BELARUS

STATEMENT

BY HIS EXCELLENCY

PROF. DR. URAL LATYPOV

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER AND MINISTER OF FOREIGN

AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS

IN THE GENERAL DEBATE AT THE 55th SESSION OF

THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

New York, 15 September 2000

Mr. President,

Allow me, first of all, to congratulate you on your election as President of this historic Millennium Assembly and wish you every success in the discharge of this complex and responsible mission. We are addressing the expressions of most sincere appreciation to your predecessor, Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab. Our delegation is also delighted to welcome Tuvalu as a new member of the United Nations.

Mr. President,

The 55th session of the UN General Assembly marks an important landmark for the international community. We are still feeling the beat of the Millennium Summit. Our crucial task at the moment is to seek specific ways for implementing the provisions of its Final Declaration.

In his address to the Summit the President of the Republic of Belarus, H.E. Mr. Alyaksandr Lukashenka clearly defined an ultimate, as we see it, objective for shaping the image of the United Nations in the 21st century. That is to meet the needs and aspirations of our respective nations, to seek practical opportunities for real improvement of the quality of life of every single individual. This is the imperative the reality has been dictating to us. That is, also, the main thrust of the UN Secretary-General's report "We, the peoples: the role of the United Nations in the 21st century".

Belarus holds in high respect a unique historic role played by the United Nations in international developments of the second half of the 20th century. As it can be seen from all the previous experience of the Organization, a stable, just and prosperous world can only be attained on the basis of sovereign equality of States, their territorial integrity and political independence, non-interference in the internal affairs and respect for national traditions. The humanity would have to face conflicts and humanitarian stress every time those principles were broken. We believe that they will continue to be of similar importance in the next century.

Mr. President,

Just like 55 years ago, there is hardly a more pressing task for the United Nations than the maintenance of international peace.

All UN Member States have equal rights to peaceful and sustainable development. Thus, the security of neither state, from a small island country to a superpower, can be achieved through disrespect for the interests of the others.

The Republic of Belarus is committed to its choice for a nuclear-weapon-free world. We believe in the generosity and great meaning of the initiative put forward by the Head of our State to establish a nuclear-weapon-free space in Central and Eastern Europe. We are confident that in due time this idea will receive a sufficient number of proponents.

During this session the Republic of Belarus has deposited the documents on the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and the Protocol on the Blinding Laser Weapons to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects (Protocol IV).

At the same time, a continuing absence of visible consensus within the UN on the key issues of the international disarmament process is becoming a dismaying reality. To exit this dead end would essentially require setting priorities and embarking upon an active dialogue aimed at achieving progress in both nuclear and conventional disarmament. 5 millions of victims over the last decade - is it not an imperative serious enough to set to real action?

It is critical to maintain and consolidate the strategic global parity built under the complex conditions of the 20th century. In this regard, preservation of and respect for the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty is a logical basis for the maintenance of international stability. Its violation could result in an extremely dangerous disruption of the established set of interdependent agreements in this area. The Republic of Belarus will again co-sponsor the resolution on the ABM during this session of the UN General Assembly.

Mr. President,

The time-span between the two sessions of the UN General Assembly has been marked by the LIN active involvement in peaceful settlement of disputes, post-conflict peace building and rehabilitation.

We observe with satisfaction the actions taken by the UN Security Council, more resolutely and consistently than in the past, with respect to such complex situations as conflicts in Sierra-Leone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia and Eritrea, Angola, East Timor. The Republic of Belarus has been following with hope the developments in the Middle East. We believe that the withdrawal of the Israeli troops from Southern Lebanon and Palestinian-Israeli peace talks will favor the resolution of the crisis in the region.

For over a quarter of a century attempts have been made to break a stalemate in the settlement of the Cyprus problem. It is critical that the LIN continues its work to resolve the crisis on the basis of the appropriate resolutions of the Security Council and General Assembly.

Development of specific preventive measures for the elimination of root causes of potential conflicts should be in the focus of the UN attention in the near future. It is important to make irreversible the growing trend in the international efforts to define universal mechanisms and specify practical measures of conflict prevention and crisis management.

Activities of the Panel of Experts headed by Ambassador L. Brahimi alongside with the oncoming conference on illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects are an important contribution thereto.

