I offer my delegation’s
congratulations to the President for his election as the
President of the General Assembly at its sixty-second
session and assure him of our support and cooperation.
My delegation would also like to convey our
appreciation to his predecessor, Sheikha Haya Rashed
Al-Khalifa, for the able manner in which she guided
the work of the Assembly at the sixty-first session. We
also convey our appreciation to the Secretary-General,
Mr. Ban Ki-moon, for the excellent leadership he
provides to our Organization.
 We are gratified that climate change and the
Millennium Development Goals are among the top
priorities of this session’s presidency. The irony of
climate change is that its worst impact will be on the
developing world, particularly small and island
developing countries, who are least responsible for the
problem. As complex as the issue is, climate change is
inextricably linked to development and the debate
engenders issues of equity, fairness and the right of
countries to grow economically. The challenges of
climate change must, therefore, be addressed within the
framework of sustainable development bearing in mind
the principle of common but differentiated
responsibilities.
 Bhutan has two major concerns about climate
change. First is the potential adverse impact on
agriculture, which is the mainstay of 79 per cent of our
population. Second, more serious and immediate, is the
rate at which Himalayan glaciers are receding. Bhutan
has approximately 3,000 glacial lakes, of which 24
have been identified as potentially dangerous. Floods
caused by glacial lake outbursts have caused
devastation in the past, and future outbursts will be far
worse. Our capacity to carry out research, monitor
developments, forecast outbursts and take mitigation
measures is severely constrained by a lack of scientific,
technical and financial resources.
 In the Millennium Declaration of 2000, world
leaders undertook to channel the fruits of globalization
to benefit all people and lift one sixth of humanity
from extreme poverty. At the midpoint between the
adoption of the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) and the target date of 2015, reports, including
the 2007 Millennium Development Goals Report,
provide a mixed picture at best. The Secretary-General
has rightly said that the world does not need new
promises to achieve the MDGs. What is needed is
urgent and concerted action by political leaders and
stakeholders to meet, in their entirety, the commitments
made in the Millennium Declaration and in the
Monterrey Consensus adopted at the 2002 International
Conference on Financing for Development and at the
2005 World Summit.
 The 2006 midterm comprehensive global review
of the implementation of the Programme of Action for
the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001-
2010 revealed that the least developed countries were
unlikely to achieve all the goals and objectives of the
Programme of Action, and therefore the MDGs, if
trends continued. It is the moral and political
imperative of the international community to help the
least developed countries through strong supportive
global programmes, measures and policies. However,
one year later, the situation remains largely unchanged.
 Geographical constraints present enormous
challenges to landlocked developing countries. Bhutan
is working closely with the group of landlocked
developing countries to address those challenges
through the cooperation of transit countries and the
international community. The needs of the landlocked
countries are well-documented and there is a road map
for global partnership set out in the Almaty Programme
of Action.
 Bhutan has made tremendous socio-economic
progress during the past 45 years. However, there are
many hurdles to overcome before we can stand on our
own feet and be self-reliant. We are determined to
achieve the cherished goal of self-reliance at the
earliest time possible. Until then, we will have to rely
on external assistance and support. Here, I would like
to record my country’s appreciation to bilateral and
multilateral donors.
 We hope that under the leadership of the
President the Assembly will undertake results-oriented
intergovernmental negotiations on Security Council
reform in order to bring that issue to its logical
conclusion. As we have stated before, Bhutan supports
India, Japan and their G4 group partners for permanent
membership. We also support Africa’s claim for
permanent seats.
 My country has as much interest in the work of
the Security Council as others and would like to see it
adapt to current demands and realities. Since becoming
a Member in 1971, my country has served in a number
of important bodies of the United Nations, but not in
the Security Council. We are confident of our capacity
to contribute directly to the work of the Council.
Bhutan therefore announced in 1999 its candidature for
a non-permanent seat for the period 2013-2014. If
realized, Bhutan would gain entry into the Council
after four decades in the United Nations. It is our
sincere hope that the General Assembly will support
Bhutan’s candidacy during the elections in 2012.
 Terrorism strikes at the very foundation of
humanism and cannot be justified under any
circumstances. This evil must be countered through
cooperation at the bilateral, regional and global levels.
At the global level, greater efforts must be made to
implement the United Nations Global Counter-
Terrorism Strategy and conclude a comprehensive
convention on international terrorism. Within our
region, the leaders of the South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation, at their 14th summit meeting,
held in New Delhi in April 2007, reaffirmed their
commitment to collectively fight terrorism. That is a
positive development, but more needs to be done to rid
the region of this menace.
 Allow me to briefly apprise this body of
developments in my country. The development model
pursued by Bhutan is based on the philosophy of
“Gross National Happiness”, a concept conceived by
our fourth King, His Majesty Jigme Singye
Wangchuck, in the early 1970s. Gross National
Happiness is premised on the belief that, if happiness is
the ultimate desire of every individual, then it is the
responsibility and purpose of the State to create
conditions that enable citizens to realize this desire. We
are glad that the concept of Gross National Happiness
is drawing increasing global attention and we stand
ready to share our experiences in this regard.
 Bhutan is now set on the irreversible path to a
full-fledged democratic constitutional monarchy. The
people of Bhutan are looking forward to 2008, when
parliamentary democracy will be introduced. Next
year, Bhutan will also celebrate the formal coronation
of His Majesty Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and
the centenary of the Wangchuck dynasty. As we stand
at the threshold of these momentous developments, the
people of Bhutan look to our friends and well-wishers
and the global community for support and inspiration.
 Before I conclude, allow me to refer to the
comments made yesterday by the honourable Foreign
Minister of Nepal regarding the problem of the people
in camps in Nepal. As her comments were less than
objective, it is important that misperceptions be
clarified. It is disingenuous on her part to blame
Bhutan for the lack of progress in our bilateral talks
when it is widely known that disruptions to the
bilateral process resulted from the political instability
in her country, which were accompanied by frequent
changes of Government and positions on the issue.
Bhutan for its part has always been committed to the
bilateral process and has not deviated from the
understandings and agreements reached between the
two countries.
 The issue is a highly complex one that does not
lend itself to conventional solutions. The genesis of the
problem lies in illegal immigration. The camps were
established without any screening procedures when
only 304 people, claiming to be refugees from Bhutan,
arrived in eastern Nepal. Screening procedures were
put in place by the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees only after two and a half
years, and by then the number had reached its present
proportion. In view of the complexity of the issue, the
two Governments had agreed that the bilateral process
was the only way to find a solution. In this regard, we
appreciate the offer of the United States of America
and other countries for third country resettlement, as it
would help address that humanitarian problem.
 While the Royal Government remains committed
to the bilateral process, it has serious security concerns
with Maoist infiltration of the camps and the formation
of several radical groups, who have publicly stated
their objective of destabilizing Bhutan and disrupting
the country’s first parliamentary elections next year.
 In conclusion, I would like to once again convey
my delegation’s full support to the President and wish
the General Assembly every success at it sixty-second
session. Tashi delek.


Let me take this
opportunity to express our strong support for the
people of Burma in their struggle for a democratic
future. We strongly urge the Burmese Government to
initiate a peaceful dialogue, resist all violence and
respect the human rights of the Burmese people, not
least their freedom of expression and assembly.
 There is little doubt   and this has been
highlighted by all speakers during the last few days
that we, the international community, the United
Nations, face major challenges in the years ahead.
When addressing them, we should also be aware of the
progress that has been achieved in the world in recent
decades.
 The accelerated globalization process has brought
enormous benefits to many hundreds of millions of
people, not least in the emerging economies. Today,
nearly a third of the world’s population live in
countries where economic growth is about 10 per cent
a year, and we seem to be well on our way towards
meeting that important part of the Millennium
Development Goals that will reduce by half the number
of people living in absolute poverty around the world.
From a historical perspective, that is amazing
progress. Never before in human history have so many
been lifted out of absolute poverty in such a short
space of time. There is no room for complacency,
however. We must make globalization a force for good,
for open societies, open economies and an open world
for everyone on our planet. We must redouble our
efforts to bring the Doha Development Round to a
successful conclusion. Sustainable economic growth, a
vibrant private sector and a more open international
trading system are needed if we are to achieve the
goals we have set for eradicating poverty in the world.
 Aid for trade is a crucial complement to the
opening up of markets for many countries. The
developing countries of the world represent far too
small a share of world trade. We must live up to the
international commitments on development assistance
and ensure that development cooperation becomes
more efficient. That is the joint responsibility of all
donors and all partner countries. The Swedish
Government has initiated extensive reforms aimed at
creating a new Swedish development assistance policy
characterized by quality, efficiency and results in terms
of reduced poverty and more democratic societies. We
must now   as was highlighted last week
accelerate our efforts to address the challenge of
climate change. The Swedish Government has
launched a Commission on Climate Change and
Development to address risk reduction, adaptation and
climate-proofing development. We must make a
dedicated mutual effort to meet the Millennium
Development Goals. The fact that we are making
substantial progress on all of them globally
demonstrates that progress is indeed possible.
