Dear Friends,

I don’t have a prepared speech. Which means I am going to talk to you from the heart and share with you my sense of enormous gratitude, deep friendship, and partnership with France, at this important moment in my life.

For years, we have worked together in different fields, in France and abroad, always in close partnership, sharing common perspectives and goals, with respect, above all, for the great values of France. For me this partnership is particularly important. It's a partnership built on historical values. And these historical values have proven their worth the world over. They are values that originated in France, but are now universal.

My institution and my community are committed to defending, developing and promoting these values. We seek to educate the institutions in the countries where we work to include these values in their own philosophy and educational programmes so that it is no longer something new, but an integral part of the quality of civil society in the countries where the Ismaili community lives.

I want to thank France today for its wise counsel and the examples you have set. I have witnessed their implementation, especially in Africa where there are political regimes that have learned a great deal from France; thanks to what they have learned from you, today these regimes demonstrate a high level of management quality.

Thank you for the award you have given me. I am extremely touched. I hope that, in the years I have left, I will be able to make myself even worthier of this honour.

Thank you.