UN General Assembly
1997

increasing number of intra-State problems — conflicts of an ethnic rather than social nature. There are many multinational States in the world today, and we support the initiatives designed to prevent their forcible disintegration. The formula for settling such conflicts in today’s world — and, of course, in the twenty-first century — can and must combine the need to preserve the territorial integrity of those States with the provision of the maximum possible number of rights to their national minorities. To abandon any of the principles of this two-track formula would result not only in the continuation but in the dangerous escalation of such conflict situations. Likewise, I wish to draw the Assembly’s particular attention to a dangerous aspect of regional conflicts: their ability to trigger terrorist waves and spread them far and wide beyond the borders of the actual conflict zone. For example, many of the militants who launched a bloody campaign of terror in a number of countries emerged out of the ongoing armed conflict that still rages in Afghanistan. We strongly support the combat against terrorism,