 Human rights, security and development go hand
in hand. Respect for human rights is necessary to
achieve security and development, and those three
elements are mutually reinforcing. Our protection of
any individual anywhere is the protection of all
individuals everywhere.
 The death penalty must be abolished all over the
world. It contravenes the very notion of human rights.
Even in that area, the world is making progress, but 25
countries still sentence people to death. Six countries
are responsible for more than 90 per cent of all
executions worldwide. We all know who they are and
expect them to take steps to abolish the death penalty.
 The links between security and development,
including the need to combine State-building efforts
and peace-support operations for long-lasting results,
place new demands on the international community.
The United Nations must learn from and build on the
recent experiences of a number of challenging but
successful large-scale missions that integrate military
and civilian components. We need to improve
coordination of international efforts in the field, for
instance in Afghanistan.
 There are many challenges that remain to be
tackled if we are to make the world a better place.
Perhaps the most important is how we should best
address the present threats to the existing non-
proliferation regime. Were there to be one new State
with nuclear weapons, the danger is that another would
soon follow. Shortly, those weapons might well be out
of any State’s control. The risk of nuclear terrorism
would be a very real one. That must be prevented. Our
children deserve to live in a world safe from the threat
of nuclear war and of weapons of mass destruction
falling into the hands of terrorists. Those weapons
threaten the very existence of mankind.
 To prevent that, the nuclear Powers have a duty to
live up to their responsibilities. To neglect is to invite
failure. They need to demonstrate their readiness to
substantially reduce their nuclear arsenals. Those
weapons are of no use in deterring the adversaries we
might face if the non-proliferation regime is eroded or
collapses. It is a question of self-interest and far-
sighted statesmanship.
 But we must also address the urgent political
issues that we are confronted with. Although the
numbers of wars and conflicts have continued to
decline, we should be acutely aware of the dangers of
conflicts rapidly exploding, fusing together and
unravelling the progress we have seen. Let me address
two of those: the situation in the Middle East and the
conflicts in Africa.
 The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has to end with a
peaceful settlement negotiated by the parties, resulting
in the emergence of an independent, democratic and
viable Palestinian State living side by side in peace and
security with Israel and other neighbours. Restoring
peace and economic growth in the Middle East requires
parallel action by the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Nothing is more important for the long-term security of
Israel than the creation of a truly viable Palestinian
State. That will require freedom of movement and
access to be significantly improved in the West Bank
and Gaza. Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas
recognize each other as partners for peace. That
provides an opening that we should all do our utmost
to support.
 It is therefore now time for a true peace process,
and not of the incremental sort that has been tried so
many times before. It is now time to achieve the peace
that is the common aspiration of the vast majority of
Israelis and Palestinians alike, as well as of the
international community.
 We urge the leaders of Israel and Palestine to
move forward towards a comprehensive settlement.
The international meeting this autumn is of crucial
importance. But the challenges of the Middle East are
not limited to that conflict.
 We are convinced that we must do more to
encourage reconciliation and reconstruction in Iraq
after the horrible brutalities of the last few decades. We
must do much more to assist and protect the more than
4 million Iraqis who have left their homes.
 Iran still refuses to accept the obligations laid
down by the Security Council. Iran has to convince us
of the peaceful nature of its nuclear programme.
 The conflicts on the Horn of Africa, stretching
from Ethiopia and Eritrea to Somalia, the Sudan, Chad
and the Central African Republic, cause thousands
upon thousands of deaths as well as untold human
suffering for the survivors. National leaders on the
Horn should rise to the challenge and demonstrate their
commitment to peace and reconciliation. The failure of
Ethiopia and Eritrea to resolve the quite
straightforward demarcation of their common border,
eight years after their commitment to do so, is a
worrying signal, not only for these two countries, but
also for the region as a whole.
 In the Sudan, a process of democratization is of
paramount importance to tackle the core problems and
to achieve reconciliation. We must focus on support for
the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace
Agreement as well as the renewed peace effort for
Darfur that will take place in Tripoli at the end of the
month.
 The situation in eastern Chad is worrying. We are
impressed by the important humanitarian work carried
out by local and international non-governmental
organizations. It is apparent that we must do more to
protect and assist refugees, internally displaced persons
and other civilians affected by the conflicts of the
region, as well as support the United Nations-led
humanitarian efforts on both sides of the border.
 How can we ever achieve true progress if
women’s crucial role in peacebuilding and
development is not recognized? Gender equality and
women’s rights, participation, influence and
empowerment are key goals in themselves, and are also
crucial for sustainable poverty reduction.
 Challenges like these show the urgent need for
world leaders to accept shared responsibility for our
common future. Sweden addresses these challenges in
close cooperation with its European Union partners.
We need a strong   and reformed   United Nations
to bring us all together. A better world is within our
reach.


Allow  me to congratulate the President on his assumption of
the presidency of this session of the General Assembly
and wish him every success in leading its deliberations.
I should also like to extend my thanks to his
predecessor Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa for her
good management of the deliberations of the previous
session. I would also like to express my sincere thanks
to the Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, for his
unrelenting efforts since he assumed his office to
advance the work of the Organization and activate its
role in the service of international peace and security.
 The President returned to the Chair.
 The Middle East region, of which Jordan is an
integral part, continues to face formidable challenges
stemming from the failure to make any progress
towards solving its main regional issues. Jordan,
however, has realized that these challenges should not
become a justification for abandoning its national
priorities regarding political and economic reform and
for achieving the highest degree of openness and
participation. Therefore, Jordan has adopted a national
strategy that strikes a balance between continuing to
effect reform and protecting its national security.
 Jordan has also continued to deal with regional
issues on the basis of its belief that it is necessary to
reach just solutions by peaceful means and in a way
that protects the rights of all concerned and that
achieves regional stability. Jordan is firmly convinced
that the use of military force and the imposition of
unilateral solutions lead only to the aggravation of
problems, increase the suffering of the people and
threaten regional and international stability.
 The Palestinian question, which is at the core of
the Middle East conflict, is now at a decisive
crossroads: either the regional parties and the
international community succeed in making real and
tangible progress and reach a just and lasting solution
within a reasonable and agreed-upon time frame, or the
entire region will be swept into extremism and anarchy,
which will be a grave threat to world peace and
security. Therefore, the international meeting
scheduled to be held before the end of this year may be
the last chance to make that progress. This makes it
imperative for the United States, which called for that
conference, the members of the International Quartet
and the regional parties to prepare for it well, ensuring
that final status issues between Palestine and Israel are
seriously discussed and in a way that will allow real
progress to be made on those issues and a lasting
agreement to be reached and implemented quickly
within a time frame agreed upon by the two parties.
 The situation in the region cannot withstand the
continuation of developments that do not allow for real
progress. The holding of international and regional
meetings and negotiations should not be an end in itself
but rather a means to an end, namely reaching a real
peace, accepted and preserved by the peoples of the
region. Palestinian-Israeli negotiations have been going
on for a long time. The whole world knows that records
of those negotiations contain alternatives that provide
solutions for final status issues. What is needed now is
the political will to reach an agreement instead of
looking for pretexts and prolonging the negotiations.
 Israel will never enjoy the security it seeks and
the Middle East region will not enjoy stability unless
the Palestinian people recover their national rights
through the establishment of an independent,
contiguous and viable Palestinian state in the
Palestinian territories occupied in 1967, including East
Jerusalem, and unless other Arab occupied territories
are returned. The current situation in the Palestinian
territories is not at all in harmony with the wish to
achieve peace. In order to give the impression of
honest movement towards peace, settlement activities
must stop immediately, as must tampering with the
status of East Jerusalem, including stopping all
excavations in the Jerusalem holy sanctuary at Haram
al-Sharif and putting an end to all practices that violate
international law, in particular the Fourth Geneva
Convention.
 Achievement of the desired progress requires a
vast change to the tragic situation experienced by the
Palestinians living in the occupied territories. There is
an immediate need to revive the Palestinian economy
in a manner that would lead to launching investment,
creating vital projects and providing work
opportunities. That revival will not materialize unless
the Palestinians enjoy freedom of movement, which
requires ending the closures, removing security
roadblocks and stopping military operations. It is also
imperative to enable the Palestinian National Authority,
led by President Mahmoud Abbas and his legitimate
Government, to rebuild its institutions so as to succeed
in executing its national programmes, which deserve
financial support from the international community.
 A united and stable Iraq constitutes an essential
component of balance and stability in the region. While
Jordan welcomes the adoption of Security Council
resolution 1770 (2007), it supports the United Nations
playing a central role in ensuring reconciliation and
stability in that country. The preservation of any
achievements on the security front will be
accomplished only within an appropriate political
environment, and this will necessitate real national
reconciliation that will guarantee the participation of
all segments of the Iraqi people in a political process
based on reviving Iraqi nationalism rather than
sectarianism and ethnicity. It must be founded on the
basis of the unity of the State and the sole right of the
State to maintain security and ban militias from
encroaching on that exclusive right. Moreover, we
must prevent any interference in Iraq’s internal affairs,
whilst implementing what has been agreed upon,
including a review of the Constitution and other laws
and the building of national security and government
institutions.
