I wish at the outset to congratulate Mr. Ban Ki-Moon
on his recent reappointment as Secretary-General, and
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you, Mr. President, on your election to preside over the
sixty-sixth session of the General Assembly.
In this meeting of the United Nations, a
multiplicity of countries and ethnicities, cultures and
languages, religions and creeds converges. All are
increasingly connected in this globalized world,
because over and above our legitimate differences, we
all live on the same planet, all breathe the same air and
are all warmed by the same sun. As inhabitants of
planet Earth, we share the same future. We share
similar challenges and opportunities. All of us have the
same desire for peace, freedom, justice and prosperity
for our peoples and nations.
I come before the Assembly to express, with
humble conviction, what my country has to say to the
international community. But I have also come to
listen, carefully and respectfully, to what other
countries have to say to our country. Chile is, and will
always be, proud to defend and promote dialogue as
the best mechanism for dealing with and settling
disputes. Chile profoundly believes that all nations,
cultures, traditions and creeds have something to teach
us. But we also believe that we all have something to
learn from others.
There is no doubt that we are facing a new
world — very different from the one we, or our
parents, have known and which emerged forcefully
during the past decades: a new world born of the
revolutions of knowledge, technology and information
that has created, and will continue to create, enormous
opportunities for material and spiritual progress for
billions of people throughout the world —
opportunities the world has never known.
It is also certain that this new world presents us
with new risks, challenges, threats and opportunities
that exceed any Government’s individual potential and
can only be addressed successfully through joint
action. For example, financial crises, in addition to
becoming more frequent each day, have increasing
regional and global implications that cannot be
ignored. The evils of modern society, such as terrorism,
drug trafficking and organized crime, have for a long
time ceased to heed borders, territories or jurisdictions.
Any attempt to deal effectively with global warming,
environmental protection, natural disasters, health
emergencies, hunger and extreme poverty will most
certainly require greater concerted and effective action
from the community of nations and international
bodies if we truly want to begin to change the course of
history.
Consequently, today it is urgent that we
reposition ourselves and reshape each international
organization, many of which emerged in a very
different world, during the post-war period. Today, as
we all know, they lack the ability to provide the
necessary effective responses to the realities,
challenges and opportunities of the present, as well as
those of the future that are beginning to emerge. There
is no doubt that we have achieved significant progress,
but we understand that it has been too slow and
insufficient. We cannot pretend to lead this new world
with old institutions. One day our children will ask us
how to face these challenges. In the end, these are our
challenges and we must deal with them now. If we do
not, then who will? If not now, then when?
While it is true that this revolution of knowledge,
technology and information is not the first revolution
the world has faced, all of us know that it is the most
far-reaching in magnitude and breadth, both in terms
challenges and the opportunities it has provided. But
like the revolutions of the past — of metals, agriculture
or the industrial revolution — this twenty-first century
revolution will be very generous vis-à-vis the countries
with the desire to embrace it enthusiastically. But the
revolution will continue to be indifferent, and even
cruel, to those countries that decide simply to ignore it
or let it pass by. It will therefore depend on us whether
it will become a factor for freedom, unity and progress
and a bridge to span the gap between developed
countries and emerging nations or, on the contrary, a
new factor of division and a new wall further
separating those countries in the world of opportunity
from those in the world of frustrations.
Certainly, the primary responsibility for rising up
to greet this revolution that is already knocking at our
doors lies with each country. But it is also a
responsibility for the international community. In the
case of the emerging countries, which include all those
in Latin America, including my country, Chile, this
signifies, in addition to a huge responsibility, a unique
opportunity to re-identify with our past. Most
important, it is an opportunity to meet up with our
future. It is clear that Latin America — now
celebrating 200 years of independence — has
everything it needs to overcome poverty and
underdevelopment. We have a large and fertile
territory, abundant natural resources, two closely
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related languages and, most important, peoples who
have demonstrated, with solidarity and vigour, their
ability to overcome any obstacle placed in our way by
nature or by Providence. We have not had wars such as
those experienced by Europe in the past century, or
ethnic or religious conflicts such as those affecting
other regions of the world.
