I would like to express my sincere personal thanks and our deepest respect to Horst Köhler for his tireless commitment. After more than a decade of deadlock, he managed to bring all the parties around one table.

Horst Köhler has thus laid the foundations for a negotiation process which can result in a realistic, practicable and durable solution within the UN framework, allowing the Sahrawi people to exercise their right to self-determination.

We will continue in this vein efforts and will also use our Security Council membership in 2019/20 to achieve this goal.