 The fact that huge numbers of Iraqis have been
forced to leave their country puts a tremendous burden
on neighbouring countries, including Jordan. Jordan
continues to host hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, with
all the pressures that this imposes on Jordan’s
economy, resources and infrastructure, with little help
from the international community. While we call on the
international community to stand by us in dealing with
this huge burden, we believe that a lasting solution to
this problem lies in restoring stability to Iraq, so that
its citizens can return to their country and contribute to
its reconstruction.
 Jordan and the Arab Group condemn the
assassinations that have taken place in Lebanon, the
latest of which being the assassination of member of
Parliament Antoine Ghanem, a few days ago. These
assassinations reflect the dangerous situation in that
country and highlight the need for the international
community to take a firm stand in putting an end to
these grave violations of Lebanese sovereignty and to
take all measures to stop any foreign interference in its
internal affairs. This will ensure that the Lebanese
people will find appropriate solutions through their
constitutional institutions so as to ensure internal
legitimacy, including the holding of presidential
elections in accordance with the Constitution and
within the time frame provided therein.
 Jordan is working today within the Group of
Eleven, which was launched at the initiative of His
Majesty King Abdullah II to establish economic
cooperation and support the development process of
lower-middle income countries. We look forward to
working with other States and groups of States,
including, in particular, the Group of Eight (G-8), in
order to establish cooperation that will enable the
Group of Eleven members to preserve their economic
accomplishments and achieve a breakthrough that will
lead to success in attaining sustainable development.
 Confronting extremism and terrorism requires
more effective international cooperation as well as
activating channels of cultural and religious dialogue,
especially within the United Nations system. At the
same time, there is an urgent need to refrain from
Islamophobia and from inciting animosity against this
tolerant divine religion. Today’s world requires a more
effective United Nations role in addressing
international challenges, such as human rights,
armaments, climate change, terrorism, international
crime, poverty, hunger, infectious diseases, and
increasing factional, sectarian and ethnic conflicts. In
this context, we emphasize the importance of building
upon what has been achieved, and we call for
advancing the process of reform of the United Nations
and its agencies in order to enable them to enhance
their performance. We view the reform process as vital
and of the highest priority. Jordan will continue to play
a constructive role in this area and will continue to
offer reasonable and applicable visions, especially
within the context of reforming the work mechanisms
of the Security Council.
 Finally, I assure the Assembly that Jordan will
keep its commitments to the achievement of
international peace and security. The size of the
Jordanian forces participating in peacekeeping
operations and their geographically wide deployment
reflect the actual role of Jordan in the United Nations
system and reflect also its political will to help
accomplish the mission of the Organization. We take
this commitment very seriously and place the
resources, professionalism and discipline of our armed
forces at the service of international peace and security.


Allow
me at the outset to express my sincerest
congratulations to Mr. Srgjan Kerim on his assumption
of the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-
second session. Argentina welcomes the new
Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, and expresses its
support for his efforts at the head of the United
Nations.
 As in previous years, we have come to the
General Assembly with the aim of revitalizing this
world body and with the firm belief that this will
ensure the effectiveness of international law in settling
disputes, thus successfully dealing with any threats to
peace.
 The world is facing problems. The only hope we
have of resolving them lies in respect for
multilateralism, support for local customs, observance
of international norms and conventions by all
countries, and, of course, the full realization of human
rights.
 For each individual country, and for the world as
a whole, peace will be possible only if we promote
equality and work to combat poverty and
marginalization. The world cannot and must not be a
place where violations of human rights are everywhere.
Peaceful coexistence is strengthened and maintained
through true solidarity between nations based upon a
concept of humanity that goes beyond the purely
military or the predominantly unilateral.
 Our international policy is based on the values of
representative democracy, sovereignty of the people,
respect for fundamental human rights, and the active
upholding of international peace and security. Those
principles are shared by the vast majority of the
Argentine people. They help to focus the Government’s
activities and are reflected in the decisions taken by the
Argentine Republic at the international level.
 We firmly support the construction of more just
and equitable societies that distribute more equitably
the benefits of economic growth. We know that each
country must have the right to seek out its own
development model, without external pressure.
 The past few years have been very testing for us.
Considerable efforts have been made to rescue a nation
that barely five years ago was in the throes of an
unprecedented social and economic crisis. At the time,
many people thought that recovery might be
impossible. But day by day, with a great deal of effort
and humility, we revived production in a country
burdened by a foreign debt that threatened our future
with its conditions and constraints.
 Argentina — a developing country which once
demonstrated that it is truly possible to climb the social
ladder; a country of immigrants where workers once
succeeded in sending their children to university; a
country once without illiteracy and having almost
banished child mortality — had been reduced to a
country of workers demoralized by unemployment,
children begging in the streets instead of going to
school, and the elderly living off miniscule pensions
and becoming dependent on their children and
grandchildren.
 Our country’s coffers had been emptied owing to
the rigid application of the rules of the International
Monetary Fund (IMF). As a corollary, there was
violence in the streets, and Argentina experienced an
institutional crisis, with presidents lasting only days.
For the first time, Argentina sent off its own children
into an unprecedented economic exile.
 Today the Argentine State has won its autonomy
and itself administers the variables of its
macroeconomy as best it can in the current
international environment. It pursues a sound,
disciplined and predictable economic policy within a
stable and democratic framework.
 Our capacity for revitalization has allowed us,
even without receiving funding, to begin cancelling our
net debt with international organizations. We have even
paid off in advance all of our debt with the IMF — an
IMF that supported and promoted Governments that
were self-supporting, adjusting and patching up their
budgets, but at the cost of increasing the poverty of
their people, promoting deindustrialization and
irresponsibly plunging the country into debt.
 Faced with the incredulous criticism of the
promoters of orthodox prescriptions, Argentina, thanks
to cautious monetary policies, disciplined public
expenditures and a healthy budget surplus that enabled
it to face or mitigate potential foreign crises, has
reduced the debt and registered an annual growth rate
of 9 per cent during the past five years. This was the
strongest uninterrupted economic expansion of any in
the past 100 years.
 Today we represent the empirical proof that there
is life after the Fund and also the certitude that other
paths can lead to development and integration. We
serve as a reminder of the unreliability of models that
claim to be universally valid and the revindication of
the right of countries to choose their own path,
benefiting from international experience while
prioritizing their national interests and circumstances
above any other interest. Our case provides proof that
the international economic architecture must be
reformed, in particular that of IMF. The Fund is an
exponent of an old world order that is no longer valid.
Our case demonstrates the need for change in the
multilateral financial institutions so that they can
cooperate in the development of the less-well-endowed
nations and help to fight poverty and generate true
options for progress.
 We are thinking, not of economic growth as
defined by economic experts or historians, but of
growth that has a strong social component and an
emphasis on equity, where citizens are the focus of the
results. Whereas one fourth of the labour force
experienced the humiliation of being unemployed,
unemployment has been reduced to 7.8 per cent since
we have taken office. We are speaking, not about just
any sort of work, but about appropriate and decent
work of the kind we advocated at the most recent
summit meeting of the Americas, which was held in
our country.
 Thanks to a productive policy that generates
added value and, in addition, appeals to private
enterprises to show social responsibility, we are
reindustrializing Argentina. The economic indicators
posted by our country today would have been
impossible were it not for the complementarity of
action between the State and the private sector.
 Our sales to all destinations have doubled over
the past four years, with a 16 per cent annual growth
rate. Investments have improved substantially: gross
domestic fixed investment has increased for the past 17
consecutive quarters; the ratio of investment to GDP is
between 20 and 23 per cent — in stark contrast to the
level of 2002 when it was hardly more than 11 per
cent.
 When faced with that crisis almost five years ago,
we felt compelled to maintain essential assistance
policies for the most vulnerable segments of our
population. We do not regret those policies, and today
we can state that the true solution to the serious social
problems affecting our country, and many others
around the world, lies in providing jobs, health care
and education.
 In the area of health, Argentina has launched a
national policy that includes prescriptions for generic
drugs and the provision of essential medications free of
charge. It also strengthens maternity and child
programmes and everything that relates to primary
health care, in line with the goals of equity and
protection. This has enabled us to compensate in part
for the disastrous state of the public health sector a
short time ago.
 Of course, education is an essential element for
renewing the social and moral fabric of the nation,
even though the time horizon for its effects to be felt is
longer than those of other public policies. In order to
remedy the tragic situation that signalled the
breakdown of society and the failure on the part of the
State to protect those who were most vulnerable, a new
law on national education was passed. It will again
focus on ensuring equality of opportunity through
guaranteed access to a quality education throughout the
territory that is linked to the labour market and
includes excellent training for teachers. Under the new
law, a deadline of 2010 has been set, by which time
6 per cent of the gross national product will be used to
finance education.
