At
the outset, I would like to congratulate you, Sir, on
your election to the post of President of the General
Assembly and wish the work of the sixty-third session
every success under your guidance. I should like to
express deep gratitude to Srgjan Kerim for successfully
steering the work of the Assembly’s previous session.
Today, the role of the United Nations as the
universal international forum that can make an
important contribution to strengthening international
peace and security is seen as increasingly important.
The high-level plenary meeting on Africa’s
development needs and the high-level event on the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) gave us every
reason to believe that joint efforts can generate
appropriate measures for existing crises and this
session of the General Assembly will serve as an
additional contribution towards achieving the MDGs.
In today’s conditions, when there are rapid
changes worldwide, enhancing the role of the United
Nations and the effectiveness of its work is
increasingly important. Further strengthening the
authority and potential of the Organization in the
present situation requires that we pursue reform of the
entire United Nations system, so that it can, above all,
act as the guarantor of international peace and security
and also effectively and flexibly respond to existing
problems.
For us, the most important issue is strengthening
the Security Council in the cause of preserving
international law and order and tranquillity. In
advocating expansion of Council membership and, the
enhancement of its working methods, the Kyrgyz
Republic believes that Council reform must be based
on the principles of universality, effectiveness and
equitable geographic representation.
For its part, the Kyrgyz Republic will continue to
contribute as much as it can to maintaining peace and
security. In that regard, we would like to reaffirm that
for the first time our country has put forth its
candidacy for a non-permanent seat on the Security
Council for the term 2012 and 2013. Realizing the true
breadth of responsibilities of members in that key body
of the United Nations, the Kyrgyz Republic will do its
utmost to address global problems.
The rapid changes taking place in the world have
not bypassed the Kyrgyz Republic. Such challenges as
climate change and the food and energy crises have
highlighted the extreme importance of collective
efforts, both regional and global. Such circumstances
clearly heighten the role of the United Nations and
other, regional organizations in consolidating efforts to
work out effective mechanisms for preventing and
responding to challenges and threats.
As is known, the water resources of Central Asia
come from the high alpine glaciers and snowfields in
Kyrgyzstan. However, at the beginning of this year we
were already encountering the consequences of
warming and of a period of water scarcity, which
negatively impacted the delivery of electricity to both
domestic and external markets. The environmental
situation is also aggravated by the fact that in our
country earthquakes, landslides and flooding have
recurred in recent years and in such conditions the fact
that our country has a considerable number of storage
sites for radioactive waste poses a serious threat not
only to national, but also to regional security.
As international experience demonstrates, peace
and security cannot be maintained without establishing
the elementary conditions that are necessary for a
decent existence. In order to achieve security and
development goals simultaneously, the international
community must pursue a more balanced policy.
Particular attention should consistently be given to
issues of law and order in society.
From this rostrum, I would like to thank all
United Nations Member countries for their unanimous
support for the initiative of the President of the Kyrgyz
Republic, Kurmanbek Bakiev, on declaring 20 February
as World Day of Social Justice. The pursuit of policies
of social justice is aimed at sustainable development of
the human potential and at enhancing the interaction of
States in order to eradicate poverty, achieve gender
balance and to address migration issues.
We are grateful to Member States for their
support at the previous Assembly session for resolution
62/196, on sustainable mountain development, under
which Bishkek will hold the second Global Mountain
Summit in October 2009 to assess the activities of the
international community with respect to sustainable
mountain development. I take this opportunity to
reiterate our invitation to interested countries to take
part in that international forum, and also to express the
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hope that Members will provide active support to that
initiative of the international community.
I would like to touch upon several issues that are
at the centre of attention for the delegation of the
Kyrgyz Republic. Most unfortunately, there are still
radioactive waste storage sites in the Kyrgyz Republic.
Properly maintaining them and preventing a regional
environmental disaster stand high on the agenda. We
are grateful to the United Nations Development
Programme, which has seriously paid attention to the
need to solve that problem. I am confident that at the
international forum on resolving issues of the storage
of uranium tailings, to be held in Bishkek this autumn,
the international community, under the United Nations
coordinating role, will take effective measures,
including financial and technical assistance, aimed at
ensuring their security.
We would also like to express firm support for
the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in
Central Asia, since that would contribute to
strengthening global and regional security. In that
regard, we hope to receive the broad support of the
international community for the related draft resolution
at this Assembly session.
In conclusion, I would like to note that the
international community is going through a complex
period. Member States must reaffirm their readiness to
seek practical solutions to the most pressing problems
of our time. The international community rightfully
expects that we all will work out effective measures to
strengthen the United Nations in order to find ways to
resolve the challenges of the new millennium.
Therefore, we need to do our utmost, so that the
current session of the General Assembly will be
remembered as a session of reform.