 It's a pleasure to welcome Director-General of FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Dr. Choudong Yu, European Space Agency Director-General Dr. Joseph Aspache, her Excellency Ambassador of France to FAO, Céline Jorgensen, his Excellency Ambassador of the Russian Federation to FAO, Viktor Vasiliyev, Acting Deputy Chief of Mission of the United States of America, Jodie Bressler, and of course, to our special guest, European Space Agency astronaut, Thomas Pesquet, who has joined with colleagues and members of the FAO core leadership joining this event. Welcome to all and bienvenue. So 60 years ago, on April 12, 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin completed one full orbit of the Earth, becoming the first human to travel space. In celebration of this feat, the United Nations General Assembly declared the day as the International Day of Human Space Flight, a fitting occasion for this ceremony. So for some time now, FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, has been working very closely in a wonderful collaboration with astronaut Thomas Pesquet. This with an aim to raise awareness of common goals and objectives, to support communities and countries in the quest for a better and more sustainable future for people, for planet, and leaving no one behind. Today, we are taking this partnership one giant step forward. And without further ado, I would like to give the floor to our Director General, Chu Dong-yu. Thank you, Yasminah. Welcome, Excellencies, Colleagues, and of course, European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Pesquet. Good morning, Houston. Thank you all for being here today for this very special occasion. FAO's Nobel mission is to end hangar administration on this planet, yet, as we speak, there is over 800 million undernourished people on the Earth. The number of the hangar has been increasing over the past few years. COVID-19 pandemic has pushed yet more people into hangar. Business as usual is not an option. Achieve the sustainable development goals and the eliminate hangar poverty by 2030. We must transform the way we produce, deliver, and consume food. FAO has a critical role in this transformation to achieve better production, better nutrition, better environment, and better life. But we cannot do this alone. Working together with our 194 members, we need to mobilize the entire society. We need to support of every individual. We need science, and we need action, most of all. Thomas Pesquet brings us a unique perspective. From the vantage point of space, Thomas, when we met together just a year ago, you talked about looking at the planet Earth from space and seeing how beautiful and yet fragile it is. We talked about the planet Earth being our spaceship, providing everything we need to grow our food and live healthy lives. We discussed the importance of using science to improve the policy, engage consumers, and advocate for sustainable lifestyles. Indeed, space sciences offer so much help, potential to farmers. FAO is, for example, having conscious use of satellite data to guide their policies. In this regard, we have excellent ongoing collaboration with the European Space Agency, and thanks to the newly appointed Director General, Mr. Achebache, being with us today. All the years, Thomas has worked in the support of the FAO to have the right to awareness of the impact of climate change, of cultural, of the importance of access to nutritious food, and of how critical it is for us to manage our natural resources wisely, reducing the food loss in the West. I'm delighted that today you are committed to working even more closely with us in your new capacity as an FAO Goodwill Ambassador. This is our honor and responsibility, resolved for every very exceptional individual. You have earned it through your solid track record supporting the work of the FAO. You will soon fly to the International Space Station, taking with you an FAO flag as a UN flag. You see on my back, ground is the UN flag, an FAO flag, and in between, it's in Chinese. It's a double happiness and a double lucky to you, and to all your colleagues who are going to the mission. So I wish you a successful mission. I look forward to connecting with you in the International Space Station. And of course, I look forward to working closely with you for many missions to come in space, and on this beautiful blue planet. So welcome on board, Thomas, and thank you. Thank you very much, Director General, for your words. I'd like to now hand over the microphone to the European Space Agency Director General Dr. Joseph Aschbacher. The floor is yours, sir. So thank you, Yasmeena. Thank you also, Director General of FAO Dr. Du. Hello, all the ambassadors, your Excellencies, and of course, hello to Tomar, our astronaut, sitting right now in Houston, waiting to take off and go to outer space. So it's really a pleasure to be with you. Thank you for this invitation, and this is a very special occasion. And I would like just to underline that astronauts are our best ambassadors to talk about not only the exploration part, but also how the satellites and space applications can benefit our planet Earth. These ambassadors like Tomar Beskay are our greatest ambassadors for the general public and for the youth in particular, as they are giving a real human touch to our work. All astronauts return from the International Space Station, talking about how they were struck by the fragility of the Earth, even if the first expectation from the public is to hear them talk about deep space exploration. But the experience on the ISS is also one of sustainable food use, which, of course, for the FAO is of utmost importance. Tomar brought the Paris Agreement to the International Space Station during his first flight. And now this Goodwill Ambassadorship is the next step. His patch features a tribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to highlight Tomar's and ESA's commitment to this common fight. Climate change is making it harder to achieve zero hunger. It destroys livelihoods of people who are growing our foods and put agriculture at