I wish to offer you my
congratulations, Madam President, on your election to
the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-
first session. Your experience in international affairs is
the best guarantee of the success of your term. At the
same time I express to your predecessor, Mr. Jan
Eliasson, our sincere thanks for his effective and
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balanced leadership of the sixtieth session. My special
appreciation goes also to Kofi Annan for having
dedicated his life to the Organization, particularly in
the past 10 years as Secretary-General, leading it
through difficult challenges and laying the groundwork
for its reform. Thank you, Kofi.
It was in this city on 11 September five years ago
that the dramatic realization was forced upon us of just
how dangerous the world has become. On that day we
knew that the new millennium would hold
unpredictable and complex threats extending beyond
national borders; global threats against which notions
of protection inside national borders are illusory;
asymmetrical threats that are difficult to counter
effectively with the instruments previously used to
settle conflicts.
Terrorism and weapons of mass destruction have
changed traditional society and its values. They have
rendered obsolete systems of collective defence and
security based on deterrence. The old solutions to the
world’s problems — the logic of balance and
hegemony — are no longer enough to guarantee
stability and security. These new threats add a new
element to a list that includes regional conflicts in the
Middle East, Asia and Africa; pandemics; problems of
development and the gap between North and South;
human rights abuses; mass migrations; and issues
concerning energy and the environment. These are
phenomena that it is also impossible to resolve without
a collective assumption of responsibility.
If we wish to govern these phenomena we need to
be equal to their dimensions. No country, however
strong and powerful, can take on such complex
challenges single-handedly. Global threats demand a
global response. In the final analysis, this means
collective partnership. To have chosen as the theme of
the sixty-first session “Implementing a global
partnership for development” was thus particularly
appropriate. Without collective action by the countries
in the northern and southern hemispheres, international
organizations and institutions, the public and private
sector and civil society, it will be impossible to achieve
the goals we have set.
First and foremost we need to reinvigorate
multilateralism, by which I mean above all restoring
the central, fundamental role of the United Nations.
The recent experience in Lebanon and the
strengthening of the United Nations Interim Force in
Lebanon (UNIFIL) is one example of how the United
Nations can regain its crucial importance in the
resolution of international controversies. Above all, it
demonstrates — and this is the key point — that if the
stakeholders are willing to confer upon the United
Nations a strong, central role, the Organization is well
able to fulfil it.
In Lebanon we are still at square one, and much
remains to be done. To underestimate the risk of this
mission would be a serious mistake. We must,
however, be pleased with how the United Nations, its
Member States and — allow me to add — the
European Union have addressed a situation that only
two months ago risked getting out of hand, but which
today presents a series of opportunities for the Middle
East as a whole. We should be pleased to have set up a
mission that represents the entire international
community, a tangible expression of the very global
partnership that we are discussing today. For, while it
is true that Europe provides the backbone of UNIFIL,
it cannot carry out its mission effectively without the
contributions of China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Russia, Turkey and the many other non-European
countries participating.
The question we must ask at this point is this:
what do we need to do in order to continue the work
just begun in Lebanon? More generally, in view of the
crises and emergencies that surround us, what does the
United Nations need in order to fulfil the principles of
the Charter? It needs two things: first, quick
completion of the reforms, and, secondly, the strong
and unconditional support of its Members.
On the issue of reform, last year, after an intense
series of negotiations, a moment of summary allowed
us to lay the groundwork for giving the United Nations
a more incisive role, to the benefit of the international
community. The Peacebuilding Commission is the first
major result, because it highlights the indestructible
bond between development, security and human rights.
A priority commitment to human rights and their
safeguarding should be the goal of any country that
wishes to lend greater ethical authority to its foreign
policy. The results achieved by the reform on this
point, through the establishment of the new Human
Rights Council, are still being examined. The other
significant outcome is the affirmation of the principle
of the responsibility to protect, so that the international
community will no longer be indifferent to acts of
genocide.
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But it is on the General Assembly and the
Security Council that we must focus our attention, by
restoring the central role of the General Assembly as
the main decision-making, representative and policy-
making body of the United Nations; and by renewing
efforts to reform the Security Council, in terms both of
its working methods and its composition. In the current
situation Member States thus need to send a strong
political signal that will help us to begin a new chapter
and open the way to an innovative approach.
In other words, we need to enter a period of
negotiation which has thus far eluded us, a period in
which, rather than seeking to impose positions and
models, we can undertake a true comparison of
positions for the purpose of achieving solutions that are
not divisive but, rather, enable the widest possible
consensus. But a word of caution: everything is
negotiable except for the ownership of the
Organization by the Member States, by all of us, an
ownership that represents the true pillar on which
United Nations multilateralism must rest.
Another way for the United Nations to regain the
forcefulness and credibility it needs to fulfil its mission
is by strengthening the role of its great regional
stakeholders. I am thinking first of the European
Union, because if Europe is stronger the United
Nations will be stronger. The world and the United
Nations do not need a Europe that hesitates. Rather,
they need a Europe that is able to play its part in
meeting the challenges that await us. Europe, in turn,
must become more aware that only by contributing to
the resolution of global tensions can it give greater
security and prosperity to its citizens.
The conditions for performing this role are there.
