I came to this place in 1985 as a delegate and the following year, my foreign minister was president of the General Assembly, a déjà vu nod because the world has changed quite a bit in the intervening 40 years and 40 years is a long time. Despite these challenges, we have opportunities that we hadn’t before, especially in the area of new technologies where the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ is playing an important role when it comes to AI governance.

And in confronting the challenges and in harnessing the opportunities, I will put a high premium on cooperation and dialogue. I’m not naive to think that everything can be resolved quickly, amicably.

There are things that will stay unresolved. There are things that we might take time to find solutions. That’s fine. But that should not stop us from seeking common grounds wherever we can.

That is something I will continuously try to do. And my Presidency, as I said before, will lean heavily on the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Charter. I’ll be completely faithful to this, as well as the mandates that the member states have given to the United Nations. I believe that my job will be much easier if Member States work together in order that some of the critical issues that we see before us could be resolved through dialogue rather than other ways.

I also commend my predecessor for leading a difficult session in a very productive manner. I applaud the Secretary-General for his proposals and his efforts in carrying forward Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ reforms, which will be, again, a continued process under my Presidency.

One of the things that I hold very dear to me is the opening words of the Charter, with the Peoples of the United Nations. It doesn’t say with the States of the United Nations.

The Organization is larger than the Member States that you see here. That’s where civil society, media, industry leaders, the innovation communities, academia, all of them are very important. We have not been able to find yet a way to integrate their voices into the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ. In my view, we’re still treating them as the “other”.

Unlocking the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ will be something that I will try to pursue during my Presidency. As a candidate, I ran on the theme: “Restoring trust, managing transformation”. Now, as President, I add to this, we must make the United Nations “Fit for the Future”. This must be a place where countries can once again say, and vote, YES to the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ – L’ONU, Oui – with confidence and with enthusiasm.

I thank you.