I
should like to thank the outgoing President of the
sixty-fifth session of the General Assembly, Mr. Joseph
Deiss of Switzerland, and congratulate Mr. Nassir
Abdulaziz Al-Nasser of Qatar on his election as
President of the sixty-sixth session of the General
Assembly. May I also express my gratitude for the
efforts and leadership of the Secretary-General,
Mr. Ban Ki-moon, who has skilfully guided our
Organization in these difficult and demanding times.
Two world wars taught humanity the necessity to
infuse national relations with respect for a few simple
yet powerful ideals. That is what the United Nations is
all about — respect for peace and good-neighbourly
relations; respect for the rule of law and the
international justice system; and respect for the
fundamental right of every person on this planet to
have a chance for a better life. The United Nations is
what we, its Member States, make of it. We are the
driving force behind its accomplishments. We are the
reason behind any of its failures. The United Nations is
where we meet and agree or disagree on global
cooperation, and when we agree, humanity becomes
stronger.
Today the United Nations is leading vital
international cooperation in tackling climate change
and desertification. There is also the challenge of
non-communicable diseases, which hinder
macroeconomic development and keep the bottom
billions of people locked in chronic poverty.
Unregulated migration is putting huge pressure on
some countries, including Greece, as a result of —
even to the further detriment of — the low level of
development in the countries of origin, poverty and
wars. There is the crucial contribution of the United
Nations and its Human Rights Council on human rights
issues, a contribution that can grow with a stronger
mandate for the Human Rights Council. Greece is
standing for election to the Council for the 2012 term
and deeply values the support of every single one of its
partners in that effort.
Perhaps the most overarching responsibilities of
the United Nations lie in the area of peace and security,
for without peace and security it is much more
difficult, if not impossible, to pursue the myriad other
goals of the Organization. Those goals include
ensuring nuclear security, combating terrorism and
combating piracy. They also include managing crises
as they arise, as in the recent case of Libya, and
working together with our partners in the international
community to establish and keep peace. This also
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means, as I said earlier, fostering good-neighbourly
relations the world over.
Just as we need to work together as global
partners to face the challenges of our time and the
challenges of the future, each of us also has a role to
play in a given region. Greece’s immediate region is
South-East Europe, the Balkans. Greece has a vision
for peace, stability and cooperation in our region. Its
key component is the European perspective of our
region as a whole and of our individual neighbours. To
this end, two years ago Greece launched Agenda 2014,
which is aimed at revitalizing our neighbours’ efforts
to realize European aspirations, on the one hand, while
also re-igniting the European Union’s vision of
welcoming the countries of the Balkans into the
European family. Indeed, creating a European
neighbourhood of peace and cooperation in south-
eastern Europe should be our collective goal, and that
is because peace and cooperation are anything but a
foregone conclusion in the Balkans. Recent history,
often bloody history, makes that abundantly clear.
There are still pending issues that need to be
resolved. One serious obstacle to the consolidation of
peace and security in our neighbourhood is the Kosovo
issue. Recent progress in the European Union-brokered
talks between Belgrade and Pristina gives some cause
for optimism in the wake of the tensions we saw in the
region over the summer. Those tensions remain. They
still need to be dealt with and defused. Greece wishes
to facilitate the process of reconciliation and
compromise. It wishes to foster the kind of
understanding that our neighbourhood needs on the
path to its common future in the European family. That
is a policy that works. Regional cooperation platforms,
the South-East European Cooperation Process, the
Black Sea Economic Coordination Organization, the
regional Cooperation Council and others are bringing
us closer together as partners. Serbia has made
impressive progress on its path to the European Union,
progress that must be recognized without question
marks. So has Montenegro. Bosnia and Herzegovina
must be supported in its efforts towards reconciliation,
unity and progress. Albania is in the process of
overcoming internal divisions and returning to the path
of reforms under specific European Union criteria.
Croatia’s success story gives impetus to the entire
enlargement process for the Balkans.
Another issue that needs our attention is that of
the name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia, which is not really and has never been a
name issue per se, but instead a sincere effort to ensure
that in our volatile region we put behind us, once and
for all, notions of irredentism, of attempting to rewrite
history and borders, so that our children can be raised
not with suspicions and bitterness towards each other
but with friendship and hope for living next to each
other. Greece believes, and has repeatedly stated, that
the solution lies in a fair compromise, in a name with a
geographical qualifier since Macedonia is a geographic
region that overlaps the territory of more than one
country, and that this name must be used in relation to
everyone, erga omnes. We want to resolve this issue so
that we can finally realize the huge potential of our
relationship on the basis of openness, honesty and
trust. It is high time to reach a successful and mutually
beneficial conclusion. As I have often said, this should
be a time to write history, not to keep trying to rewrite
it.
