Chile

May I first congratulate you, Sir, on your election to preside over our work. I wish you every success in your presidency, and assure you that you may rely on the full cooperation of the delegation of Chile. I wish also to greet the Secretary-General and to assure him once again of our support in the performance of his difficult task. When he visited Chile a few days after the inauguration of President Eduardo Frei, the Secretary-General had an opportunity to appreciate our readiness to cooperate in the activities of the United Nations system, in the conviction that multilateral action was essential to the strengthening of international peace and security and to the improvement of the living conditions of men and women the world over. 36 The fall of the ideological barriers imposed by the cold war gave rise to expectations of an era of peace and global security. These expectations are strengthened by the spread of democracy and the emergence of a new awareness of the importance of human rights throughout the world. At the same time, the processes of globalization and economic interdependence are creating new opportunities for progress and making the dissemination of technology and knowledge more feasible. Nevertheless, five years after the end of the cold war we must acknowledge that the reality has fallen far short of our dreams. The last decade of this century is one of uncertainty and contradictions. Regrettably, along with the signs of hope there has been a re-emergence of many economic, political, ethnic, religious and cultural conflicts and a tendency towards fragmentation and differentiation, which pose new threats to the peace and new challenges for the international order. This process of transition has enhanced the role of the United Nations as the guarantor of world peace and security. It has compelled our Organization to assume new responsibilities, both in negotiations for conflict prevention and in operations for the maintenance or restoration of peace. Nevertheless, the immediate concern to maintain peace and security should not prevent us from recognizing and attacking the root causes of these conflicts. Poverty, inequality between individuals and between nations, environmental deterioration, unemployment and ignorance, over-population, disorganized migration, and discrimination against women and young people are today as important factors in creating conflict as is military proliferation or ideological confrontation - if not more so. Tackling these problems requires using the imagination, creativity and solidarity of the international community, as well as resources as large as or even larger than those being spent today on resolving conflicts that have already begun. The security of human beings must be an international priority along with widespread promotion of respect for human rights. In March of this year a new phase in the Chilean democratic process began with the installation of the Government of President Eduardo Frei. The continuity of this process has made it possible to strengthen the stability of democratic institutions and has increased respect for human rights in the country. Of course, we do not claim that our democracy is perfect; many aspects of it still require further attention, and with that in mind draft legislation on institutional changes is currently being discussed in the National Congress. Nevertheless, we are certain that, together with the other countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, Chile will continue to advance along the path of political stability, democratic institutionality and respect for human rights. Our recent economic experience has been successful. Since the return of democracy we have had an average annual growth of more than 6.5 per cent with a very low unemployment rate and controlled inflation. On the basis of these facts the Government has formulated an ambitious modernization strategy focusing on three main areas: education and training, development of infrastructure, and modernization of the State. The reforms in education seek to respond to the need for effective and creative integration of young people into society, and to meet the challenge of competitiveness. The changes in the functioning of the State entail a special concern for ethics and probity in the exercise of power. Attainment of these priorities should enable us to raise our productivity and increase our capacity to compete in international markets in the context of a growing open economy. We are concerned at the difficulty the major countries are nevertheless experiencing in opening up their economies in sectors that are vital to the equitable functioning of world trade. We reject an international trade system based on protectionism by the powerful directed against those who are prepared to accept competition. Nevertheless, economic advances would lack meaning if they did not lead to a substantial improvement in the living conditions of the majority of Chileans. The Government recognizes this and has made the elimination of extreme poverty an essential priority of its programme. Without equity, growth would lose its raison d’être and stability would be threatened by the tensions arising out of the privations experienced by large sectors of the population. Economic growth and social justice constitute two terms of a single equation. Latin America and the Caribbean are our natural frame of reference and external action as a region that shares both political and security interests and major economic interests. The region has overcome the political, institutional and economic crisis which afflicted it in earlier decades. Most countries of the continent have recently held elections, or will do so in the coming months. The tranquillity, openness and participation that 37 today characterize these processes are convincing proof that Latin America has embarked on a major process of modernization and stability. Along with this has come a major expansion of cooperation and regional integration. Integration initiatives and mechanisms of varying geographical coverage and thematic scope have multiplied. Chile has participated in these efforts, negotiating economic complementarity and free-trade agreements with the majority of the countries in the region. In the immediate future, Chile hopes to be able to make a new contribution to the creation of a broad Latin American economic area by achieving closer links with the Common Market of the Southern Cone and by signing complementarity agreements with Ecuador and Peru to add to those already concluded with Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia and Colombia. We also view with enthusiasm the strengthening of our links with the