risk in most vulnerable areas. ESA is supporting the FAO in its fight for sustainable agriculture and food security. And satellites help monitor climate variables and therefore assessing and mitigating and adapting different scenarios. Many variables to monitor climate change are only visible from space. And ESA is working to make monitoring from space even more precise and local to ensure countries can then enforce the Paris Agreement in the most efficient way. I thank you very much for your attention. Thank you very much, Dr. Ash Pacher, Director-General of ESA. And I will now ask if her Excellency, the Ambassador of France to FAO, Miss Céline Jorgensen, would like to say a few words. Hello. Good morning, dear Director-General, dear Thomas Pesquet. We are very pleased to be here today. This is a very special day. We are proud to have a French and a European astronaut here on board for this very special journey working towards peace, food for everybody, and achieving all the goals of sustainable development. So we very much looking forward to working with you and bon vol. Merci à vous. Merci beaucoup, Mme la Bassadrice, Director-General Chu Dong-Yu. The time has now come to present the scroll to the European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Pesquet. After a few moments, we'll have a few photographs, and then we will give the floor to Thomas Pesquet. Over to you. Now I hereby present to you the scroll official, you Thomas Pesquet, ever-good Ambassador. So I show you virtually. Thank you, Director-General. It is now with great pleasure that I hand over the microphone to our European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Pesquet, recently Goodwill Ambassador. Thank you, Asmina. Merci, Asmina. Dear Director-General Chu Dong-Yu, dear Joseph, your excellencies, your colleagues and friends. I'm very proud today obviously to accept the nomination as an FAO Goodwill Ambassador. My relationship with FAO started a few years back in a very personal way, and I was exposed little by little to the topics that FAO deals with on a daily basis, the fight against hunger and food insecurity. However, when I flew to space in 2017, my perspective changed drastically. I became very much aware of the parallel between our home planet and our spaceship, like Director-General Chu said a little bit earlier. After all, Earth is also a spaceship flying through space with limited resources. The problems are the same as a hostile environment that you have to deal with, limited resources that you have to share. And there's a need to get along among the crew and to work together to achieve your goals. I also was the witness of the effects of climate change on our planet and the consequences of human action. So I tried to document all these from space and advocate for more respect for the environment, because going to space with humans or satellites, it actually gives you the step back that you need to just gather the data at a global level. So after this mission, when I came back to Earth from these privileged venture points that enabled me to see so much, I was looking for a way to take action as the next logical step. The goals were clear, but the process was less. I wanted it to be an international corporation, because it's the way I think we're able to solve problems in a more global manner. And I wanted it to be in a scientific manner and evidence-driven and fact-driven, because I'm a scientist at heart and I believe that unbiased sciences is really the way to tackle most of today's problems. I wanted it to lean on technology, but maybe to be human-centered, because it's like in space exploration. You can achieve a lot with technology only, but when the human is your goal, when the human is on board, then you really make things change and evolve at a bigger scale. So the more I thought about it, the more I worked with FAO, the more it seemed obvious that the closer corporation was sticking all the boxes. So I was thrilled and very honored to learn that FAO was considering me as a good way ambassador. And today, as I'm preparing for my upcoming mission, I'm feeling closer than ever to the work of FAO. I want to bring awareness to the fight against food insecurity and hunger, and I want to highlight the relationships between our respective organizations who are together on a daily basis. So I look very much forward to our common work in the months to come and in the years to come. I look forward to meeting you again from the ISS remotely, unfortunately, and a little bit like everyone to the nowadays that I look forward to meeting you in person and to assist as much as I can, to support as much as I can, FAO's work on the field, where it's also, I think, the most needed by the population. So thank you very much for the honor and let's keep on the good work. Thank you. Thank you very much, Tomah. Thank you for your words, for your inspiring words. We are very excited to continue our collaboration, to advocate, and to do exactly what you're talking, making those connections between innovation and science in a journey forward to a better world. And if I can take from both your words and the Director General's words and put them together, let's work together to preserve our common spaceship, Mother Earth, as you had called her. And so once again, we wish you a successful mission and look forward to connecting this summer virtually while you are in space. You have been following the designation ceremony of astronaut Tomah Pesquet as goodwill ambassador for FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Director General, this is your floor. One planet, one dream. And this mission makes a big difference because you are more close to heart with FAO. Compare the last mission in 2017. So each mission, you had different feelings. That's why we are human beings, different from physicists and mechanized robots. So keep ourself, it's real humanity, and work for the one planet, one house, and one dream. Thank you. Okay, good luck. Thank you. Thanks, everyone. Thank you. Good luck, Tomah, and thank you. Good job. Thanks for being here. Thank you. Bye, Tomah.