FULL-TEXT | Speech of Hon. Mayiik Ayii Deng during his swearing in ceremony

JUBA – South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit sworn in the newly-appointed minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation Mayiik Ayii Deng. Deng Was appointed bide a presidential decree to replace Beatrice Khamisa as foreign minister yesterday.

In speech during his swearing ceremony, Minister Mayiik said he will work to address a number of issues ranging from payment of obligations in regional and international organizations to delay of salaries of South Sudan diplomats.

Below is his full-text speech.

STATEMENT OF HON. MAYIIK AYII DENG, MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS & INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

Your Excellency the President

Hon. Advisors

Hon. Ministers

Ladies and gentlemen

1. Your Excellency, I acknowledge the appointment and appreciate your trust bestowed upon me as a Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. It’s quite a challenging task amidst number of pressing issues. I promise with your guidance, we will win over.
2. Mr. President, as a chief diplomat, I think we agree that the level of political violence has decreased, following the signing of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan 2018, however, the geopolitics of liberal international order remains a big challenge ahead of us.
3. As a government, we’ve diplomatic missions that underwent two years without payments, non-payment of our membership fees and obligations in nearly all multilateral institutions and poor working conditions in the Ministry. All these challenges have led to underperformance and less strategic achievements.
4. Mr. President, Article 43 of the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan 2011, as amended, provides that treaty obligations are key to the success of our foreign policy.
5. In conclusion, we’ll join hand under your wise leadership and together we shall move forward to implementing the R-ARCISS and the policy objectives of the government which you recently delivered to the National Legislature.

Hon. Mayiik Ayii Deng, MP

Minister for Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation

Juba.