 In this context of steady recovery, Argentina’s
foreign policy is being strengthened and expanded,
with a clear and decisive commitment to the national
interest. Regional integration is a priority. Over the
past two decades, through the Common Market of the
South (MERCOSUR), Argentina has strengthened its
commercial ties with the countries of the region. But
its trade relations go far beyond the region. In that
sense, multilateral negotiations within the World Trade
Organization are of particular importance because the
liberalization of our agricultural sector — in which our
country has clear competitive advantages — depends
on them, as does the adequate flexibility we need to
carry out our industrial policies.
 More equitable and fairer rules in international
trade are of great importance to Argentina. We
therefore participate actively in multilateral economic
negotiations with the firm goal of achieving equity in
the norms that govern world trade and of reversing the
discrimination erected against our main products
through tariff barriers and other trade-distorting
instruments imposed by the developed countries.
 Argentina will be present in all multilateral
forums, where we will participate to ensure more
equitable and democratic rules. Multilateralism is the
most effective instrument for winning the battle against
hunger, poverty, exclusion and environmental
degradation.
 Everything I have said here is both cause and
consequence of institutional stability and respect for
the rule of law. The three pillars of the Argentine State
are making decisions to combat impunity and preserve
memory, truth, and justice. We have begun bringing to
justice those guilty of serious human rights violators.
Those who imagined themselves having escaped with
impunity are fiercely resisting justice and, in an
attempt to intimidate witnesses, have caused the
disappearance of one witness, Julio Lopez. They have
thereby sent a dark message to a society that is seeking
the truth about the crimes against humanity which they
committed, and that condemns such acts.
 Unconditional respect for human rights is our
new national paradigm. In the past, we were known
throughout the world for violations of those rights;
today, as we strive to find the truth and to punish the
guilty, we also seek to defend those rights worldwide.
 Argentina, the Mothers and Grandmothers of the
Plaza de Mayo in the monumental dignity of their
struggle, and the Argentine people have personally
suffered under the inefficiency of a broken multilateral
human rights system. Their sole comfort were the very
precious humanitarian gestures of individuals,
organizations and countries. While people were being
kidnapped, tortured and killed in my country, the
mechanisms established precisely to condemn and
prevent such horrors remained silent. It is in their
memory, so that this will never happen again, that we
support the new Human Rights Council and hope that it
will live up to the expectations of the international
community.
 My Government has endorsed instruments of
great importance, including the International
Convention for the Protection of All Persons from
Enforced Disappearance, adopted by this Assembly on
20 December 2006, which we signed in Paris on
6 February. That instrument, along with the Convention
on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the
Optional Protocol of the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women, gives continuity and concrete form to a policy
that ascribes a central role to the promotion of human
rights.
 In our public policy, we now focus on
environmental protection, but we know that there will
be no viable solution without cooperation among all
the countries of the world, the industrialized countries
in particular, because the nature of the problem is of a
global scale.
 The issue of climate change should be of concern
to all Governments, because no corner of the planet is
unaffected by changes that have been identified as due
to human activity. The Secretary-General’s convening
of yesterday’s High-level Meeting was a timely
manifestation of the urgent need to strengthen
international cooperation as an effective and adequate
response to protect the environment and prevent the
unacceptable exportation of pollutants to the
developing countries.
 One after the other, various diplomatic efforts to
halt the violence in the Middle East once and for all
have failed, but we cannot merely throw up our hands.
No military solution will lead to peace and the
tranquillity that all the peoples of the region so
desperately call for. The invasion of Iraq, which we
rejected at the time it occurred, is the tragic and painful
proof of the truth of our position. The Security Council
and the nations of the Quartet have the heavy
responsibility of accompanying and, if possible,
guiding a peace process that can succeed with courage
and great perseverance.
 The Argentine Republic continues, year after
year, tirelessly to condemn the serious threat of
terrorism throughout the world. We believe that all acts
of terror are criminal and unjustifiable and that no
argument can justify them. Just as no nation of the
world is beyond their reach, the response must be a
joint effort of all nations, and especially this
Organization, to stop and eliminate this scourge. We
cannot tolerate the actions of those responsible for
terrorism or of those who defend, finance or protect
terrorists, be they individuals or countries.
 Argentina has twice suffered terrorist attacks. The
Israeli embassy was attacked in 1992 and the AMIA
headquarters in 1994. Some 102 members of our
community, some of whose relatives are here with us
today, lost their lives. Those victims, united by terror to
those of this city, those of Madrid, those of London,
those of Bali, those of Istanbul and those of many other
places, impose upon us the moral mandate to respect
their memories and to commit all our energies to
hunting down, finding and prosecuting those
responsible.
 Despite the difficulties that have arisen through
the passage of time, given that those attacks took place
13 and 15 years ago, respectively, and the subsequent
cover-ups, our interest and the justice system continue
to seek the truth, and we keep our memory of the
horror alive so that it will not recur.
 In November last year, the Argentine justice
system called for international cooperation in the
apprehension of nine people suspected of having
initiated and planned the 18 July 1994 attack on AMIA,
and the Executive Committee of INTERPOL
unanimously recommended the apprehension of six
Iranian citizens and one Lebanese involved in the
affair. We call here for that recommendation to be
ratified during the November session of the
INTERPOL General Assembly.
 In that context, we hope that the Islamic Republic
of Iran, in the context of applicable international law,
will accept and respect Argentina’s legal jurisdiction
and cooperate effectively with Argentine judges to
bring to justice those involved in these events. In that
respect, I wish to say here, at United Nations
Headquarters and before all the countries of the world,
that, unfortunately, the Islamic Republic of Iran has to
date failed to offer the required cooperation with the
Argentine justice system to resolve those issues.
 We call on the Secretary-General and on all the
nations of the world to persuade the Islamic Republic
of Iran to allow the judicial process to move forward.
We do so with the sole aim of clarifying the facts and
bringing those responsible to justice. Respect for the
memory of our 102 victims requires justice to be
carried out. We request the Islamic Republic of Iran to
cooperate in the implementation of the norms of
international law to allow us to come to nothing more,
but nothing less than the truth.
 Nations big and small, rich and poor, all
throughout the world will be highly vulnerable if we
fail to grasp that action against terrorism requires
urgent multilateral, intelligent and sustained action
firmly anchored in legitimacy, respect for individual
rights, proportional response and respect for
international public opinion.
 Efforts to counter the proliferation of weapons of
mass destruction can count on the firm support and full
participation of the Argentine Republic.
 My country is known for the active role it plays
in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Argentina
develops, consumes and exports nuclear energy for
peaceful purposes in the framework of the strictest
respect for the norms enshrined in the Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the
non-proliferation regime in its broadest sense.
 Efforts to prevent proliferation are ethically and
legally correlated to progress on disarmament. Indeed,
the legal instruments on which the prohibition of
weapons of mass destruction is based specifically on
the firm commitment not to develop new weapons of
terror and destruction in the understanding that those
who possess such weapons will proceed to their
gradual and effective elimination.
 In recent years, we have seen disarmament
commitments permanently eroded. Nuclear arsenals
remain disproportionately large and nuclear
disarmament agreements are in stasis. It should come
as no surprise, then, that, given the situation, there are
those who question the legitimacy of pursuing
unilateral advocacy for non-proliferation while solemn
commitments in the area of disarmament are ignored.
 Conventional weapons are responsible for the
deaths of millions of people around the world. Our
country has given a high priority to initiatives
associated with the conclusion of an arms trade treaty.
Domestically, we have initiated programmes for the
voluntary handover of firearms, the initial results of
which have been encouraging.
 The reform of the Security Council is still
pending. We are hoping for a reform that will make this
central body more responsible, democratically
representative and dynamic. It will not, however,
achieve this objective by creating new privileged
categories. We trust that the ongoing process of
consultations will be successful so that the Council can
be adapted to today’s world.
 Before concluding I wish to raise a matter of
continuing importance to the Argentine Republic: the
question of the Malvinas Islands, which include South
Georgia, South Sandwich and the maritime areas
surrounding those islands. This year, 174 years will
have passed since the British began to occupy this part
of Argentine national territory. Ever since that act of
force in 1833, my country has protested against this
illegal occupation and has demanded that the full
exercise of its sovereignty be restored.
 We would also mention that 2007 marks the
twenty-fifth anniversary of the 1982 conflict in the
South Atlantic, a conflict unleashed by the military
dictatorship without the backing of the Argentine
people, who had always endeavoured to find a peaceful
solution to its legitimate sovereignty claim.
 The General Assembly has dealt with this matter
on many occasions, both prior to and since 1982.
Starting in 1965, when the Assembly adopted
resolution 2065 (XX), the Organization has recognized,
year after year, the existence of a sovereignty dispute
between Argentina and the United Kingdom relating to
the question of the Malvinas Islands. It urged the two
Governments to negotiate, as soon as possible, a
peaceful, just and lasting solution to the dispute, taking
into account the relevant resolutions of United Nations
bodies and the interests of the people of the islands.
