Moldova

Let me join other delegations in congratulating Mr. Gurirab on his election as President of the General Assembly at its fifty- fourth session. His skill and experience will serve us well as he directs the vital work to be undertaken at this session. I should also like to take this opportunity to thank his predecessor, Mr. Didier Opertti, for his outstanding stewardship of the General Assembly at its fifty-third session. The Government of the Republic of Moldova warmly welcomes the admission of the three new Members of the United Nations: the Republic of Kiribati, the Republic of Nauru, and the Kingdom of Tonga. Since its admission to the United Nations in 1992, the Republic of Moldova has consistently been an active supporter of the world Organization. As a small country, we depend on the United Nations for our security and for our very existence. We want to see it further strengthened and the sphere of its activities expanded. We believe that in this emerging new international order, it is more necessary than ever that the United Nations be capable of fulfilling the role entrusted to it by the Charter, as the guarantor of peace, security and social justice throughout the world. It is from that perspective that we evaluate the United Nations reform process launched by the Secretary- General; as we see it, reform means the rational adaptation of United Nations mechanisms to present and future needs. We owe the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, our gratitude and support for his reform proposals. Especially, we welcome the implementation of the Secretary-General’s reform proposals aimed at fostering greater internal coordination, streamlining procedures and rationalizing the activities of the Organization. In this context, I would like to underline the positive results thus far achieved by the United Nations Development Group and the Executive Committee on Economic and Social Affairs. The preliminary application of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework in 18 pilot countries and more intense cooperation between Bretton Woods institutions and the United Nations are also producing promising results. Integration within the United Nations system is also moving ahead at the country level. I can already see some 12 encouraging results from the Republic of Moldova’s “One country, one United Nations” policy. From this perspective, we believe also that the integration of United Nations representation at the country level will lead to substantive improvements and greater coherence in the relationship between the United Nations system and the host country. I take this opportunity to inform members that in the near future a United Nations common house will be officially inaugurated in the capital of our country, Chisinau. I would like to mention in this context the substantial assistance provided by the United Nations to my country through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) office in the Republic of Moldova. The activities carried out by the UNDP office contribute significantly to the ongoing reform process. We believe that the diversification and deepening of collaboration among States has enhanced the development of regional and subregional cooperation as well. In fact, the Charter itself attaches great significance to regional organizations. Documents laying the foundations for collaboration between the United Nations and various regional organizations have been drawn up, in particular in recent years. General Assembly resolutions pertaining to cooperation between the United Nations on the one hand, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the League of Arab States and the Organization of African Unity (OAU) on the other, are relevant from that point of view. Some regional organizations have acquired new areas of competence, including in the field of peace and security, and have become a trustworthy support for the United Nations in containing and eliminating local conflicts. For the near future, we may expect that additional regional organizations and groupings will be interested in setting up a cooperation framework with the United Nations, similar those that exist with other regional organizations. The Republic of Moldova supports that trend. As a founding member of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization, and as the country which at the end of this month will assume the presidency of that organization, the Republic of Moldova welcomes the recent decision of the General Committee to include in the agenda of the fifty-fourth session an item concerning the granting of observer status in the General Assembly to the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization. To this effect, the Republic of Moldova would very much appreciate it if Member States lent their valuable support to the granting of observer status in the Assembly to that organization. We are fully aware of the fact that because of its outstanding role in dealing with world problems, the United Nations is confronted with a growing number of new threats to international security and stability. In this context, peacekeeping operations represent one of the world Organization’s main instruments with which to stop conflicts in various parts of the world and to create favourable conditions for their political settlement. It is also obvious that in recent years the United Nations has nearly exhausted its ability to respond to the increasing number of requests for such operations. Under these circumstances, we support and encourage the trend towards involving regional organizations and arrangements, in cooperation with the United Nations, in the mitigation of certain conflicts. At the same time, we consider that peacekeeping operations should as a rule be undertaken under the auspices of the United Nations and in conformity with United Nations standards. Statements made during the general debate have offered an eloquent perspective on the major challenges confronting the present-day system of international relations and on the role that international organizations, and primarily the United Nations, have to play in order to meet them. One of the most important issues spoken of in this context is the maintenance of peace, security and stability in various regions affected by crisis and internal conflict. Unfortunately, developments in those regions compel us to acknowledge the insoluble character of many such conflicts. These so-called frozen conflicts have a huge potential for destabilization and destruction. The Kosovo tragedy has clearly shown how they can degenerate if we do not succeed in working out timely long-lasting solutions. The Secretary-General is absolutely right when he stresses that a tragic irony of many of the crises that continue to go unnoticed and unchallenged today is that they could be dealt with by