Secretary-General's remarks at Handover Ceremony of the Chairmanship of the Group of 77 and China [as delivered].

Allow me first of all to join my voice to the expression of total solidarity with the people, the Government and the President of Kenya in total condemnation of the horrible terrorist act that we have just heard about.

But simultaneously it is for me a great pleasure to join you today as we embark on another critical year of work at the United Nations.

I congratulate the State of Palestine as it assumes the Presidency of the Group of 77 and China for 2019. I welcome Your Excellency President Mahmoud Abbas and thank you for joining us today, as a clear demonstration of the strong commitment of the State of Palestine to an effective Presidency of the Group of 77 and China.

And I warmly thank the Egyptian Presidency for your hard work and expert guidance of the G77 and China throughout 2018. Egypt, as a founding member of the G77 and a pillar of the Non-Aligned Movement, has fulfilled high expectations. It is a pleasure to be joined by Your Excellency Minister Shoukry. Allow me to express my personal gratitude to Ambassador Edrees for what was exemplary cooperation during this year.

The Group of 77 and China has demonstrated strong leadership throughout 2018 and proved once again to be a central force in demonstrating that multilateralism is the only way to address our shared challenges.

Thank you for your exemplary engagement and commitment across the agenda of the United Nations.

And thank you for the excellent cooperation between the Group of 77 and the United Nations Secretariat, including with my own office.

Despite many obstacles and challenges, ranging from climate change to rising inequality and fast changing and new technologies, we have made important progress over the past twelve months. Under the Egyptian presidency, the Group of 77 and China have been at the heart of that progress.

On climate change, the Group's consistent and exemplary stance helped to get a positive result at COP24 in Katowice. Your decisive contribution and again Egypt's leadership, that I could witness myself - your decisive contribution, enabled us to find common ground so that governments could reach agreement on the Work Programme to implement the Paris agreement.

Egypt's leadership and advocacy on finance for developing countries to meet their climate action commitments were highly effective.

The Group of 77 and China continued to make sure that resilience and adaptation remain high on the global climate agenda. And some of your largest economies are...