AS DELIVERED

All of you had the Program of Work; it was circulated to you. I have always believed in transparency and always believed that everything we do should be in the open. So having said that, I know that from the breakfast meeting this morning, there were some concerns or issues with the Program of Work. And I felt like rather than us explaining it to each other, I think you can openly say in your national capacity if there are any issues you have with the Program of Work or if you think that we can do this by consensus. But I wanted to at least allow you to say it in your voice and not have it said for you.

And I hope that this will be the start of us continuing transparency. I think we’ve come a long way in the past couple of years in terms of making sure all Council meetings are starting to be in the open. In the United States’ presidency, every meeting will be in the open. And we hope that you will respect this and also consider it when it is your presidency as well.