WOM/BEI/16 
    4 September 1995


       TEXT OF SECRETARY-GENERAL'S TOAST AT RECEPTION BY PRESIDENT
              OF FOURTH WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN

 Following is the text of the toast by United Nations Secretary-General 
Boutros Boutros-Ghali, read by Under-Secretary-General Ismat Kittani, at a 
reception hosted by the President of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Chen 
Muhua:

 Thank you for your welcome. Your warm works, Mr. Prime Minister, 
strike a particular chord in my heart. The people of China were among the first 
to decide that there would be a United Nations. In the 50 years since then there 
have been many changes. Your country has been transformed. The United Nations 
has sought to innovate and adapt itself to a restless world. 

 China has infused international life with the energy of its vast and 
dynamic population. History has seen in you a courageous explorer. You have made 
many voyages across the frontiers of knowledge. Science is in your debt. Your 
skill has given the world print and paper. You have narrowed distances between 
men while broadening the reach of their minds. 

 Here, as we approach a new millennium, lies our challenge. The United 
Nations can no longer work simply to avoid war. It must be an activist 
institution in the quest for a holistic peace. Cease-fires are necessary not 
only between armies but between the minds and hearts of people. We need a cease-
fire between people and nature. Between resources and greed. Between rights and 
obligations. Between the present and the future. 

 For three years this is what we have tried to do. We have given social and 
developmental problems a political primacy. World leaders including yourself 
have addressed issues not bound by geography or time. The environment. 
Pandemics. Population. Social Development. And now, in this great and 
hospitable city, matters affecting women. 

 This was not meant to be at the expense of political concerns. The 
Security Council met for the first time at summit level in January 1992. It 
affirmed a course for international behaviour that had the sanction of its 
globally representative membership. In accordance with the request of the 
Security Council, I have pursued a series of ideas and options in two documents 
submitted to it: "An Agenda for Peace" and a Supplement. As I had stated then, 
we must grasp the moment for the sake of the future.

 This imperative places special challenges before the great Powers. The 
Charter of the United Nations has premised action by the Security Council upon 
consensus among them. The levels of their economic development are both example 
and encouragement to other nations. 

 What is clear also is that great Powers share common concerns which affect 
virtually every other nation as well. Solutions demand collective resolve and 
united action. But for that an example must be set. Working together, and with 
the United Nations, great Powers can set such an example. They can help define 
the means. They can speed the quest for solutions. 

 These demands of our times call for continuous inter-play between Member 
States of the United Nations and between them and the Organization itself. 
China's role in this exercise is enormous, on a level with its history, its 
population and the pace of its social and economic development. The spirit of 
scholarship and perseverance distinguished Chinese civilization. It continues to 
be felt today. And you personify that, Mr. Prime Minister. The support the 
United Nations, and I, have received from you has been most generous. We are 
grateful. And we know we can continue to count on it. 

 Distinguished friends, I invite you to raise your glasses in a toast -- to 
the health and well-being of Prime Minister Li Peng, to the hospitable people of 
China who have made us so much at home, to the continued and sustained 
cooperation between the United Nations and the People's Republic of China.