Primacy of UN dominates second day of General Assembly debate
Opening the morning session, President Joaquim Alberto Chissano of Mozambique said sceptics have recently wondered whether the UN had lost its credibility and relevance. "The answer is clear: The role of the United Nations as the main instrument for the maintenance of international peace and security has more than ever before been vindicated," he declared. "It must be strengthened, safeguarded and adequately funded," he added. The 15-member Security Council must be expanded to make it more representative, with African receiving at least two permanent member positions, he said.
Noting recent international terrorist attacks, President Chissano said: “The United Nations remains the most appropriate forum for the search for the best ways and means of combating terrorism.” He referred to recent positive events in Africa, including the formation of a transitional government in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the ceasefire in Liberia, adding: “Africa is endowed with human and natural resources that can contribute decisively to its own development. What we need is an opportunity, an opportunity to integrate ourselves into the world economy.” Video
President Enrique Bolanos Geyer |
Pledging to fight corruption, President Bolanos said Nicaragua "greatly appreciates the efforts to translate a United Nations convention against corruption into reality." He also called for a more equitable international trading system through the World Trade Organization, declaring that international cooperation is not sufficient to achieve economic development. "We want fair treatment," he said. "This is the issue, and we hope the developed countries will be favourably disposed towards a new trade relationship with developing countries like Nicaragua." Video
President Arnold Ruutel |
President Ruutel devoted much of his speech to the importance of the environment and sustainable development. Noting the problem of limited resources, a bourgeoning world population and pollution, he said: "Environment protection and ensuring of the welfare of mankind and wildlife is becoming an ever more important and difficult task. It is not by chance that the UN declared the year 2003 the International Year of Fresh Water and that the year 2002 focused on eco-tourism and mountain regions." Video
President John Agyekum Kufuor |
President Kufuor made a plea, too, not to abandon Africa in its efforts to resolve its internal conflicts or its battle against scourges like AIDS, hunger, poverty and under-development. He noted that the UN Human Development Report for 2003 "exposes the tragedy that besets sub-Saharan Africa" - that it will take 150 years for the region to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, which Member States had hoped to achieve by 2015. He also endorsed an expansion of the Security Council with two new permanent seats for Africa. Video
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika |
President Bouteflika also called for greater international intervention on the Middle East conflict to "firmly urge Israel to fully cooperate for a global, just and lasting solution, which necessarily includes the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian State." In Iraq, he said, only the UN "can legitimately and efficiently accompany the institution building and reconstruction of the country, and its role in these processes is of paramount importance." Video
President Lucio Gutiérrez |
President Gutiérrez also addressed the problem of external debt and how it stymied the efforts of poor nations and said debt should not be dealt with solely as an economic issue, but must be recognized as constituting a social and human tragedy. Servicing their external debt, devoid of generosity from developed nations, absorbed the vast bulk of many nations' efforts and savings, he noted. The President said poor nations were not, however, asking for charity, only a chance to grow. Ecuador, for example, devoted over 40 per cent of its income to servicing its external debt. Video
President Pervez Musharraf |
For its part, Mr. Musharraf continued, the West must help resolve disputes and situations where Muslim peoples are oppressed such as in Palestine and Kashmir. They must reject attempts to equate terrorism with Islam, and must assist the Muslim world in poverty alleviation and socio-economic development. The UN also had a role to play - it must quickly reach consensus on a way to restore Iraq's stability, security and sovereignty, he said. In addition, Mr. Musharraf invited India to join Pakistan in a sustained dialogue with regards to Kashmir. He said while India had stepped back from its "dangerous and failed experiment in coercive diplomacy" last year, it continued to ignore to relevant Security Council resolutions on the Kashmiri people's right to self-determination. India also had refused Pakistan's offers of dialogue to help resolve the dispute, he said. Video
President Vicente Fox |
Mexico understood the benefits of working as a team both nationally and internationally to ensure all around progress, Mr. Fox said. With that in mind, he reiterated that the UN was the most fitting forum to promote the idea of collective action. He also warned that perhaps the very future of the Organization hung on the decisions that would be made concerning the reconstruction and future of Iraq. Above and beyond Iraq, he said, there were other problems, particularly unresolved and escalating hostilities in the Middle East, ongoing conflict in Africa, and increasing tensions in Asia surrounding weapons of mass destruction. It was time to ensure that diplomacy and dialogue pointed the way forward on those issues. Video
Chancellor Gerhard Schröder |
Mindful of their history, he continued, Germans advocated cooperative policies based upon economic, political and humanitarian means in pursuit of peace and justice in the Middle East, Africa and other areas. Yet, shoulder-to-shoulder with its partners in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and European Union (EU), Germany would assume the military responsibility to secure peace and protect human beings when there was no other way, he added. More than 9,000 members of the German armed forces and police were currently deployed on international missions. Mr. Schröder also said while major advances had been secured in the realization of the common goals enshrined in the UN Charter, the fight against hunger, injustice and poverty had yet to be won. Video
Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar |
On Iraq, Mr. Aznar said efforts must be geared towards restoring sovereignty to the Iraqi people so that they may freely benefit from their own resources. He proposed an agreement that allows for a multinational force under a single command with the clear mission to guarantee peace and stability. “Because of the high risk of terrorist activity in Iraq, the task cannot be entrusted to an intervention force but precisely to a force which ensures peace and stability,” he stated. Video
The Vice-President of Bolivia, Carlos Mesa Gisbert, also addressed the Assembly during its debate, as did the Foreign Ministers of China, Li Zhaoxing, and Australia, Alexander Downer.