Bangkok--26 May--UN Your Excellency Samak Samak Sundaravej, Prime Minister of Thailand, Your Excellency Surin Pisuwan, Secretary-General of ASEAN, Mr. Foreign Minister, Excellencies, Colleagues, Ladies and gentlemen, We meet at a time of profound mourning. Over the past few days, I had the opportunity to see for myself the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis. As I said in Yangon last night: I am humbled by the scale of this natural disaster and humbled by the courage and resilience of the people of Myanmar . It is our duty to do everything we can to prevent further deaths and suffering. That is why today’s official opening of the Don Mueang Air Hub is so vital. We are still in the relief phase of the crisis. The needy and the vulnerable depend on the delivery of emergency assistance. Therefore, the channeling of aid into Myanmar should be as efficient and logistically sound as possible. This facility will provide a critical staging area for the relief effort. It will enable larger planes to land, and more relief supplies to be flow-in from all over the world. It will save lives. Our collaborative work will begin immediately and it will be bolstered along the way. We are very grateful to the Government of Australia for providing aircraft to fly to Johannesburg , South Africa , in order to pick up two United Nations helicopters and fly them to Bangkok early next week for use in the Nargis response. We are also very grateful to the Canadian Government for their support in helping to airlift up to five helicopters from the Ukraine to Bangkok , providing another major boost to the relief operation. In this connection, Mr. Prime Minister, I thank you and your Government for making this facility available to us in such a timely manner. Your generosity comes at a crucial time, and it provides all those involved in the relief effort with a valuable asset. Indeed, this arrangement underscores the collaborative spirit between key ASEAN member states, the Government of Myanmar and the United Nations. I thank the people and the Government of Thailand for joining hands with us and for playing a valuable part in this aid operation. And I look forward to working very closely with the Secretary-General of ASEAN and I count on your leadership. For more information, please contact : UN Information Services Tel.: +66-2-288-1861-9; Fax: +66-2-288-1052 Email: [email protected]