Dr. Minasie Haile, Ethiopia's FM (1970-1973)

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The United Nations Security Council session in Addis Ababa ended in the early hours of Saturday morning (5 February).

Most delegates rated the week-long session - the first to be held on African soil - as a success, despite Britain's veto of a resolution on Rhodesia in the closing stages.

It was in this vein that Ethiopia's Foreign Minister Dr. Minassie Haile spoke when he addressed the Security Council before it rose at 1.25 local time.

Dr. Minasie Haile:

"I would like to assure the members of the Council that we have considered it a privilege to play host to this historic session of the United Nations Security Council. The first ever held in Africa. When we expressed our readiness to receive the Council here in our capital, we were any much conscious of the special significance and the consequence that these say have on developments in Africa. I believe that the United Nations has never before come as close to the African peoples who need its assistance most, as it has in the last week, when the Council has been meeting here. Even of the achievements of the Council at the end of the session were not as much as had been hoped for by the African in general, and particularly by those who are still under colonial domination, the fact that the Council in its wisdom has found it possible to meet on African soil is in itself, as the Secretary-General put it, an achievement."