UN General Assembly
1994

First of all, I should like to extend congratulations to the President on his election. My colleague Foreign Minister Kinkel, on behalf of the European Union, has just given a broad overview of our approach to the United Nations. The great challenges which the United Nations faces today are well summarized in his statement. The idea that the world is divided into a North and a South with greatly diverging interests is being replaced by a growing awareness that the fundamental problems we face are common, global problems - to ensure sustainable development, to protect our environment, to solve the population problem, to prevent social 20 disintegration, to uphold justice and to protect the dignity of the human person. The United Nations will have to play a central role in our common efforts to find answers to these global problems. There is a need for coherent, integrated policies for problems which have so far been treated largely as separate questions - problems of peace and security, development, trade, democracy and human rights, the