UN General Assembly
2012

﻿I bring cordial greetings to the authorities of the United Nations and to all the Heads of State and representatives here with us. This session of the General Assembly, which will address the theme of the settlement of disputes by peaceful means, offers us an opportunity to reflect on the course of the history of our countries and humankind, and to showcase the issues that the world’s peoples need to solve. The peaceful settlement of conflicts is an essential part of how we strengthen our democratic institutions and the rule of law in a world that has not yet consolidated peace. For various reasons that we need not go into, we are witnessing violations of the principle of non-interference — through various mechanisms that are not necessarily military — of our countries’ constitutions and our own international treaties, as well as various manifestations of intolerance, xenophobia and other attitudes that provoke violence and foment conflict. Hard as it is to believe, we still see political parties, leaders, intellectuals and representatives of the