Yaounde, 10 January 2025
SPEECH BY THE HEAD OF STATE *** In response to the wishes of the Diplomatic Corps
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- The Dean of the Diplomatic Corps,
I would like to start by thanking you for your warm and kind words as well as for the wishes you have just extended to me and to the Cameroonian people.
Last year, in this same place and under the same circumstances, I called on you to support Cameroon's candidacy for the presidency of the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
I am pleased to say that thanks to the support of your respective countries, the said candidacy had a successful outcome. I would like to once more thank you sincerely and, through you, your governments and the entire international community.
Cameroon's mandate, which began in September 2024, will end in September 2025. It will certainly give us the opportunity to work together towards renewed multilateralism, which our world so badly needs.
The Summit of the Future, that was held on 22 and 23 September in New York, was already part of this outlook. It led to the adoption of important instruments such as the Pact for the Future and its annexes, including the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations.
- Distinguished Members of the Diplomatic Corps,
In terms of peace and security, the year 2024 that has just ended was, unfortunately, not all plain sailing.
Multiple hotbeds of conflict and tension persisted, or arose here and there. Ukraine, Sudan, Lebanon, Gaza, Haiti and other theaters of seemingly endless human tragedy, have regularly fed the global media with deadly chronicles. Despite our collective efforts, terrorism continued to rear its ugly head here and there.
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The spectre of a nuclear war, which would have appalling consequences for the future of Humankind, is now looming over our uncertain horizon.
Yes, Mr. Dean, Ladies and Gentlemen, members of the Diplomatic Corps, our world often seems to be going mad, teetering on the edge of an abyss. The number of victims of violence continues to rise, while entire populations continue to suffer the horrors of killing, mutilation, destruction, forced displacement and exile.
Thus, a part of humanity remains in the throes of hunger, killings, destruction, forced displacement and exile.
How did we get here? How could we have gone so much adrift, even though the various frameworks for inter-State dialogue seemed to have put us on the path to lasting peace?
For my part, I tend to think that persistent national egoisms, the resurgence of unilateralism at the expense of multilateralism, and non-compliance with international rules, are all factors that account for this situation.
Is this unavoidable? I refuse to believe so.
- Ladies and Gentlemen, Distinguished Members of the Diplomatic Corps,
Clearly, what our world needs is greater solidarity. If we must survive, we have no choice but to set our common priorities, avail ourselves of the requisite wherewithal to achieve them, and pool our forces.