The numbers alone make the European Union a global
actor — 25 countries with a total population of more
than 450 million, representing one fourth of the world’s
gross domestic product and every month allocating
€500 million to third countries. Yet these numbers do
not correspond to a comparable ability for the
European Union to make a difference outside its own
borders.
In the work of the Assembly and its various
committees, the European Union is becoming a key
actor. At every debate and on every resolution its
position represents a point of reference in shaping the
attitudes of the other regional groups. Our goal should
be to acquire a similar ability within the Security
Council. It may be a slow process, which will have to
take into account points of resistance and stubborn
legacies, but it should be pursued with determination.
Only if Europe wields a more incisive influence on the
issues of peace and security can it be considered a true
global actor. The Balkan tragedies in the early 1990s
were the result of an absent Europe. But when it is
present, and when it is united, Europe can make the
difference. That is what we are seeing in the Lebanese
crisis. During the sixty-first session of the General
Assembly, and in the course of its biennium in the
Security Council, Italy will make a special effort to
increase the commitment and role of the European
Union at the United Nations.
Our aim is to make the Organization more
effective in the areas and on the issues in which, by
history and vocation, it can provide the most added
value. The proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction, in particular nuclear weapons, has to be
seen today in the context, above all, of the negotiation
under way with Iran. But it is our duty to look further
ahead and to strive, all together, to consolidate the
general non-proliferation system. That principle will
inspire the action of Italy when it enters the Security
Council.
With regard to the Iranian nuclear file, we are
ready to make our contribution to a negotiated solution
that promotes regional security and stability.
In the Middle East, as I mentioned earlier, we
need to seize our opportunities and openings , aware
that there will be no peace until the Palestinian
question has been resolved, with an independent,
sovereign, vital and contiguous Palestinian state next to
the state of Israel, and both within secure and
internationally recognized borders.
That grave regional crisis should not lead us to
forget Africa — long suffering, prey to ongoing crises,
and even poorer than it was two decades ago. The
situation in Darfur is critical. We cannot stand by and
watch, for the simple reason that time has run out. We
need to act quickly and strive for a gradual assumption
of responsibility by the United Nations, in compliance
with the decisions of the Security Council. The
situation in the Horn of Africa is also a source of
concern. Here a strong commitment is required from
the Security Council, where, starting on 1 January
2007, Italy will make its contribution also, on the basis
of its experience in the region. When I speak of Africa,
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I mean primarily the gap between the northern and
southern hemispheres, the phenomenon at the root of
almost all the ills afflicting our era. It is that gap,
above all, that causes the massive migratory flows that
we cannot ignore and that we must address with
realism, responsibility, equanimity, and especially
solidarity.
In the Mediterranean we are working with our
partners to address immigration on the basis of those
principles, and seeking to facilitate legal flows and to
counter both the illegal flows and the parties that profit
from them, seeking to facilitate the integration into our
countries of those who have immigrated legally, filled
with hope and the desire to work.
But there is another dangerous gap that risks
leaving an even deeper gash in the world. I am
referring to what until a few years ago was called a
clash of civilizations and religions between the
Christian and Islamic worlds. I refuse to believe that
such a clash exists. Extremists and fanatics do exist,
but civilizations and religions were made for the sake
of dialogue, exchange and mutual enrichment. We can
promote, and we want to promote, this relationship by
building new policies to bring us closer to the countries
on the southern shores of the Mediterranean, with the
goal of making that sea a basin of peace and
harmonious coexistence among diverse civilizations
and religions.
Let me return to the central issue of this session,
the global partnership for development, in order to
clarify one point. There is a risk that the reinvigoration
of multilateralism, United Nations reform, and a
collective commitment to the various theatres of crisis
will produce no lasting effect unless development
issues are treated as priorities. It is up to the United
Nations as the driving force, the glue of solidarity
among peoples, and the fullest expression of
multilateralism, to keep development at the top of the
international agenda. For it is in the connection
between security, solidarity and development that the
added value of the United Nations lies, in the full
awareness that there can be no peace without
development and no development without peace.
It is not enough to enunciate at this rostrum, as
speakers have been doing for six years now, the words
“Millennium Development Goals”. We must get to
work and carry them out, starting with the adoption of
the financial, trade, technological and environmental
steps required and aiming for a very specific, ambitious
goal that responds above all to a moral duty: to
guarantee a dignified life for every human being.
I wish to conclude with a few considerations on
the fundamental principles and values that inspire our
action when we deal with multilateralism, the search
for peace, security and development, and north-south
relations. All these issues coalesce in a defence of life
and struggle against all forms of hatred, violence,
discrimination and marginalization, undeniable values
that, together with democratic principles, are the
foundations of coexistence among peoples and should
inspire the action of the world’s nations. Today, sadly,
these values are still denied and trampled upon, as if
we had learned nothing from the horrors of the past.
We cannot sit by watching indifferently in the face of
barbarous acts. We are for peace and solidarity. We are
against the death penalty, injustice and human
suffering. That is something we must always
remember, especially on the eve of major decisions.
That is what is expected of us from those who
sacrificed their lives for peace, for a righteous cause,
for an ideal, to defend freedom, the same freedom that
we enjoy every day in a democracy.