Obama inaugurates new US mission building to the United Nations

Mar 30, 2011, 9:50 GMT

New York - President Barack Obama on Tuesday inaugurated the new building of the US mission to the United Nations in New York, using the occasion to defend his decision to send US warplanes against the Libyan regime of Moamer Gaddafi.

The more than 30-storey US mission, which faces the UN headquarters on First Avenue in Manhattan, was completely rebuilt with security and terrorist-proof specifications after the terrorist attacks against New York's World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Obama dedicated it to former US Secretary of Commerce Ronald Brown, who died in a plane crash with 34 other people in 1996 in Croatia, when the US tried to launch economic development in the Balkans after the Bosnian war.

Former President Bill Clinton and Brown's family members were present at the dedication ceremony.

'We believe that the world is more secure ... when we act collectively,' Obama said.

'As I said last night, the burden of action should not always be America's alone,' he said, referring to his speech to explain his decision to lead airstrikes to enforce the UN-authorized no-fly zone over Libya.

Obama said that NATO this week was taking over the responsibility to enforce the no-fly zone.

He said the US will be 'right there at the center of it, but not alone, everybody stepping up, bearing responsibilities, carrying the costs of upholding peace and security. That's what it means to be United Nations.'