At the outset I am taking this opportunity to congratulate you on your election as the President of this historic Millennium Assembly and wish you every success in this important mission. My tribute goes also to Dr. Gurirab for his skillful leadership during the 54th session. My delegation welcomes Tuvalu as the newest member of the United Nations.

All of us were witnesses of the historic Millennium Summit which gathered an unprecedented number of the Heads of State and Heads of Government in order to address the issues of the future of humanity. At the Summit many of these leaders reiterated that our future depends on our common efforts for its betterment. And the United Nations always has been and continues to be a unique forum which, by virtue of its universal character, has the mandate of solving the pressing problems of peace, security and development.

In this regard, the Kyrgyz Republic moves for increasing the overall effectiveness of the United Nations and recognizes that the United Nations should be the results-oriented organization. Kyrgyzstan supports measures aimed at the transformation of the United Nations into an organization with a more perfect management and a well-ordered structure and thus better prepared to cope with both humanitarian and political crises.

Emphasizing the importance of the United Nations as a global organization of the human community, Kyrgyzstan makes a stand for the universal character of its reforms, which should include all bodies of the United Nations, including the Security Council. Confirming the position on the quantitative expansion of the Security Council in both its categories, the Kyrgyz Republic simultaneously acts for fair geographical representation of the countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

A decade ago, Kyrgyzstan chose as its goal the establishment of a democratic open society and an economy based on free market principles. Today we can look back at our first decade with some satisfaction. However, the invasions of the international terrorists into the southern part of the Kyrgyz Republic 4-1 1999 and August of this year had shown that the new democracies are very fragile. These events also testify that the international terrorist organizations have every intent to perpetrate their criminal activities by using the territories of the states of Central Asia. These actions should be seen for what they are of the global plan of international terrorism with the express purpose of destabilization of wide region. Now it is possible to say with certitude that the terrorists are the very tool by which the international extremist organizations attempt to carry out their plans in relation to many countries of the world, including the Central-Asian countries.

No individual country can cope on its own with these challenges. It has become totally transparent, that terrorism represents a threat to the whole global community, which can and should undertake adequate measures in the struggle with this evil. The struggle against terrorism should be conducted on the national, regional and international levels.

Kyrgyzstan has contributed to strengthening the global consensus on combating international terrorism. Further, this year Kyrgyzstan is a party to major international conventions against terrorism, such as:

1. Convention on Offences and Certain Other Acts Committed on Board Aircraft, signed at Tokyo on 14 September 1963

2. Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Seizure of Aircraft, signed at The Hague on 16 December 1970

3. Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation, signed at Montreal on 23 September 1971

4. Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts of Violence at Airports Serving International Civil Aviation, supplementary to the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civil Aviation, signed at Montreal on 24 February 1988.

Nowadays Kyrgyzstan is working on the issue of joining the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 15 December 1997 and International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism opened for signature this year.

An important step directed to strengthening regional security is the Summit of the heads of states the members of "Shanghai Five", which is assuming a definitive character. The growing regional and global authority of "Shanghai Forum" in many respects is connected to a wide range of tasks, which it solves both in political, military, tradeeconomic and other areas, including the providing of security in the region.

In the framework of the "Shanghai Forum", there has been created the "Bishkek Group" of law- enforcement bodies and special services of the member-countries which conducts work on the coordination of our countries' actions in preventing and confronting all signs of international terrorism, extremism, separatism, illegal drug trade, smuggling of weapons, illegal migration and other kinds of criminal activity. The antiterrorist center of "Shanghai Five" is being created with its headquarters in Bishkek.

Held on August 20, 2000, the Bishkek meeting of the heads of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and the special envoy of the President of the Russian Federation has shown the unanimous resolve of the countries of Central Asia and Russia to eradicate jointly the threat of terrorism in their territories.

We believe that the efforts of our countries will be supported by the international community. And the role of the United Nations in this process is the most important. Only by the joint efforts of all countries of the region and the international community, is it possible to resist challenges to security, stability, peace and order in Central Asia and the world. The Kyrgyz Republic acts for the creation of an international system of measures for controlling terrorism and other forms of extremism. In this regard we consider the Uzbekistan's initiative of establishment an International Counter-Terrorism Center within the UN system as one to be of interest.

The efforts undertaken by Kyrgyzstan, and other states of Central Asia in the struggle with international terrorism, religious and political extremism illegal drug trafficking and weapon trade, will not be crowned by success without the normalization of the situation in Afghanistan.

We express the hope that effective measures on the radical improvement of Afghanistan's conditions will be undertaken. It is particularly important to guarantee that these forms of common activity could be further developed.

Furthermore, expressing its sincere aspiration to promote the prompt establishment of peace in Afghanistan and stability in the region as a whole, the Kyrgyz Republic confirms its readiness to provide its territory for holding a peace conference on Afghanistan under the auspices of the UN.