Central American and Caribbean countries with which we have significantly expanded our political and economic relations and cooperation. We wish to promote a climate of peace, dialogue, solidarity and mutual trust among the countries of the region. We are sure that today this is more possible than before, given the presence in the region of more democratic regimes than it has ever had in its history. In this context, the Rio Group has become a significant regional political cooperation mechanism, and its activity has recently expanded to cover economic coordination aspects. The strengthening of the Rio Group, which emerged from our continent’s re-democratization and resurgence, is a key to Latin American’s ability to speak with a unified voice in the new international context. That is how our main partners in the world, with whom we meet periodically in discussion forums to which we are attaching increasing importance, perceive it. Our policy towards Latin America and the Caribbean is fully compatible with closer integration into world markets. Chile today is a country that is open to the world, dependent for 40 per cent of its gross national product on external transactions and seeking to strengthen its relations with the dynamic centres of growth and technological information. We define our policy as an open regionalism, one which seeks regional integration not in order to close its markets but in order to achieve greater integration into the world economy. In this connection, our preference for multilateralism is well known. We support all the phases of the extensive negotiations under the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and are now in the process of ratifying the agreements reached there. Our attitude in this respect matches that of our main partners in Latin America. During the eight years for which the Uruguay Round lasted the countries of the region unilaterally reduced their tariffs by an average of more than 50 per cent and contributed by making significant concessions, despite the fact that not all the objectives they were seeking to negotiate were achieved. Accordingly, we now have the right to call for the results of the Round to be implemented and, once the World Trade Organization has been established, for progress to be made in discussion of the many problems the Round left pending, especially in relation to agriculture and services. Nevertheless, it is obvious that in the current phase of the world economy multilateralism is being accompanied by the negotiation of partial or regional economic agreements which are progressively extending over a large part of international trading activity. Hence our interest in the integration progress in North America, our search for sounder and more imaginative patterns of economic relations with the European Union, our imminent entry into the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (APEC) and our constant readiness, shared with our region, to move ahead with economic cooperation with all regions of the world. Current international circumstances have led to progress in various areas which it is important to emphasize: the defeat of racism and apartheid, progress in disarmament, the solution of international conflicts, cooperation and détente - all issues which have led to the strengthening of the world Organization. Chile salutes the people and the Government of the new South Africa in the person of President Nelson Mandela and welcomes the success achieved by the United Nations and by the South African people themselves in building a democratic and just South Africa which respects the principles of the Charter of the United Nations. We wish also to express our support for the peace and negotiation process under way in Angola and 38 Mozambique. We urge the rebel forces in both countries to negotiate seriously and in good faith to end this conflict, in compliance with United Nations resolutions. In the case of Angola, the date of 30 September set by the President of the Security Council for the ending of the negotiations is approaching, and it is accordingly essential to arrive at a speedy solution on the basis of the "Acordos de Paz". Let me also express our satisfaction at the progress made through the agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, which are overcoming obstacles to the attainment of a lasting peace throughout the Middle East. On behalf of my country, I wish to reiterate our support for the negotiations under way between Israel and Jordan, as well as those between Israel and Lebanon and between Israel and Syria. In contrast to these positive steps, we view with great concern the tragedy in Rwanda, horrified at its magnitude and at the inability of the international community to contain it. Chile conducted a national campaign of solidarity with the children of Rwanda which met with an extremely good response in our country. The risk is that, if efforts are not made to eliminate the deep-lying causes of tragedies such as this, other similar sources of tension may arise in other countries, testing the capacity of our system to react. Likewise, we cannot fail to express our most profound concern at and most energetic rejection of the extremes to which the fratricidal struggle in the former Yugoslavia has been taken. We urge the warring parties to abandon the use of force as a means of solving their disputes and to submit them to the internationally recognized peaceful means of settlement. Chile is also profoundly concerned at the situation in Haiti resulting from the protracted usurpation of power and the non-implementation of the Governors Island agreements. The military occupation of a country is always a regrettable occurrence that we should all like to avoid. Nevertheless, it is important to recognize that in this instance such action was taken on the basis of a Security Council resolution and in response to repeated failure to comply with international commitments, failure for which the Haitian military alone are responsible. We reiterate in this Assembly our support for the measures taken by the United Nations and, in particular, our full acceptance of the resolution adopted by the Security Council. The Government of Chile will fulfil its commitments to participate in the reconstruction of Haiti, in the manner agreed upon with the democratic Government of that country, as soon as institutional order has been restored. Chile has cooperated in peace-keeping operations, and it has recently expressed its readiness to expand that cooperation, in the profound conviction that improving the capacity of the United Nations system in these efforts is a priority task. The current bureaucratic mechanisms, which place a very heavy burden