Secretary-General, at UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan Town Hall, Hails Long-Standing Mission’s Role in Contributing to Regional Stability

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres' remarks to the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) Town Hall, in Islamabad today:

Thank you for your warm welcome. It is a great pleasure to be back at UNMOGIP headquarters. I was honoured to join in inaugurating this building six years ago - and I know you have had many very busy days since then. You have been through extremely testing times through the years - but those challenges highlight the vital role that you play.

UNMOGIP is a unique and long-standing mission. You operate in an extremely sensitive political environment. You are entrusted with a difficult mandate. And you have consistently shown your commitment to fulfilling that mandate with dedication and professionalism. This was on full display in May last year, but, of course, challenges are never far away.

Day in and day out, you play a critical - indeed an essential - role with your visible presence on both sides of the Line of Control. Thank you for contributing to stability in the region. And stability is not easy to maintain. You have my heartfelt and profound gratitude as you continue to deliver.

General Guardado, I also want to congratulate you on your successful leadership as Head of Mission and Chief Military Observer. I know your assignment will be coming to an end in December. That is some interesting coincidence. Well, you are not the only one - indeed we have something in common.

With that in mind, dear colleagues, I must note that this might be my final visit to a UN peacekeeping mission as Secretary-General. Thank you, and I want to pay tribute to all our peacekeeping colleagues around the globe.

UN blue helmets are a source of hope in some of the world's most troubled places - and a source of pride to us all. I salute all you do - and all you represent.

Dear colleagues, thank you for your service and sacrifice. Thank you for dedicating your lives to humanity's most noble pursuit of all - the cause of peace. And I would like to ask all of you to have one minute of silence for all the peacekeepers, civilian and military, who lost their lives on their missions.