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SG: I had a very good bilateral meeting with his Excellency President Ben Ali. I commended his leadership under which the Tunisian people have been enjoying political, economic, social stability, and sustained economic growth over the rate of 5 per cent during the last twenty years, goes to the great leadership of President Ben Ali. I also commended the smooth progress in meeting and realizing the Millennium Development Goals of the Tunisian Government. And I hope that this would be a good example to many other countries in the region. We discussed in depth about how to counter terrorism.

And I commended the initiative taken by, again, the Tunisian government and President Ben Ali in hosting this very important conference on counter-terrorism. I hope that through this meeting, the whole international community would be able to build upon our common efforts to address international terrorism. Â鶹´«Ã½ General Assembly, with the full consensus of 192 countries, has adopted a very important milestone resolution on establishing the UN global counter-terrorism strategy. This conference is in line with that, and I, again, commend it. We have identified some elements on how to address terrorism comprehensively. And I am very much encouraged by the strong commitment of President Ben Ali in addressing these issues. We have discussed some situations –Lebanon, Africa and the Middle East Peace Process, and I value highly the advice which President Ben Ali has given me. This advice will be very useful for me as Secretary-General in carrying out my duties and I was assured that we will cooperate and continue to work very closely in addressing and working together for common objectives and goals of the United Nations as well as peace and prosperity in this region.

Thank you very much.