Nevertheless, because we did not know how to
join the industrial revolution in time, our continent
remains underdeveloped, with more than one third of
its population living in conditions of poverty. However,
Latin America has learned the lesson and is today
becoming integrated with enormous conviction into
this new revolution of modern society, science,
technology, knowledge and information. This
integration will be successful only if we are able to
promote and expand what has been, and continues to
be, the inexhaustible source of progress for
humankind — freedom.
Freedom is an integral concept that cannot be
divided or compartmentalized. Freedom must be
expressed in all spheres of human life. In the political
sphere, it requires us to revitalize and deepen
democracy and the defence of human rights to the
farthest corner of the planet and at any moment in time.
In the economic sphere, this means fostering creativity,
entrepreneurship and innovation among human beings,
who are the only truly inexhaustible and renewable
resource we possess. We must demolish all of the
obstacles that are preventing many emerging nations
from fully integrating themselves into the newly
emerging world. In the social sphere, freedom means
promoting peace and helping States to become ever
more efficient and effective in the fight against poverty
and in the creation of real societies that provide equal
opportunities for all.
Chile has undoubtedly made, and will continue to
make, important contributions to each of those areas.
As well as strongly supporting the cause of democracy
and defending human rights in all countries of the
continent and of the world, where necessary, Chile has,
at the regional level, been a tireless and steadfast
advocate of improving the Inter-American Democratic
Charter and of finalizing a protocol on the preventive
protection of democracy within the Union of South
American Nations.
In addition, we continue to actively participate in
the negotiations on the reform of the Security Council
to increase its permanent and non-permanent members
in order to make it more representative of the realities
of the new world order. We have also supported the
reform of the Human Rights Council, to which Chile
was recently re-elected.
With regard to economic issues, Chile is a
country that has integrated into the world and has
concluded free trade agreements with more than 58
countries on all continents, representing more than
80 per cent of the world’s population. However, our
commitment to free trade does not stop there. We have
been strong supporters of the Doha Round of the World
Trade Organization so as to make progress, once and
for all after decades of stagnation, towards the
liberalization of world trade, because protectionism is a
poor response and is even worse when we face the
threatening crisis conditions that we are experiencing
today.
Moreover, with regard to the promotion of world
peace, Chile has recognized the Palestinian State, a
country that we hope to welcome to the Organization
very soon. We have resolutely supported all
international efforts to achieve a just, legitimate and
lasting settlement in the Middle East. Chile is firmly
convinced that the Palestinian people have the right to
a free, sovereign and democratic State and that the
State of Israel has the right to have recognized, secure
and respected borders. Only thus will Palestinians and
Israelis be able to coexist and move forward in peace
and harmony.
With regard to social development and the fight
against poverty, hunger and pandemics, we are
strengthening South-South cooperation. Such
cooperation is certainly triangular, but it neither
replaces nor substitutes the need for North-South
cooperation. We have set up and are implementing a
Chilean fund to combat hunger and poverty in Africa.
We have also made significant contributions to the
United Nations International Drug Purchase Facility in
order to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis,
which still wreak havoc in many parts of the world.
But we wish to go even further, and we are
implementing mechanisms that will enable us to
unilaterally reduce duties in order to promote our
imports from relatively less developed African
countries.
We were also very proud to strongly support
UN-Women, an entity headed by our compatriot
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Michelle Bachelet, whose principal goal is as strong
and as far-reaching as to ultimately ensure that, as
women and men, we have the same rights and the same
opportunities in this world, which belongs to us all.
