Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The African Union has indicated a strong preference for AMISOM to hand the mission over to a UN force. This strong preference was reiterated last week at the African Union Summit as it was in the African Union Commission's most recent report. However, the situation in Somalia is so troubled that for the first time, at least to the best of my knowledge, the UN Secretary General has said that it may not be possible to send in UN peacekeeping troops.
As an alternative, the Secretary General suggested a multilateral mission, a coalition of the willing. In spite of the Secretary General's specific concerns about deploying United Nations troops to Somalia, the United Nations is nonetheless analyzing the situation.
All countries wishing to help Somalia currently face the same, significant problem: access is very difficult. As we do not have proper access to the country, it is very difficult to carry out our own analysis, to implement programs or to have meaningful dialogue with the Somali government. Traditional access channels are closed to diplomats and development experts from the majority of countries involved in the International Somalia Contact Group.