The summit has demonstrated once again how important an asset confidence may be.

The election of President Mahmoud Abbas in January 2005 demonstrated the commitment of the Palestinian people to democracy.

Indeed, our commitment to the United Nations and its Charter has been clearly illustrated by our gathering here in such great numbers.

Hezbollah s bombardment of northern Israel in 2006, further demonstrated the country s vulnerability to missile attack.

We are pleased that the outcomes of the meeting of the Balkans Contact Group in London demonstrated the clear intentions of its participants to work together to achieve a stable Kosovo settlement.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi s success in mediating between Israel and Hamas demonstrated that Islamists can be flexible even when it comes to Israel.

The Turkish side has clearly demonstrated its resolve in this regard, and will continue to do so. With that understanding, Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus will hold consultations with the United Nations delegation that will visit the region this week.

But the public enthusiasm that ratified Putin s rule for a decade has vanished, something demonstrated by the poor performance of his party, United Russia, in the just concluded elections to the Duma.

The 10 December 2004 debate in the General Assembly on human rights education clearly brought out the importance that Member States are increasingly attaching to this aspect of the promotion of human rights.

The recent escalation in violence, illustrated by the deaths of Mr. Kutty and other development and humanitarian personnel, underlines the continuing serious threat to Afghanistan's security and stability posed by remnants of Al Qaida, Taliban and other terrorist and extremist elements.

Likewise, China s success, and the temptation to bandwagon on its development model, has reinvigorated IP s appeal, as have better policy tools and greater experience of what works and what doesn t a point well argued by Justin Lin of the World Bank.