UN General Assembly
1998

programme adopted by the Government of Kyrgyzstan last year. Kyrgyzstan is a mountainous country; most of its territory — 95 per cent — is covered by mountains. Mountains, as is well known, are an important source of fresh water, biological diversity, mineral resources and energy, as well as being extremely important for tourism. At the same time, however, mountains means surprises and dangers. Earthquakes, landslides, avalanches, floods — all threaten human lives and require enormous financial and material expenditures. In that connection, Kyrgyzstan is deeply grateful to United Nations Member States for their support of its initiative to declare the year 2002 an international year of mountains, and we request them to continue to support the initiative at this session of the Assembly. The Kyrgyz Republic’s policy of peace, which is focused on the new trend towards a multipolar global system, presupposes, inter alia, a safe, non-nuclear future. The specific steps Kyrgyzstan has taken in the area of nuclear disarmament and in strengthening the nuclear nonproliferation regime confirm its commitment to this policy. Appropriately, the Central Asian countries’ initiative