on the countries providing peace-keeping contingents, must be replaced by others that will make it possible to provide the United Nations with the best in human resources and equipment. It is essential to reach agreement on a statute for protection of United Nations personnel and to create an international fund to administer the financing of peace-keeping operations. The new impetus in international disarmament negotiations, particularly with respect to a nuclear-test-ban treaty, increases the need for a global, democratic and participatory approach in this area. There is an urgent need to increase the membership of the Conference on Disarmament - the only major multilateral negotiating forum on these topics - to make it sufficiently representative and enable it to respond appropriately to the new challenges. Chile considers that prohibiting the use of fissionable materials for hostile purposes and universalizing security guarantees for non-nuclear-weapon States would be positive steps in the direction of nuclear disarmament. Nevertheless, their success would depend on full acceptance of inspection and verification procedures. In step with progress in the substantive negotiations, a need is making itself felt to extend and expand safeguards and control regimes until they become universal, without thereby impeding the access of developing countries to sources of science and technology. The recent ratification of the Treaty of Tlatelolco by Chile, Argentina and Brazil, as well as Cuba’s decision to sign it, will enable Latin America to become a genuine nuclear-weapon-free zone. This, together with the manifest reduction in tension and armaments in the region, constitutes an effective contribution by our region to world peace. In this context, we have indicated our interest in becoming a member of the Security Council for the period beginning 1996. We have done so convinced that Chile can legitimately and adequately represent the 39 interests of Latin America and the Caribbean in that important body. We can and must make substantive progress in designing better systems for preventing conflicts or taking immediate action to restore peace. But, unless we simultaneously attack the enormous inequalities and privations that lie at the root of many conflicts we shall not significantly reduce international tensions. The origins of these tensions lie in the exclusion of major sectors of the world’s population from the benefits of the new order, an exclusion aggravated by population growth and by the characteristics of the new world economy, for when factors such as knowledge and technology come to outweigh others, such as the availability of raw materials or low-cost labour, the hopes of those who possess only an abundance of the latter are increasingly disappointed, thus widening and deepening the social gaps within and between countries. From a bitter past, Chile has learned the lesson of the close relationship that exists between peace, democracy, economic growth and social development. The central objective of a security policy is the security of individuals and of the communities in which they live. The accentuation of inequality or exclusion is not only ethically unacceptable, but also politically dangerous. No new international order will be stable or lasting if it is based on the exclusion of the majority of those who comprise it. We are convinced that the absence of democracy and the lack of economic growth centred on the human being are at the root of the international instability that characterizes our era. President Frei has spoken of a "diplomacy for development", referring in these terms to the necessity to adjust foreign policy to the objectives and needs of each country and to the link that must necessarily exist between our international action and our internal objective of growth with equity. We therefore attach the greatest importance to the Agenda for Development that is under discussion in the United Nations. This was the thinking behind the convening of the World Summit for Social Development, unanimously approved by the General Assembly. The analysis by Heads of State and Government in Copenhagen next March should lead us to a new policy to combat poverty, promote employment and accelerate social integration. In particular, we believe that the social Summit should adopt a common commitment to eradicate extreme poverty in the world through a concrete and efficient plan of action. What is decided there will be intimately linked to the conditions of security and coexistence in the emerging international order. The social Summit, together with the recent Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo, the World Conference on Women, to be held in Beijing in 1995, and the Secretary-General’s proposed Agenda for Development, indicates the growing interest that this Organization is taking in social issues. Chile intends to comply with the agreements reached at the Rio de Janeiro Summit and to promote a new policy on environmental issues. In this context, its National Congress recently approved the Convention on Biological Diversity, and our ratification has just been deposited with the United Nations. In turn, we are convinced that environmental problems will remain unresolved, and may even become exacerbated, if the necessary resources are not available to deal with them through joint action by developed and developing countries. This is becoming increasingly apparent in some developing countries, where poverty is accelerating environmental deterioration as a result of the excessive and uncontrolled use of certain resources. The dual task of maintaining peace and at the same time creating conditions for the elimination of structural sources of conflict is an enormous challenge to this Organization. Nevertheless, we are convinced that if we do not take up the challenge we shall reach the beginning of the next millennium without having laid the real foundations for a new international order that will permit the peaceful coexistence of mankind. Taking up this challenge is not a task for the major Powers alone, although their involvement is essential; rather, it is a task for all nations capable of making a contribution - especially the medium-sized countries, which make up a large part of the international community. Chile is prepared to be a part of this effort, as are, we are sure, all the countries of Latin America. The central role of this Organization must be strengthened and supported in the crucial years that lie ahead, for this is the only way to ensure that the settlement of conflicts does not alter international legality, that arbitrary intervention is prevented and that the rights of the weakest are respected.