McKinnon welcomes appointment of new UN Secretary-General

"The Commonwealth and the UN have a long, proud and successful history of working together to protect and promote democracy and to eliminate poverty. I am confident that the successes achieved by the Commonwealth and the UN operating as a strategic partnership, each organisation playing to its strengths, will continue.

"The Commonwealth operates at both the governmental level through its networks of 53 governments - one quarter of the UN's membership - and at the people-to-people level through more than 80 civil society organisations. The Commonwealth supports the UN in particular through our quiet diplomacy at the most senior political levels around the world and through our highly targeted technical assistance programmes, usually delivered by experts from developing countries to those in need in other developing countries.

"Ban Ki-moon becomes Secretary-General at a time when the UN is facing serious security and development challenges around the world, and when there is a strong determination to achieve internal UN reform. The Commonwealth's 53 member states will be enthusiastic about supporting Ban Ki-moon in tackling these challenges. Ban Ki-moon is a man with whom we can do business and with whom we want to get down to business from 1 January 2007."

Secretariat Links:

• Commonwealth Secretary-General

Related Websites:

• The United Nations
• Profile