Wishing to bring its own contribution to the efforts of the global community in creating a safe nuclear free future, Kyrgyzstan is going further with its most active participation in the creation in Central Asia of a nuclear free zone. We welcome the assistance from the UN in the realization of this initiative. We express hope, that the countries of Central Asia may successfully finish the work on the drafting of a Treaty that meets both the peoples regional interests and the interests of the entire international community.

Speaking about the world security one can not avoid the issue of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Signed in 1972 it became an important cornerstone of strategic stability. In this regard we should reaffirm today its role in international security and our need to strictly observe and comply with all the provisions of ABM Treaty.

The Kyrgyz Republic aspires to bring its contribution to the United Nations peacekeeping operations. Presently, representatives from Kyrgyzstan serve in the peacekeeping missions in Sierra-Leone and in Kosovo. My country is going further to undertake efforts directed to the expansion of its- contribution to the peace-keeping activity of the United Nations.

Problems of development are the most important problems for Kyrgyzstan as a country with an economy in transition. The key role in their solution belongs to the UNDP as the main body of the UN, which coordinates providing assistance with the purposes of potential national development. The Kyrgyz Republic welcomes the decisive steps of the UNDP Administrator directed to reforming this structure and the departure from that heavy financial burden, which can threaten the realization of a number of the national projects on democratic and economic reforms.

Considering the problems of financing for development in a context of globalization and interdependence, Kyrgyzstan calls special attention to financing for the eradication of poverty.

The Secretary General's Report "We, the peoples: the role of the United Nations in the twenty- first century" has identified poverty as one of the main challenges facing mankind. Shorn of all the sophisticated economic rhetoric, poverty reduction simply means the creation of new jobs, productive activities that will provide people not only with income and employment, but also with self-respect and a hope for their future and the future of their children. Special measures should be taken by an international community to assist developing countries and countries with economics in transition in their efforts to develop and participate fully in the global economy.

The establishment of a uniform transport system is especially important for Central Asia which is located far from large sea routes. Kyrgyzstan acts for the development and realization of the large regionally important Projects such as the creation of a uniform transport system with access to external markets and the creation of modern communication systems. The direction of transport will flow from China and the countries of South-East Asia to Russia and Europe via the territory of Central Asia. This will bring not only the optimization of the global transport system by reducing the distance and time of transportation, but also will become a most powerful impetus for economic development due to the export expansion. Such large projects, as TRACEKA (transport corridor Europe Caucusus Asia), have already begun to be developed and realized.

We would like to support those provisions of the Secretary General's report, addressing the issues of the building of "digital bridges". It is obvious, that the huge progress in computer science and telecommunications has radically changed the picture of the world. The telecommunication project "SILKSAT" has been developed for the purpose of preventing the threat of information breakdown between countries. The purpose of this project is the optimal entry facilitation of the countries of the Great Silk Road into the global telecommunications system.

The Kyrgyz Republic proceeding from the idea that the stability has not only the political or economic aspect but also the environmental perspective, submitted this year to the Secretary General the instruments of ratification and accession of the following international treaties on the environmental issues:

1. UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

2. Convention on Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution

3. Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Chemical and Pesticides in International Trade

4. The Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that deplete the Ozone Layer

Kyrgyz parliament is working today on the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol supporting the idea of the Secretary General's Millennium Report that "The need to preserve biodiversity is a less self- evident conservation issue than polluted beaches, burning forests or expanding deserts. But it is as crucial, if not more so."

I would add to the Secretary General's list of the major ecosystem concerns the mountain ecosystem as well. Using this opportunity I would like to- express our deep gratitude to the global community for its support of Kyrgyzstan'-s initiative and adoption by the 53-rd session of the General Assembly of the resolution on the announcement of the year 2002 as the International Year of Mountains. Expressing a hope, that its realization will promote mobilization of economic, technical and financial resources of the international community for the sustainable development of the mountainous areas the Kyrgyz Republic offers to hold in 2002, in Kyrgyzstan, the "International Conference on Mountains" under the aegis of the United Nations. We call the States and international organizations to give further attention to the problems of the natural balance preservation of mountainous ecosystems and the development of the mountain countries and regions as a preparation for the International Year of the Mountains. We commend FAO as a leading agency for the preparation of the Year of the Mountains for the comprehensive Concept paper on the Mountains issues and for its tireless efforts in this field. Accordingly, Kyrgyzstan supports the initiative of the Republic of Tajikistan in announcing within the frameworks of the United Nations, the year 2003 as the "Year of Fresh Water". We express the hope that the global community will support it.

Kyrgyzstan faces problems in handling natural calamities and their regularly occurring consequences especially in the mountainous regions. The Kyrgyz Republic is directly interested in the further strengthening of international capacity for dealing with accidents, the advanced specialized technologies for handling the accidental consequences of a spontaneous and technological character, and increasing the coordination of rescue services of the various countries.

In conclusion, I wish to assure You that the Kyrgyz delegation will take a most active part in achieving our general purpose to ensure the successful work of the Millennium Assembly.