The ongoing and unrenounceable objective of
regaining the full exercise of Argentine sovereignty
over this part of our territory and the permanent
readiness of my country to resume negotiations aimed
at finding a solution to the dispute have been reflected
in our national Constitution.
 It is incomprehensible to us that the United
Kingdom should be unwilling to negotiate this matter,
thereby violating the provisions of General Assembly
resolution 2065 (XX) and numerous similar
resolutions.
 The time has come for the United Kingdom to
shoulder its responsibility and put an end to an
anachronism: the illegal occupation for clearly colonial
purposes of territory belonging to another State.
 My Government vigorously rejects the British
claim on the establishment of maritime areas
surrounding the archipelagos. In particular, it rejects
the recently divulged intention of the United Kingdom
to make a submission to the Commission on the Limits
of the Continental Shelf — established by the United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea — relative
to the outer limits of the continental shelf of these
Argentine territories.
 In this, my last message to the General Assembly
as the President of the people of Argentina, I wish to
reaffirm our profound conviction that it is only through
democracy, accompanied by freedom, social justice
and peace, that man can realize his full potential. This
Assembly of the peoples has a bounden duty to help
ensure that that will come to pass.


Allow me  to begin my statement by recalling the commitment to
fight poverty, in force since September 2000, when 189
countries signed the Millennium Declaration, which
included the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
On that agreement we undertook to meet by 2015 some
basic goals on the path of human development.
 Today, from a Government that has declared in
Ecuador a citizens' revolution, one that is democratic,
ethical and nationalist, we wish to set out some critical
thoughts with regard to the very concept of the MDGs,
their limitations and the dangers that minimum
programmes of that nature entail, in particular with
regard to the profound social and economic inequalities
that exist on the planet.
 The first limitation of the MDGs is that they
constitute a minimum as a poverty-reducing strategy.
Our goal is to go much further than such minimums by
going into greater depth on those objectives and
incorporating others. The fact that we subscribe
exclusively to a focus on minimum needs, such as that
presented in the MDGs, carries a high risk that in
seeking to satisfy our consciences we limit the
aspirations for social change.
 I think it is fair to say that there are two
thresholds by which we can characterize the lives of
people. The first has to do with the indispensable
abilities of human beings to survive within a society
and without which life could not be called human. The
second refers to the capacities that allow each
individual to be fulfilled within that society. We are
speaking not only about subsistence, but of the right to
enjoy a life that is worthy of living.
 Ecuador believes that to have the goal of living
on $1 plus 1 cent per day in order to supposedly
overcome extreme poverty or to avoid dying
prematurely, as one might deduce from the MDGs —
does not lead to a dignified life. The development of
public policies in a country that is attempting to bring
about radical change - as is the case in Ecuador -
cannot be satisfied with those minimum objectives.
Obviously, avoiding the premature death of girls and
boys or of pregnant women is an objective that nobody
would question. However, if we base ourselves only on
that, we run the risk of agreeing that human life is
simply a process of resistance, the aim of which is to
extend someone's existence by a few more hours.
 What we propose therefore are common goals,
not only with regard to living minimums but with
regard to social maximums as well. For example, we
feel that it is possible to draw on diverse identities, to
build and restore public areas, to guarantee access to
justice and to have work which enables people to enjoy
the right to support themselves and to have time for
contemplation, artistic creation and recreation — goals
that are already contained in the national development
plan that is being implemented by the Government of
Ecuador.
 Accordingly, we renounce the idea of a
historically inevitable present to which we must
surrender by simply looking for minimums that are
clearly basic. Furthermore, to be satisfied with the
minimum also means - and that is very serious -
legitimizing the reality that we experience because the
minimum will not alter the distance and power
relationships between individuals and between
societies. Hence, we also favour the recognition of
equal dignity for all human beings. Granting some
people certain minimums must be an initial and
temporary goal and must never be considered a modus
operandi of public policy. For that means that the
“beneficiary” is placed in a position of inferiority
compared to everyone else. In other words, it means
that their dignity is not recognized as equal with
everyone else's. In fact, it is no accident that
international bureaucracies such as the World Bank
always suggest producing poverty reports, but never
consider publishing inequality reports.
 For this reason, perhaps the best way to reduce
poverty with dignity is to reduce social, economic,
territorial, environmental and cultural gaps. One of my
Government's main goals is thus to reduce inequality
in an endogenous development framework of economic
inclusion and socio-territorial cohesion, domestically
as well as within the global system. And along the
same lines, we in Ecuador are seeking to apply the rule
of human rights and universal values. On the other
hand, the long and sad neoliberal night proposed -
 from an existential perspective with its consequent
absolutism of the market - social programmes that
ended up by breaking up society into as many parts as
there are social groups.
 However, a national plan and a change in the
power relationships within a society do not mean that
all the fragments will come together. There is no claim
that, by some twist of fate, these will acquire meaning
and coherence and will assemble themselves like the
pieces of a puzzle - even if some of the pieces are
missing. It is indispensable to have a common plan that
must be constantly redesigned and whose goal must be
that we all want to be part of it.
 That is why, in Ecuador, we are creating our
national development plan in a democratic fashion. We
know that without everyone's participation in society's
basic decisions, no country can legitimize its public
decision-making and make it more efficient. We must
change a political practice employed by the traditional
sectors, with their technocrats and elites, and return
speech and action to those who should be the owners,
protagonists and beneficiaries of public policy.
 I would like furthermore to point out that the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) offer a vision
of development that is linked to consumption and a
strategy linked to processes of economic liberalization.
Our view on development is very different from that.
We understand development to be the attainment of a
good standard of living for everyone, in peace and in
harmony with nature, and with the indefinite extension
of human cultures. In that respect, we are extremely
happy to see that the Assembly has broadly debated the
devastating and unjust effects of climate change.
 Ecuador has submitted a specific and innovative
proposal to contribute to the reduction of carbon
dioxide emissions and to the preservation of
biodiversity: our Yasuni-ITT proposal. It involves a
commitment not to extract some 920 million barrels of
oil, thereby avoiding the emission of approximately
111 million tons of carbon that would come from the
burning of this fossil fuel. However, that will mean that
we will have to forgo significant investments of around
$720 million each year, a very significant amount for
the economy of Ecuador.
 We are prepared to make this huge sacrifice, but
we also ask for shared responsibility on the part of the
international community, particularly on the part of
developed countries, the planet's main predators, and
for a minimum compensation for the environmental
benefits that we are generating. That would be an
extraordinary example of global collective action,
setting aside rhetoric in favour of concrete facts and
practical actions: not only would it reduce global
warming for the benefit of the whole planet, but it
would also bring about a new way of thinking about
economics in the twenty-first century, where the
generation of value is compensated, not just the
generation of goods.
 Speaking of cultures, we were very happy to see
that the General Assembly recently adopted the
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
(resolution 61/295), which was sponsored very actively
by Ecuador. The Declaration is an instrument that had
to wait more than 20 years to be adopted and that will
be the fundamental charter for the protection of human
rights of our indigenous peoples.
 Finally, the good living that we are talking about
presupposes that genuine individual freedoms,
opportunities and potentials be enhanced. An immoral
paradox arises here: at the world level, we are
promoting the free movement of goods and capital,
looking for the highest profitability. But, on the other
hand, we are penalizing the free circulation of people
who are looking for decent jobs. That is quite simply
intolerable and absolutely unsustainable from an
ethical point of view.
 For the Government of Ecuador, there are no
illegal human beings. There is no such thing, and the
United Nations must insist on this point. There is no
such person as an illegal human being. It is not
permissible to think in that way. We are working
actively to bring about changes in the shameful
international migration policies, particularly those of
the countries of the so-called first world, without
forgetting, of course, that our greatest responsibility is
to build a country that will guarantee decent life as a
way of preventing forced exodus because of poverty
and exclusion.
 We must not be misled by those who proclaim the
end of ideologies and the end of history. Conservatives
want to make us believe that we live in the best of all
possible worlds and that we have to abandon any
attempt at change, any attempt to build our own
individual and collective identity, any attempt to build
our own history. In the face of such a miserly and self-
satisfied worldview, we say that it is possible to have
collective action that is both aware and democratic, in
order to direct our lives and organize world society in a
different way with a more human face. Our
understanding of development obliges us to recognize
one another, understand one another and appreciate one
another, so that we can move towards self-realization
and the building of a shared future. Ecuador invites the
Assembly to build this world, this dream.


The  192 Member States gathered here have not yet taken
the qualitative leap called for by Woodrow Wilson in
1918 for our international order not to be based on
organized rivalries, but rather on an organized common
peace.
 We must learn to tone down our national
interests. We must foster a shared sense for what is just
and what is necessary. We must understand that the
basic premise of collective security is that we must
agree upon the threats that we face and the manner in
which we must tackle them.
