President GAYOOM: I have much pleasure in extending to you, Sir, my warm congratulations and those of the members of the Maldives delegation on your election as President of the forty-fifth session of the General Assembly. We are confident that under your able guidance the deliberations of this session will ba concluded in a successful manner, I should also like to convey our sincere appreciation to your predecessor, Major-General Joseph Garba, for having done an excellent job in presiding over the Assembly during the past year. I note here with particular pleasure the significance of his visit to the Maldives earlier this year in spite of his very busy schedule, I wish to express my country's deep appreciation also to the Secretary-General, Mr. Javier Perez de Cuellar, for his dedicated efforts to uphold the noble objectives of the United Nations. We wish him well in all his endeavours* On behalf of the Maldives, it gives me great pleasure to welcome the admission of Namibia to the United Nations, which it truly deserves after its long and hard-fought battle for independence. We are confident that independent Namibia will make a most positive contribution to the work of the Organization, I should also like to welcome our newest Member, the Principality of Liechtenstein, and. RC/3 A/45/PV.10 3-5 (President Gavoom) congratulate it on having gained the sovereign independent status it enjoys today. This year the Maldives is celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the attainment of full political independence. I do not, therefore, consider it irrelevant ot reflect a little on the achievements we have been able to make during the past 25 years. From the day we became an independent nation, we embarked on a determined path to overcome the triple menace of poverty, illiteracy and disease. 