Remarks at the Heads of State Luncheon
Remarks
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
United Nations
New York City
September 25, 2012
Secretary
General, heads of state, excellencies: on behalf of President Obama and
our government, let me again warmly welcome you here on behalf of the
host country. And let me also express our very great appreciation to the
Secretary General for your leadership, sir.
You have, over the course of your time at the helm of the United
Nations, continued a reform effort as well as advanced and advocated for
a number of important initiatives, and we salute you and express our
deep gratitude.
As the Secretary General just said, we meet in the wake of a great
loss, not only for the United States, with the killing of our Ambassador
and three of his colleagues, but also a reminder of the important work
that these men and women do every single day. The blue-helmeted peace
keepers, the dedicated aid workers – they are out there at our behest.
Our governments ask them to serve; the United Nations and other
multilateral organizations do as well.
And in the last weeks, we have seen the price that too many of them
pay. As the Secretary General said, in addition to our loss, very
recently an Algerian diplomat also lost. Last year, Nepalese, Norwegian,
Romanian, Swedish, UN officials and guards killed in Afghanistan; all
those lost in the bombing of the UN facility in Nigeria last summer. As
President Obama said this morning in his address to the General
Assembly, attacks such as these, against embassies, consulates,
diplomats anywhere in the world, strike at the heart of the mission of
the United Nations.
So let us stand together against violence and extremism on behalf of
those values and principles that we ascribe to and that we aspire to see
fulfilled. And let me ask you to raise our glasses in a toast to all of
our diplomats and development experts from every nation serving and
sacrificing far from home. They represent the best traditions of our
international community. They are committed to the peace and progress
that brought about the establishment of this extraordinarily important
institution, and we owe them our full support and gratitude.
Thank you.