 We must accept that collective security, in order
to be legitimate, must defend international law in the
abstract, without preference for some over others.
Nevertheless, we continue to have an unequal
commitment to international law. Some of us have
accepted a multilateralism that is based on open
agreements openly arrived at, whereas others refuse to
yield imaginary shares of sovereignty. As long as the
latter continue to understand sovereignty as the
absence of obligations and responsibilities to others,
multilateralism is compromised.
 Cultures and viewpoints from all parts of the
world gather here. They do so because they know that
the solitude of unilateralism is a dead-end road.
Multilateralism must, however, have preconditions.
Those who want to be treated as a partner must behave
as one. If not, we will never be able to live up to our
promise of “never again”. The “never again” that we
pronounced at the end of the First World War and the
Second World War or that we asserted following the
genocides in Kampuchea and Rwanda, still fails to
mobilize us today to solve other situations that are just
as unacceptable, just as intolerable and, on occasion,
just as unimaginable.
 It is not right to compromise multilateralism; it is
especially wrong to do so when, through a lack of will,
we affect one or more partners making a desperate
appeal for help. In that regard, we welcome the fact
that this General Assembly has put climate change at
the top of its agenda. But how long has it taken us? We
simply cannot be satisfied with a “better late than
never”, when in 1987, exactly 20 years ago, President
Maumoon Abdul Gayoom of the Republic of the
Maldives alerted us that he did not come to speak
about international political issues but rather about “the
death of a nation”, the death of a nation whose 1,190
islands will be virtually submerged with the rise in sea
level owing to climate change. The emergency hotline
must respond not only to 11 September but to all the
emergencies covered by the Charter of the United
Nations.
 It is time to pay our debt to nature. We simply
cannot continue to distort the evidence of climate
change. Regardless of how inconvenient the truth may
be or what our respective shares of responsibility are,
the truth is here to stay. Year after year we are
reminded of it with greater frequency and intensity.
 In Costa Rica where the most species per square
kilometre of anywhere in the world are found, we are
committed to going beyond our obligations. We have
adopted concrete and sustainable actions, such as
setting aside 27 per cent of our national territory as
preserves, the generation of energy using renewable
energy sources for 98 per cent of our generating
capacity, the introduction of environmental service
payments and the commitment to advance towards a
carbon-neutral economy by the year 2021. However, no
matter how sustainable our commitment at the national
level, our efforts will have less impact if they are not
met by similar commitments in other parts of the
world. Since climate change does not recognize
borders, others with large environmental debts simply
cannot continue to live in debt, as this accelerates the
coming of the day of judgement.
 Although we have seen some strides in
international environmental governance at both the
global and regional levels, we continue to be indebted
to nature. The Kyoto Protocol is an incomplete
instrument, not only because it has not attained
universality, but also because it does not incentivize
the sustainability of the primary forest and its
ecosystem. In that respect, Costa Rica is working on
compensatory mechanisms to avoid deforestation with
different intergovernmental groups, such as the
Coalition for Rainforest Nations and the Group of 11,
to make sure that the post-Kyoto scheme does not
exclude primary forests.
 We cannot compromise on multilateralism. It is
unrealistic to press others for compliance with the
obligations that arise from the Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and the
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT),
while disregarding one’s own obligations. Both treaties
and all of their articles are part of an intricate
architecture of mutual trust that does not allow for any
partial constructs. We must avoid both horizontal and
vertical proliferation, promote compliance with all of
the obligations that arise from those treaties and
condemn every attempt to break the regime of mutual
trust. We cannot allow for the proliferation of
exceptions to non-proliferation.
 Multilateralism is not built on a show of strength.
In 2006, the world reached a record $1.2 trillion in
military spending. According to the Millennium
Project, with one tenth of this amount, that is, $121
billion, we would have met the targets for 2006 for all
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in all
countries of the world. In 2006, on average, for every
dollar spent on official development assistance by the
member States of the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development, $7.5 were spent on
weapons.
 Security does not come from multiplying
weapons; history has proven this time and time again.
Security comes from remedying injustices, easing
shortages and creating opportunities so that we can
have collective prosperity on par with collective
security. In this regard, Costa Rica has been calling for
compliance with the Charter of the United Nations,
Article 26 of which commits us to promote “the
maintenance of international peace and security with
the least diversion for armaments of the world’s human
and economic resources”. Thus says the dead letter of
the Charter of the United Nations.
 It is in this spirit that we have pressed for the
adoption of an arms trade treaty, a legally binding
instrument that codifies the existing obligations of
States under international law that may apply to the
arms trade. Therefore we celebrate the adoption, by a
significant majority, of Assembly resolution 61/89,
which allows us to re-activate this noble objective of
the Charter.
 It is also in this spirit that we have called for the
animation of the Costa Rica Consensus, so that
international donors can reward those developing
countries that are making sustainable and verifiable
efforts to meet the most pressing social needs,
including the MDGs, while increasing social
investment and reducing military spending.
 Multilateralism requires a shared sense of
urgency. We need to face all global threats, all global
challenges in a timely fashion, not creating a world
with two different speeds: one in which we need two
decades to respond to the call made by President
Gayoom, among others, and another in which we
respond in a just a few days, with binding resolutions
like Security Council resolutions 1373 (2001) or 1540
(2004).
 Our commitment to combat terrorism must aim at
prevailing not only over the terrorists, but also over the
root causes from which they draw strengthen and
renewal. In this regard, it is as important to combat the
manifestations of terrorism, its financial channels and
physical hideouts as it is to fight the poverty and
despair that provide an easy harvest for extremists. To
succeed we can no longer afford to be late in dealing
with the challenges of development.
 Multilateralism also requires a shared sense of
justice. For that, we need more States to ratify the
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. As
we advance towards the universality of the Statute and
the acceptance of its complementary jurisdiction, we
will close the gaps and loopholes by which the worst
criminals in the world escape and hide.
 Finally, we must have the courage to look at
ourselves in the mirror, as an Organization and as
Member States. We cannot permit this Organization’s
foundations to be weakened by a few errors. We need
to learn from our mistakes and allow space for self-
criticism. We do a disservice to the credibility and the
effectiveness of this Organization if, each time a
difficult or inconvenient situation arises, we simply
produce a report for the archives. Our scant follow-up
to the reports on Srebrenica and the Oil-for-Food
Programme provides two clear examples of our
apparent incapacity for learning.
 As Harry Truman said, referring to the convening
of the San Francisco Conference, “it was important for
us to make a start, no matter how imperfect”. Since
1945, this Organization has expanded and changed,
improving through experience and reform,
incorporating more and more cultures and views,
putting into practice, with more or less success, the
principles and purposes of the Charter. This
Organization certainly does not have all the answers
and does not possess all the resources required, for in
the end, it is restrained by the lowest common
denominator, that is, by ourselves, the Member States.
 We have a world of reasons to persevere and
prevail over the challenges we face. Neither the
chronic pessimism of some nor the ungrateful egoism
of others will check the slow but determined march
forward of those of us who believe in multilateralism
and in a future of greater shared welfare for all.


I  wish to congratulate you, Sir, on your election to the
presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-second
session. I am convinced that under your able
leadership, the current session will be a fruitful one. I
also wish to thank Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa for
her contribution during her presidency of the previous
session.
 The current international environment is highly
complex. Mankind is facing both unprecedented
opportunities and challenges. There is a growing trend
towards peace, development and cooperation in the
world. But, on the other hand, traditional and non-
traditional security threats are intertwined; hotspot
issues are acute; the gap between the North and South
is widening; trade protectionism is resurfacing; and
developing countries generally remain in a
disadvantaged position. The steady trend towards
economic globalization and towards a multi-polar
world is fostering a new way of thinking about
international relations.
 In this Hall two years ago, Chinese President Hu
Jintao called on mankind to build a harmonious world
with lasting peace and common prosperity in the
twenty-first century (see A/60/PV.5). The core message
of his call is that, while recognizing the diversity of the
world, differences of interests and diversity of cultures,
we should harmonize interests, defuse conflicts and
promote cooperation for win-win progress in a
peaceful and cooperative manner.
 In its 62-year history, the United Nations has
played an irreplaceable role in promoting humankind’s
cause of peace and development. The current session of
the General Assembly should focus on promoting
harmonious coexistence among countries. Resolving
hotspot issues and peacefully settling international
disputes through dialogue and cooperation are not only
explicitly called for by the United Nations Charter.
They are also the right way to uphold world peace and
stability and achieve mutual benefit and a win-win
situation for all.
 China remains committed to seeking a peaceful
solution to the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula
through dialogue to uphold peace and stability on the
peninsula and throughout North-East Asia. The Six-
Party Talks have become an important platform for the
parties concerned to maintain dialogue and
consultations on achieving denuclearization on the
peninsula, normalizing relations between the countries
concerned and building a new harmonious architecture
in North-East Asia. We will continue to play a
constructive role in advancing the process of the Six-
Party Talks and the denuclearization of the Korean
peninsula.