As the UN Secretary-General rightly observed, the very credibility of the Organization to play a decisive role in the war and peace processes is at stake. In this respect, the Republic of Belarus has been and remains firmly committed to the preservation of the primary role played by the UN Security Council in the decision-making on actions to avert threats to peace and security. Viewed from that perspective, further improvement in the working methods of the Council and reform of its membership on the basis of equitable geographic representation are not just an important task, but a pressing imperative of time.

The Government of Belarus reconfirms the determination of our country to constructively contribute to the activities of the Council should Belarus gets elected as its non-permanent member for the term of 2002-2003.

Mr. President,

The tremendous benefits of globalization will be reduced to nothing unless there is a clear understanding of the dire need for the international community to learn a common language; that is - the language of law. In recent years we have witnessed practical demonstrations when even the slightest deviation from the internationally accepted norms would inevitably carry in itself an extreme danger not only for the violators themselves but, also, for the entire international community.

It is an encouraging fact that since its outset the United Nations has gained a significant potential in accumulating all the far-reaching ideas, hopes and aspirations of the humankind to building a better world.

Implementing the norms of international law at the national level should become a priority for the UN and its partners.

Today, the Republic of Belarus is a party to the UN most important conventions and treaties. The establishment of a legislative model based on the UN Charter, international treaties and conventions and complemented with national legislation is the objective we must all strive for.

Mr. President,

The stability of the interdependent world is hardly attainable when the system of international politics is solely perceived as domination of one state or interaction among some separate groups of states.

Differences in social and economic advancement will persist for a long time. Therefore, in the globalizing world, the United Nations should play a more active role in promoting the economic development and social progress of all the countries.

Belarus is supportive of a sharper focus in the international efforts on the problems of the developing countries, particularly in Africa. Also, we deem it expedient to take into account the needs of countries with economies in transition which, by no means, would loosen the focus on the problems of the developing world. We see no contradiction in such an inter-linkage, as appropriate goals and objectives to this end could, only, be formulated jointly with the United Nations.

Mr. President,

The Republic of Belarus shares the apprehensions expressed by many States over the environmental future of our planet. In this regard, we perceive as very indicative the debates at the Millennium Summit and at the Summit Meeting of the Security Council.

Belarus has signed and ratified a number of important international agreements in the area of environmental protection, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and Convention on Biodiversity. Against this background, we continue to have an acute feeling of the ever-diminishing interest by the international community in the Chernobyl disaster, the world's largest technological catastrophe of the past century that Belarus fell a major victim to.

In this regard, I would like to make another quotation from the address by the President of our country to the Millennium Summit who said, and I cite, "without realizing our joint responsibility for the preservation of the common human environment all discussions of a fair distribution of the benefits and the disadvantages of globalization will remain just shallow talk" (end of quote).

We are confident that the United Nations that has so far importantly contributed to assisting our people in the relevant area will be in a position to find new sources and mechanisms to help Belarus overcome the Chernobyl tragedy.

Mr. President,

The ideas of democracy and respect for human rights can, certainly, play a key role in the continuous human development in the 21st century. Yet, to make this goal attainable it is essential to relinquish the attempts to use these principles to discriminate peoples and "punish" unwelcome states and governments. Regrettably, we have to observe a certain involvement of the United Nations in the efforts to establish a club of countries of advanced democracy" on the basis of some random criteria. It is inadmissible that the idea of the forum of new or restored democracies approved within our Organization should lead to the separation of peoples into teachers and students.

The principle standpoint of Belarus on this issue is the following: a truly democratic world can only be based on the equal dialogue between civilizations.

This year is of special significance to the development of democracy in our country. Parliamentary elections due on October 15, 2000, will be held in full conformity with democratic standards. We invited UN observers to monitor the elections and we are hopeful to see them coming and, thus, contributing in real terms to the democratic development in Belarus.

Mr. President,

Each session of the LIN General Assembly is a milestone in the evolution of the UN itself and the system of international politics as a whole. In that sense, the current session has been endowed with very special powers. It is up to us all to determine how much the UN will be able to justify the hopes and aspirations of our nations at the dawn of the new century.

In the discharge of these noble duties the international community can invariably count on a due contribution by the Republic of Belarus.

I thank you.