Romania fully associates itself with the statement made
on behalf of the European Union by President Nicolas
Sarkozy. I should simply like to make a few remarks
with regard to issues of particular interest to my
Government. I should like to frame my statement
around two words: responsibility and solidarity.
The basic purpose of the high-level meeting that
took place on 25 September was to review the progress
made in the implementation of the Millennium
Development Goals and evaluate the feasibility of
achieving them. It was a matter not of whether they
were appropriate or reasonable, which they obviously
are, but rather of determining the viability of
implementing them in the face of new challenges. The
conclusion was that international cooperation and
determination could provide a solution, provided that
responsibilities were met and solidarity forthcoming. In
doing so, we would be making the idea of community
concrete.
With regard to climate change, the world energy
crisis and food security, I should simply like to say that
the vulnerability of nature is inevitably linked to our
increased technological capacity to influence the
climate — sometimes irreversibly — through the
cumulative effects of human activity; hence the moral
imperative of responsibility to the future. We cannot
separately or individually find solutions to the
problems that affect us all, in particular global
warming and the energy crisis.
In the face of all those interconnected challenges,
it is our responsibility to better equip the United
Nations with the necessary means to coordinate
effective joint efforts. The revitalization of the General
Assembly, system-wide coherence, Security Council
reform and, not least, the reform of the Department of
Political Affairs are all areas in which we have a
responsibility to make significant progress. It is
encouraging that there has been an effort to find
common denominators in many projects and initiatives.
Any reform of the Security Council must take
into account the legitimate aspirations of the regional
groups, with the ultimate goal of ensuring a more
representative, legitimate, transparent and effective
Council.
If we expect results from the United Nations, we
must provide it with the appropriate resources.
Following the reform of the Department of
Peacekeeping Operations, it is only logical to
strengthen the capacity for analysis, political
mediation, foresight and preventive diplomacy of the
Department of Political Affairs. My country is ready
once again support the initiative for institutional
consolidation, in particular as regards a European
regional office charged with expanding its reach to the
Western Balkans and the Black Sea region.
United Nations regional political offices could
also increase their cooperation with regional and
subregional organizations, whose resources should be
in synergy with those of the global Organization. The
cooperation between the United Nations, the African
Union and other subregional organizations during the
recent crises in the Darfur region of the Sudan, in
Kenya and in Zimbabwe are all encouraging examples.
We also welcome the ongoing cooperation between the
United Nations and the International Organization of la
Francophonie.
I should now like to say a few words on
democratization. Romania welcomes the substantial
expansion and improvement of cooperation in the
Conference of New or Restored Democracies,
including the unprecedented efforts of Qatar in that
regard.
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The current challenges should give rise to
renewed international cooperation. The network of
democratic solidarity that provides support to countries
emerging from conflict or from autocratic regimes is
founded on a philosophy of freedom that repudiates
threats from international terrorism or radicalism,
which have developed their own network as a sort of
parallel globalization based on fear. However, the
international network of cooperation should not have
anxiety and fragility as its common denominators, but
instead the natural propensity of States and
organizations that share the same values, principles and
objectives, namely, freedom and respect for the law
and the dignity of the human being. Allow me to recall
that, on Romania’s initiative, in 2000 the General
Assembly adopted its comprehensive resolution 55/96,
which set out the defining characteristics of
democracy.
Peacekeeping missions remain the backbone of
the international role of the United Nations. Post-
conflict normalization and rebuilding should be an
integral part of the international strategy to deal with
potential breaches of peace or the reignition of
conflicts. My country acknowledges and praises the
endeavours of United Nations personnel in Kenya,
Iraq, Myanmar, northern Uganda, Somalia, Cyprus, the
Central African Republic and Nepal.
The progress made in Iraq and Afghanistan
should trigger renewed solidarity with the peoples of
those countries. The efforts of the international
community to stabilize and ensure the success of the
ongoing deep transformations in Iraq and Afghanistan
should be matched by renewed commitment on the part
of the Iraqi and Afghan political leadership to reach
compromises and comprehensive agreements allowing
for political reconciliation and economic development.
Romania remains committed to the democratic
future of both countries. Romania was first among the
countries that are not members of the Paris Club to
agree, in 2005, to the terms of debt relief for Iraq. The
NATO summit held this year in Bucharest reconfirmed
solidarity and engagement with Afghanistan. Any
security agreements to complement or replace the
current security arrangements in Iraq have to take into
account the need to ensure the protection of United
Nations personnel in order that the United Nations
Assistance Mission for Iraq and the Organization’s
specialized agencies, funds and programmes can
properly fulfil their extended mandates in Iraq.
I should now like to say a few words about the
Human Rights Council. Romania has encouraging
expectations following the start of the activities of the
Council’s Universal Periodic Review mechanism.
Under the Romanian presidency, the Council examined
32 national reports, including my country’s own report.
The debates generated valuable recommendations and
entailed remarkable commitments with regard to the
universal application of recognized international
standards for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
We should not weaken our support for the Human
Rights Council or for the Office of the High
Commissioner.
The widespread impact of humanitarian crises
resulting from conflicts and natural disasters requires,
again and again, our solidarity with the people in need.