 Diplomatic negotiations are the best option for
resolving the Iranian nuclear issue peacefully and
meeting the common interests of the international
community. China opposes nuclear-weapon
proliferation and stands for upholding the international
nuclear non-proliferation regime and peace and
stability in the Middle East. No non-proliferation effort
should deviate from the goal of upholding international
peace and stability. Countries should honour their due
international obligations, and their right to peaceful use
of nuclear energy should be fully respected. China
urges the parties concerned to show flexibility and
resume negotiations at an early date. China will
continue to contribute its share to the peaceful
settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue.
 The Palestine-Israel conflict is at the core of the
Middle East issue. China supports the just cause of the
Palestinian and other Arab peoples and the restoration
of their lawful national rights, and it sincerely hopes
that Arab countries and Israel will promptly end their
disputes through political negotiations on the basis of
relevant United Nations resolutions and the principle of
land for peace. China calls on Palestine to strengthen
its unity and welcomes the initiative to hold an
international conference on the Middle East. We hope
that the Iraqi people will continue to work for national
reconciliation and restore peace and stability at an
early date, and that this will lead to a comprehensive,
just and lasting resolution of the Middle East issue.
 The trilateral dialogue and consultation among
the United Nations, the African Union and the
Sudanese Government on an equal footing is an
effective mechanism for resolving the Darfur issue.
The international community should work to sustain
the current sound momentum and give full play to the
role of the trilateral mechanism as the main channel.
We should adhere to dual-track strategy, promote
balanced progress in peacekeeping operations and the
political process and seek a lasting solution to the
Darfur issue through making progress in the security,
political, humanitarian, economic and social areas.
China is committed to a proper settlement of the Darfur
issue. It has provided humanitarian assistance to Darfur
on a number of occasions and will send a military
engineering unit to join the peacekeeping operations
there. China will continue to firmly support the peace
and national reconciliation process in the Sudan and
will contribute to the resolution of the Darfur issue and
peace, stability and development in the Sudan.
 At its current session, the General Assembly
should promote the peaceful development of all
countries. Poverty is a major source of disputes, and
only development can eliminate poverty. Human
development concerns us all. Obviously, it is
impossible to build common prosperity when there is a
huge chasm between the North and the South. The
international community should act with a sense of
urgency and redouble its efforts to deliver the
Millennium Development Goals, narrow the North-
South gap and, in particular, meet Africa’s special
development needs. Developed countries should
increase assistance, further open their domestic
markets, transfer more technologies to developing
countries and provide greater debt relief to them.
 For their part, developing countries, on their part,
should adopt development strategies and policies
suited to their national conditions and boost their
economic development. We should support an open,
equitable and fair multilateral trade regime and oppose
trade protectionism. We should work for an early,
comprehensive and balanced outcome of the Doha
Round negotiations and make it a development round.
Reform of the international economic system should
fully reflect changes in the world economy and should
give developing countries more say and greater
representation in the international economic system.
 China gives a high priority to strengthening
international cooperation on development as it
develops itself. We seek coordinated and balanced
global development. While a developing country itself,
China has all along provided assistance to African
countries and other developing countries, according to
its ability, and has helped them to improve their
capacity for independent and sustainable development.
That is because we believe that lasting peace and the
common prosperity of the world is possible only with
the development of developing countries.
 To help Africa attain stability, security and
sustainable development is the common responsibility
of the international community. China and African
countries enjoy mutual political respect and equality
and economic mutual benefit and win-win cooperation.
They support one another and maintain close
consultation in international affairs. We draw on one
another’s strengths in governance to promote
development. Thanks to our joint efforts, China-Africa
cooperation has yielded fruitful results. Such
cooperation is well received by the African countries,
and it has brought great benefits to both the Chinese
and African peoples. China’s cooperation with Africa
facilitates Africa’s cooperation with other countries and
is not targeted against any third party.
 The current session of the General Assembly
should be devoted to promoting harmony between man
and nature. Development in the world has both
advanced material progress and caused ecological
imbalance and environmental pollution. To protect our
common homeland is a matter of vital importance for
our common future.
 Climate change is an environmental issue, but
ultimately it is an issue of development. It has arisen in
the course of development and can be resolved only
through development. We should uphold the
framework of the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol
and adhere to the principle of common but
differentiated responsibilities. Developed countries
should face up to their responsibilities, fulfil their
commitments on emissions reduction in earnest and
continue to take the lead in emissions reduction after
2012. We should strengthen international cooperation
on energy, resources and the environment, step up
efforts to develop and introduce energy-conserving
technologies, environmental protection technologies
and low-carbon energy technologies, and establish
reasonable mechanisms for financing and technology
transfer. That will enable developing countries to gain
access to and afford advanced environmental-
protection technologies, enhance capacity to respond to
climate change and effectively address climate change
through achieving sustainable development.
 China takes climate change seriously. Though its
current per capita carbon dioxide emissions are less
than one third of the average of developed countries,
China, acting in a way that is highly responsible to
mankind, has taken many effective measures to tackle
climate change, including adopting a series of laws and
regulations and setting the goals of reducing energy
intensity and increasing forest cover. The Chinese
Government has set the following targets: to reduce
energy intensity and total discharge of major pollutants
by about 20 per cent and 10 per cent respectively and
to increase the forest cover rate to 20 per cent for the
period between the end of 2005 and 2010. Under its
National Climate Change Programme, China will take
an active part in international cooperation in climate
change and contribute its share to protecting the global
climate.
 Advancing United Nations reform and enabling
the Organization to play a more important role in
maintaining world peace, promoting common
development and strengthening cooperation among
countries is crucial to building a harmonious world.
China supports the reform of the United Nations. The
reform decisions made at the high-level meeting
marking the sixtieth anniversary of the United Nations
held in 2005 should be implemented in a
comprehensive and balanced manner. Priority should
be given to reform in the area of development, and the
United Nations should increase its input in that area.
The Human Rights Council should build on the
outcome of reform in its previous phase and become a
platform for dialogue and cooperation rather than an
arena for political confrontation. Security Council
reform should give priority to increasing the
representation of developing countries and give small
and medium-sized countries more opportunities to
participate in decision-making. Reform proposals
should be based on the widest possible consensus.
China is ready to work with all other parties to turn
reform into a process of strengthening consultation and
dialogue and promoting solidarity and cooperation
among all United Nations Member States.
 China is committed to building a society of
democracy, the rule of law, equity and justice, integrity
and amity, vitality, stability and order, where people
live in harmony with nature. To achieve that goal,
China is fully implementing the outcomes of scientific
thinking on development. We are working to boost
social productivity and ensure people’s rights in the
political, economic, cultural, social and other fields. By
striving to build a harmonious society and by
improving the material and cultural life of one fifth of
the world’s population, China is making a true
contribution to the building of a harmonious world.
 China has always pursued its own development as
a part of the global effort to promote the common
progress of mankind. In international affairs, we are
committed to the following goals: promoting
participation in international affairs by all countries on
an equal footing and democracy in international
relations; enabling all countries to share the benefits of
economic globalization and progress in science and
technology for a win-win outcome; promoting
exchanges and understanding among civilizations and
diversity in the world; enhancing dialogue and trust
among countries; and jointly tackling global issues.
China unswervingly pursues a path of peaceful
development and will continue to make further
contributions to humankind’s cause of peace and
development.
 Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory.
We will not permit any challenge to the one-China
principle and General Assembly resolution 2758
(XXVI). For 15 years running, since 1993, the General
Assembly has rejected the inclusion of Taiwan-related
issues in the agenda of the General Assembly session.
This fully demonstrates that any move that runs
counter to the purposes and principles of the United
Nations Charter or attempts to distort and deny General
Assembly resolution 2758 (XXVI) will not receive any
support from the United Nations Member States and is
doomed to failure. We hope that the countries
concerned will not allow themselves to be manipulated
by the Taiwan authorities and will stop making wrong
moves of this kind.
The Taiwan authorities are now obstinately
clinging to the separatist course of “Taiwan
independence” and are trying by all means to secure a
referendum on applying for membership of the United
Nations under the name Taiwan. This is another
dangerous step towards “de jure Taiwan independence”
taken by the Chen Shui-bian authorities. If unchecked,
this move will gravely endanger peace and stability
across the Taiwan Strait and in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Chinese Government has always made every effort
to promote with all sincerity peaceful development of
cross-Strait relations and to seek peaceful
reunification. However, we will never allow anyone to
separate Taiwan from China in name or in any other
way. We hope that the international community will
continue to support China’s cause of peaceful
reunification, support the Chinese people in opposing
and repulsing separatist activities for “Taiwan
independence” and work with us to maintain peace and
stability across the Taiwan Straits and in the Asia-
Pacific region.