South-East Europe is only one side of Greece’s
neighbourhood. In our southern neighbourhood, the
eastern Mediterranean, we have witnessed the
awakening of people’s desire for democracy, the hope
for a better future. We have witnessed the Arab Spring.
Our proximity to the region and to the countries there
that have been swept by calls for change is reflected in
our active presence in the region. Add to that a long-
standing tradition of relations of trust and friendship
with the Arab world and Members can see why Greece
has embraced a vital role in these developments.
In Libya we conducted unprecedented
evacuations for tens of thousands of non-Libyans,
provided ground support for the implementation of the
Libya no-fly zone, mediated the release of European
military personnel early in the crisis and established a
diplomatic presence early on in Benghazi to liaise with
the National Transitional Council. We are now offering
infrastructure on Crete as a staging area for the efforts
to deal with the humanitarian situation in Libya. The
importance we attach to developments in Libya, Egypt,
Tunisia and throughout the region derives from the
point I made earlier. Without peace and security one
does not have cooperation, the cooperation needed for
development and for improving the day-to-day lives of
the people.
We, as the international community, have an
obligation to help our southern neighbours achieve
their goal of democracy, of having a voice in their
affairs and of hope and future prosperity. I am talking
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about the same rights that the Syrian people have also
been demanding for months, the rights that their own
leadership is at present violently denying them. The
Arab world does not need new hegemons who see the
present turmoil as an opportunity to promote self-
serving agendas or for establishing new spheres of
geostrategic influence or economic power. It needs
genuine friends who see Arabs as equals and who are
willing selflessly to assist the Arab world in its
transition to democracy and true self-determination.
Greece and the European Union, under the guidance of
the United Nations, can and must play that role.
Nowhere is the lack of peace and security more
pronounced and more chronic than with regard to the
Palestinian question. Greece supports unequivocally
Palestine’s right to statehood. It is now our
responsibility, the responsibility of every Member State
of the United Nations, to respect the Palestinian
decision to request membership and, more importantly,
to turn this into an opportunity that will jump-start
new, direct negotiations. Palestine has a right to exist
finally as an independent State, just as Israel — let us
not forget — has an equal right to exist in full and
uncompromised security. The European Union, on its
own account and within the Quartet, has a crucial role
to play in this effort. Greece will continue to engage in
dialogue with both sides and support Catherine Ashton
and the European Union’s efforts within the Quartet
and with the parties.
Within this context of regional tension and
volatility but also great potential hope, it should be
self-evident that we need to avoid adding still greater
tensions in the eastern Mediterranean region, which is
why we are deeply concerned by the recent threats and
hostile actions against the Republic of Cyprus by our
neighbour Turkey, in violation of international law. As
the European Union, the United States, Russia and
others have already stated, Turkey’s threats and actions
over the past few days and weeks are contrary to
international law and they must cease. We believe that
the path of tension is a wrong and dangerous path.
Instead of threats our region needs strong countries that
can work together to promote stability, cooperation and
good-neighbourly relations among all, and always
within the confines of international law.
That is the hope and example that we can give to
a region and that a region expects of us, which is why
Greece is committed to the peaceful path of
exploratory talks with Turkey for the delimitation of a
continental shelf, failing which we believe we should
submit the issue to the International Court of Justice
for resolution. We expect Turkey to refrain from
actions that undermine that spirit of cooperation. That
is why we strongly support the United Nations sanction
talks currently under way between President
Christofias of Cyprus and Mr. Eroglu, talks aimed at
the reunification of Cyprus as a bizonal, bicommunal
federation and the ending of Turkey’s illegal
occupation in accordance, with United Nations
resolutions and European Union law.
Finally, economic development and fair
distribution of wealth are key prerequisites for long-
term stability and security. My country, in the midst of
its own worst financial and economic crisis in recent
history, has not only not shut itself in its shell but
remains a leading investor in a region, especially in the
western Balkans, contributing to the creation of tens of
thousands of jobs. Internally we are overhauling our
economy by investing in sustainable growth and in
Greece’s competitive advantage sectors, including
green energy, shipping, tourism, sustainable agriculture
and high-tech infrastructure. Externally, our businesses
are becoming even more outward-looking. The
economic integration of our region along the growth
axes I have described, and other complementary ones,
is certain to multiply its economic potential. It is thus
certain further to enhance the peaceful integration and
cooperation of all of its people.
It has often been said that every crisis is also an
opportunity. If that is true, then our region, riddled as it
has been for decades with big and small crises, is
arguably today the region in the world that harbours
the greatest opportunities for peace, growth and
stability. It is in our hands to make this happen. Let us
begin.