The tragedy of 7 million Sudanese, almost 5 million
Palestinian refugees, 5 million Iraqi internally
displaced persons and refugees, 3 million Afghan
refugees and 1.4 million Congolese and 1 million
Somali internally displaced persons should catalyse
concrete actions of assistance. The recent Georgian
crisis also added to the international statistics on
internally displaced persons and refugees. Yet, numbers
as such should not obscure in our conscience the
terrible individual tragedies implied by these
humanitarian catastrophes.
Aware of that plight, Romania is preparing to
host a special evacuation transit centre for persons in
urgent need of international protection and onward
resettlement. The centre would provide temporary
shelter for refugees facing immediate danger in their
countries of origin, pending final resettlement in third
countries.
The appalling humanitarian crises of recent
decades should prompt a renewed effort to define ways
to prevent and adequately react to such situations and,
furthermore, to rebuild for durable conflict resolution.
Further efforts should be made to forge a common
understanding of the conditions and application of the
principle of the responsibility to protect.
Romania resolutely promotes international
cooperation in the areas of crime prevention and
believes that prosecutorial services represent one of the
main pillars of the criminal justice system. My country
is preparing to host, in March 2009, the third world
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summit of attorneys general, prosecutors general and
chief prosecutors. The meeting is to be organized with
the support of the United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime and will focus on prosecutorial independence
for effectiveness, integrity and public confidence. We
look forward to welcoming the international
community’s representatives in Bucharest next spring.
Allow me now to turn to the issue of protracted
conflicts. It has always been striking to hear the
recurrent references to frozen conflicts. Let us be
honest: no conflict stays frozen indefinitely without
consequences. The recent crisis in Georgia proved that
the international community cannot hide or shy away
from dealing with uncertain situations under the
assumption that they will simply disappear eventually.
On the contrary, uncertain situations and grey zones
gradually produce effects, effect changes in the status
quo and can, from apparent tranquillity, spew forth the
magma of delayed — and thus amplified — conflicts.
A dormant volcano can still be an active one. Unsolved
issues carrying latent threats are not socially or
politically neutral, since they generate new realities
and risks to stability and security.
Deferring the solution of a crisis is not a suitable
answer. Only a negotiated formula, with the support of
bona fide international and regional mediation and
assistance, can provide long-term and enduring
solutions. The crisis in South Ossetia, with its
reverberations in Abkhazia and the entire State of
Georgia and beyond, should focus the attention of the
international community on all protracted conflicts in
the area, including Transdniestria and Nagorny
Karabakh.
We have to have a new energetic and
comprehensive approach to the so-called protracted
conflicts. It is time to jointly understand the danger and
take action. The United Nations and its Security
Council should play their parts and accordingly assume
their responsibility. Hesitation is not helping. Full
observance of all principles and norms of international
law, including the territorial integrity of States, is a
must for all of us if we want peace, security, stability
and prosperity to prevail.
One of the main objectives of the international
community should be to consolidate stabilization and a
democratic future across the entire Black Sea region.
Romania promotes a wide range of cooperation ideas
in the Black Sea area. If we take a closer look, we can
see a region with a large population, an important hub
for energy and transport flows and great economic
potential. The United Nations should be there to assist
the region, not only in unfreezing conflicts but also in
helping coastal countries to cooperate to solve
problems related to pollution, illegal migration,
organized crime and drug trafficking, so as to project
stability and to support development.
I now turn to disarmament, non-proliferation and
the fight against terrorism. I should like to underline
that responsibility and solidarity are also basic pillars
of the international norms in that regard. That leads me
to say, as many before me have done, that statements
such as the one made a few days ago in the Assembly
about Israel are unacceptable.
First, every State has an essential responsibility
to effectively and comprehensively implement its
commitments by promoting the necessary legal
framework and establishing appropriate mechanisms
for verification and control.
Secondly, there is a need for solidarity and
cooperation at the regional and multilateral levels so
that national measures and actions are recognized and
implemented. Romania has always demonstrated its
interest and readiness to work together with all States
members of the international community in that
respect. The most recent proof of that is the
contribution of my country to the seven-nation
initiative on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation
launched by Norway in 2005. Concrete examples of
our involvement include the international seminar on
how the Black Sea region can contribute to improved
global security, which was hosted in Bucharest in 2007,
and other activities aimed at promoting the objectives
of that cross-regional initiative.
Allow me to conclude by calling for effective
multilateralism and the strengthening of the United
Nations. After all, some questioned the relevance of the
United Nations after the end of the cold war. The
Organization has never lacked for criticism or
scepticism. We do not believe the issue to be one of
trying to regain a sense of lost purpose. The United
Nations continues to be the broadest and most
inclusive Organization in the world and enjoys a
special reputation and legitimacy. The United Nations
provides a forum for all Member States — large or
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small, rich or poor, developed or developing — to have
their voices heard and heeded.
Instead, the question for all Member States is
how to make the world Organization and its specialized
agencies, funds and programmes more effective,
responsible and coherent in the face of new and
ongoing challenges. If the moral imperative that should
lead us to carry out our responsibilities and
demonstrate solidarity in order to advance the cause of
humankind is not enough, then what we need is to look
towards the pragmatic aspect, namely, the utility and
sense implied in the fact that the world’s well-being
contributes to the well-being of our own countries and
citizens.
History is a good teacher, provided we learn from
its lessons. History shows us the virtues of joint efforts
and the benefits of cooperation. We are still far from
the Kantian dream of a stable world order that is
democratic and prosperous. But we can move ever
closer to it through multilateralism and the
strengthening of the United Nations.