 The Olympic Games, which represent humanity’s
aspiration for peace, development, cooperation and
friendship, will for the first time be held in China, a
country both ancient and youthful, starting on 8 August
2008. One World, One Dream   this is the theme of
the Beijing Olympic Games. The 1.3 billion people in
China, together with the rest of the world, are eagerly
looking forward to the opening of the Games. The
2008 Olympic Games are a great event for both the
Chinese people and the other peoples of the world. We
are confident that with the efforts made by the Chinese
people and with strong support from the international
community, the 2008 Olympic Games will stand out as
a highly successful event.


It is a privilege and an
honour for me to address this audience and to represent
Bulgaria in its new status as a State member of the
European Union. Having subscribed to the statement
made by the Prime Minister of Portugal (see
), I would like to assure the Assembly that,
as part of the European family, my country is now even
more committed to the universal and normative role of
the United Nations in today’s globalized world.
 I warmly congratulate you, Mr. Srgjan Kerim, on
your assumption of the presidency of the General
Assembly at its sixty-second session. We are delighted
to see in the leadership of this body an outstanding
representative of a neighbouring State and of our
region, South-Eastern Europe. I reiterate that my
country fully supports the priorities you have outlined
for the work of this session. We wish you every success
in the months ahead.
 Our gratitude goes to Her Excellency Sheikha
Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, for her leadership as
President of the sixty-first session. I also take this
opportunity to commend the dedicated and energetic
performance of the Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon,
during his first nine months in office.
(spoke in French)
 I would like to thank the President for having
chosen climate change as a central theme for our
debate. That world challenge calls upon all of us to
provide an immediate response based on shared but
differentiated responsibilities of Member countries. We
welcome the fact that the high-level event on climate
change held on 24 September has given considerable
impetus to future negotiations on a new international
agreement, which will benefit broadly from the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
and the Kyoto Protocol.
 Global warming is exacerbating the serious
economic and social problems that developing
countries are facing. It also threatens the
implementation of development goals set by the
international community, including the Millennium
Development Goals. In that regard, we join other
countries in supporting the recent United Kingdom
initiative calling for urgent action to meet those goals.
Bulgaria is prepared to play its part in solidarity with
developing countries.
 Unfortunately, the list of serious threats to our
common security is not short. Non-proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction, arms control and
disarmament continue to be at the forefront of the
international scene. Strengthening the regime of the
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons to
make it truly universal remains one of the major
priorities of our time. It is regrettable that no progress
has been achieved on the pending question regarding
Iran’s nuclear programme.
 Bulgaria reaffirms its support for the United
Nations Programme of Action on Small Arms. We are
firmly committed to the process towards adoption of an
international treaty on the arms trade in the near future.
 My country unambiguously condemns terrorism
and rejects terrorist ideology in all its forms and
manifestations. Terrorism cannot be linked to any
specific culture or religion. The United Nations must
continue to play a central role in mobilizing the
international community to meet this challenge and to
meet the related challenge of radicalism and political
extremism.
 In order to combat terrorism, we must first
address the fundamental problems of poverty and
underdevelopment, overcome prejudices and
stereotypes and promote tolerance in a world of great
diversity. That is why Bulgaria has joined the Group of
Friends of the Alliance of Civilizations, fully
supporting other complementary initiatives as well.
 The situation in Iraq continues to be a source of
concern for the international community. This calls for
the commitment of the United Nations. Bulgaria is
participating in joint efforts to ensure that Iraq will be
able to achieve its vision of a safe, unified and
democratic State.
 Afghanistan is another example where a powerful
need has been felt to see increased involvement of the
United Nations, along with NATO and the European
Union, to support the difficult national reconstruction
process.
 Progress towards peace in the Middle East is of
primary importance for the international community.
Bulgaria welcomes the resumption of bilateral talks
between President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert
and hopes that they will lead to a just and lasting
solution in accordance with the relevant resolutions of
the Security Council and the Quartet principles.
Lebanon too continues to require a strong commitment
on our part to secure its national unity, territorial
integrity, recovery and reconstruction.
 Today, the role of the United Nations is no longer
solely to maintain peace, but to ensure that peace is
firmly rooted and sustainable. The Peacebuilding
Commission is now up and running. We believe that it
has great potential, and its position vis-a-vis the
principal organs of the United Nations must be
strengthened and better defined. We see the future of
the Commission as a modern multilateral instrument
for the long-term resolution of conflicts.
 The institution-building process in the Human
Rights Council has led to a compromise. We believe
that this has led to opportunities for us to make the
Council an effective international tool to promote
human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.
 Bulgaria fully shares the view that human life has
supreme value and invites Member States to support a
draft resolution on a moratorium on and abolition of
the death penalty.
 For multilateralism to be effective, it must
involve strong partnership between the United Nations
and regional organizations. We heartily endorse the
growing interaction between the United Nations and
the European Union. The recently updated Joint
Declaration on United Nations-European Union
Cooperation in Crisis Management has provided a new
avenue for joint action. In addition, the United Nations
and the African Union are involved in an
unprecedented peace operation, the African Union-
United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur, for
remedying the critical situation in Darfur. We also
welcome the pragmatic cooperation established
between the United Nations and NATO.
 Various forms of regional and subregional
cooperation have always been the cornerstone of a
global system of collective security. Bulgaria is now
chairing two regional organizations: the Central
European Initiative and the South-East European
Cooperation Process. Regional cooperation in South-
East Europe has grown stronger and is gaining
momentum. The Stability Pact, which was launched at
the initiative of the European Union in 1999, has
provided important impetus. In accordance with the
concept of regional ownership, the key role today has
been assumed by the South-East European Cooperation
Process. Agreement on the creation of a regional
cooperation council secretariat has just been signed by
the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the member
countries in the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv.
 Bulgaria is now leading this process and will
spare no effort to strengthen the prospects for
European integration for the entire South-East
European region. Our priorities focus on cooperation in
sectors such as infrastructure, security, energy, the
environment, tourism, justice and domestic affairs.
 The unresolved status of Kosovo has a negative
effect on security in the entire region. We regret that
the Security Council has not been able to adopt a new
resolution to replace resolution 1244 (1999) and thus to
confirm its backing for a negotiated solution on the
basis of the proposal of Special Envoy Ahtisaari.
Bulgaria steadily supports all efforts aimed at reaching,
as quickly as possible, a viable and legitimate solution
with respect to the status of Kosovo. Such a settlement
would guarantee regional peace and stability; it should
take into account the interests and the concerns of
neighbouring countries.
 Thanks to the efforts deployed by the Contact
Group Troika, we now have perhaps the final chance to
find a negotiated solution. We hope that Belgrade and
Pristina will be able to take this opportunity to find a
compromise that can open the path to a new European
future. While these talks are under way, it is essential
to prevent any worsening of the situation. The
international community   first and foremost the
United Nations, NATO, the European Union and the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe   are working together with local institutions,
and they must continue to provide the necessary
instruments and the guarantees to preserve regional
stability.
 Promoting democratization, stability, security and
cooperation is a major challenge in the Black Sea
region. Consistent efforts are required so that we can
arrive at a settlement of the of the frozen conflicts in
Transdniestria and in the southern Caucasus, which
continue to undermine stability and hamper regional
cooperation.
 Bulgaria actively supports the formulation and
implementation of the Black Sea dimension in the
policy of good-neighbourliness with the European
Union. Major projects have been started in important
sectors such as transportation, energy, trade,
environment and border security. Stability and
predictability in this region are more important than
ever to ensure energy security in Europe and to ensure
the diversification and reliability of energy supplies to
the continent.
 Bulgaria is firmly convinced that in order for the
United Nations to play its role effectively worldwide, it
must steadfastly pursue the radical reforms identified
at the 2005 World Summit. Progress was achieved at
the sixty-first session, but much remains to be done so
that the reforms meet the international community’s
hopes.
 Despite the good-faith efforts of the mediators,
no tangible progress has been seen on a question that
has been discussed at length: reform of the Security
Council. My delegation supports the recommendation
to move this process forward to the negotiation phase,
with a view to reaching a broadly acceptable
compromise that would take account of equitable
geographic representation. It is obvious that reform of
the Council will not be an easy task. We will require
interim solutions at various stages over a certain period
of time. The first step, however, cannot be put off
indefinitely, because if we are unable to reform the
Security Council, then broad reform of the United
Nations will be incomplete.
 A critical consideration of the implementation of
a number of pilot countries in the One United Nations
Initiative has revealed positive results. But consensus
has yet to emerge on how to further the process of
attaining system-wide coherence in the work of the
United Nations. We hope that the final outcome will
take the form of improved and increased development
assistance, which would go together with a United
Nations synergy in the concerned countries and the
competent structures.
 In conclusion, we should recognize that progress
has been made in a number of reform areas. But we
have not yet achieved enough. Bulgaria expects that
the remaining tasks on the United Nations reform
agenda will be pursued energetically and without delay.
To that end we appeal to Member States to show more
flexibility on the decisions needed to ensure the
consistency of the reform process. It is in our common
interest to ensure that the sixty-second session is a
success. So let us work together and with goodwill to
make it happen.