However, in this new century and this new
knowledge and information society, as well as relying
on robust democracies, with open, competitive and
integrated economies, and effective States to combat
poverty and for greater equality of opportunity, we
must recognize that those are merely old pillars that are
necessary but completely inadequate today. As
emerging countries, we must commit to building new
development pillars. Those are investment in science
and technology; the promotion of innovation and
entrepreneurship; the building of more flexible
societies that can adapt to a world in which change is
the only constant; and, above all, making a huge effort
to improve our human capital, the education of our
young people and the training of our workers, as that is
surely the major source of wealth and primary resource
for leaving behind underdevelopment.
There is no doubt that we must win the race for
development and the battle for the future in the
classroom by giving each and every one of our children
quality education. We have said it many times:
education is the true mother of all battles.
Unfortunately, it is also the Achilles heel of many
emerging economies. In my country in recent weeks,
thousands of young people have taken to the streets to
demonstrate for a noble, great and fine cause, namely,
giving all children and young people quality education
that enables them all to be actors in, and not mere
spectators of, their own destiny and participation in
this knowledge and information society.
Our Government has shared, and consistently
shares, that goal. It is ready for the greatest reforms
and has committed the largest economic, human,
professional and technical resources in order to bring
about fundamental change in our education system that
seeks to substantially improve the quality of education
and to increase coverage, in particular in the education
of children from minorities and the most vulnerable so
that they participate in education soon, not when the
years have made it irreversible. We must also
substantially increase funding and access at all levels
of education in order to ensure something as simple as
quality education for all, free education for all those
who need it and adequate funding for all others in
order to realize the dream that no bright child or young
person remains excluded from higher education owing
to the socio-economic situation of their family or to
scarce resources.
We want to appeal to all Latin American
countries, in the context of the Community of Latin
American and Caribbean States, to establish a true
strategic partnership that will engage the heart and soul
of our Governments in that extensive reform of our
educational systems, which will be our greatest
possible contribution to the overall development of
people to enable them to utilize their talents to the full,
and to the growth of our economies, while enhancing
peace and strengthening our democracies.
That is why I would also like to mention what the
President of Bolivia said yesterday when he referred to
his country’s claim to obtain sovereign access to the
Pacific Ocean through Chilean territory (see
). In that regard, I wish to reiterate that
there are no territorial issues pending between Chile
and Bolivia. They were settled once and for all by the
Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1904, that is to say,
concluded more than 100 years ago now. That Treaty
was lawfully negotiated more than 20 years after the
end of the conflict between the two countries.
Moreover, the parties agreed to it; their Parliaments
ratified it; and, as Bolivia itself acknowledged, the
Treaty was the outcome of free and consensus-based
negotiation. Therefore, in accordance with
international law, both Chile and Bolivia are obliged to
respect and implement it in good faith.
Chile has fully implemented in a timely way each
and every clause of that 1904 Treaty of Peace and
Friendship. Furthermore, the facilities that Chile
granted exceeded the Treaty provisions, including
going far beyond those that the United Nations itself
established in the Convention on Transit Trade of
Land-Locked States. Our country has been, and always
will be, willing to engage in dialogue with Bolivia on
the basis of full respect for the treaties and
international law. We are sure that, through such
dialogue, we will have the best possibility of agreeing
with Bolivia concrete, feasible and useful solutions for
both countries.
All of us here have not only the right but the duty
to speak and act in defence of the interests of our
respective countries and peoples. However, we cannot
fail to note that, for that to be fruitful, requires that we
work on the many things that unite us rather than on
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what legitimately divides us. When all is said and
done, whether we like it or not, responding to the risks
and the storm clouds that we see looming on the
horizon — but also the challenges and the
opportunities that we are getting ready to confront, and
the responses and the solutions that together we shall
have to implement, will only be fruitful and efficient if
we do so with unity and goodwill. Some might believe
that, acting alone, they will be able to move forward
faster, but history will never cease to remind us that it
is only when we act with unity and goodwill that we
will be able to build on solid bedrock and not sand;
only that will allow each country — and the world as a
whole — to go far in fulfilling our tasks, achieving our
goals and overcoming our challenges.