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It is a rare privilege to welcome an allied leader among usand on behalf of the Council I do welcome you most cordially. For mepersonally, this is a great honour.
We have entered a remarkable year of anniversaries. These days weare commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation ofconcentration camps. Later this year we will be celebrating the 60thanniversary of the end of World War II; this event sealed the fate ofBrown totalitarianism.
But this year we will also be celebrating the 50th anniversary ofGermany joining NATO; a crucial event which allowed the Alliance to puton serious footing the task of protecting free Europe against Redtotalitarianism.
Mr. President the fate of you and your family bares witness to thathistory. Your people traversed half of Europe moving from today'sMoldova to today's Poland, from there to yesterday's German DemocraticRepublic, from there finally to the Federal Republic of Germany whereyou have now assumed the highest possible office. What an odyssey. Whata testimony to the changing face of Europe in the last century.
But while Brown and Red regimes are dead, other nefarious regimesand organizations have sprouted up in various parts of the world.Consequently there continues to be more than enough work for NATO to doand we are proud that in our current geographical spread, unimaginablejust a few years ago, Germany is playing an important role as theSecretary General recalled.
Being actually responsible, among other, for the very farthestreaches of NATO's presence anywhere in Afghanistan's far northeast. Forthis we are extremely grateful and on a national note, if you permitme, it feels me with pride that a contingent of Czech soldiers will bejoining yours in Faisabad in the foreseeable future.
In your inaugural address six months ago, Mr. President, you rangedfar and wide covering grounds from Leibniz to Leipzig, from the designof a football to the design for a Europe. You spoke of a Renaissance inGermany but the breadth of your concerns and interests reveal you as aRenaissance man yourself.
Your concern for the wellbeing of your compatriots was evident butyou are concerned for the people world over. This was clear from yourprevious work in the IMF; and your first trip abroad, having taken youto some of the most desolate parts of Africa only underscores this.
Mr. President you have invited your compatriots to strive for thealmost impossible. You may wish to address the same advice to thisorganization as well.
In this you echoed, consciously or not, the great cry of ourgeneration in 1968 in Paris: Soyez réalistes, demandez l'impossible.With leaders manifesting your kind of vision and your kind ofsolidarity with the oppressed, Mr. President, we just might managethat.
Welcome.