far less perilous acts of intervention than the one we witnessed recently in Yugoslavia. At the same time, one of the main conclusions to be drawn from conflicts such as those in Kosovo and in Bosnia is that no single organization or State is capable of solving conflicts of such complexity and scale on its own. The uniqueness of the United Nations is defined particularly by its capacity to efficiently mobilize the resources of the international community and to orchestrate its efforts in order to defuse and solve crisis and conflict situations. That unique potential has to be more actively and more efficiently used, particularly in 13 relation to the internal conflicts confronted by some newly independent States. Since 1992, when the majority of the ex-Soviet republics became members of the United Nations, dozens of interventions concerning conflicts in these States, Moldova among them, have been spoken of in this Assembly. One of the main conclusions of those statements was that without more active involvement by the international community those conflicts will remain “frozen”. In this context, it bears mention that the United Nations, as well as other international bodies and individual States, have made an important contribution to ending the violence and military clashes and in bringing the parties involved to the negotiating table. Another positive result from the actions of the international community has been the parties’ acceptance of the idea of resolving their differences through peaceful means. For this reason, the Republic of Moldova, like other countries with similar problems in our own region, has continued to support more active involvement by the United Nations and regional organizations in managing the conflicts which they have faced for many years now. We think that the time is ripe to give more consideration to the question of how the root causes of those conflicts should be identified and dealt with. In this respect the United Nations can efficiently use its potential only through intensive cooperation and interaction with the European organizations and institutions, particularly OSCE. Through enhanced synergy and avoidance of duplication, and by using and maintaining consulting mechanisms at various levels and exchanging information about plans and activities between itself and those organizations, the United Nations can improve the situation in countries affected by internal conflicts. However, there must be firm decisions about what action must be taken to ensure the implementation of the relevant resolutions and decisions adopted of the United Nations and the OSCE, the main international organizations involved in settling those conflicts. We believe that the General Assembly should evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of cooperation between the United Nations and OSCE from this point of view also. That I refer to the issue of conflicts in some detail is not incidental. The problem of the eastern region of the Republic of Moldova has been repeatedly described, from this rostrum, by representatives of my country. To my regret, I must inform of the Assembly that there has been no tangible progress towards a comprehensive settlement. Throughout the negotiations, we have sought to accomplish the purpose for which the Assembly was established: to replace mistrust and violent confrontation with dialogue and agreement between the parties to the conflict. The Government of my country has shown more than once that it strongly advocates a peaceful resolution, through negotiations, of the conflict situation in Transnistria, in accordance with the norms and practice of international law and in collaboration with international organizations, primarily OSCE, and with the Russian Federation and Ukraine as mediators. Although it has made the spirit of compromise evident, the Government firmly believes that any proposal for a settlement must provide for territorial integrity to be maintained and for control over the territory of the whole country to be ensured. Despite a reasonable compromise on the part of the constitutional authorities, separatist tendencies still persist. A number of documents — elaborated with the active participation of OSCE and other mediators and signed by all parties involved — are being interpreted unilaterally, and in a manner contrary to their meaning, by the Transnistrian leaders. Moreover, these leaders are trying to impose certain concepts that do not exist in law and territorial practice and are contrary to the principle of territorial integrity. Here I refer to am referring to the concept of “common State,” which has very frequently been imposed in discussions to define relations between the central and local authorities in certain conflict zones. We consider this concept dangerous due as it attempts to distort the notion of statehood and State sovereignty and provide a legal framework for the ideology of aggressive separatism. I believe that the United Nations and other international organizations will also find this concept both inadequate and counter-productive as a means of resolving internal conflicts. In Transnistria, we are striving for a rapid and definitive solution and a return to stability, and a return also to respect for human rights, which continue to be violated in this region. The case of the Ilascu group, and violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms it represents are eloquent in this respect. We consider it imperative for international efforts to solve the current crisis situations, most of which have separatism as their main cause, to be strengthened. In this connection, I would mention that we fully share the views expressed earlier by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of 14 the Russian Federation concerning aggressive separatism. Indeed, the international community and, first of all, the United Nations should decisively suppress any manifestations of separatism and rigorously and consistently defend the principles of sovereignty, integrity and the inviolability of national frontiers. To this end, the complete eradication of outside encouragement and support for separatist forces is most certainly necessary. Another aspect of the Transnistrian problem is military: this zone is famously overmilitarized, which has very negatively affected the settlement process. Thousands of tons of shells and armaments — both accounted for and unaccounted for, and including equipment limited by the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty — are stationed there. This military presence is in evident contradiction to the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, which declared the State’s neutrality and that foreign troops are not admissible in our country. Another premise for accelerating the settlement process is, would undoubtedly be the immediate, complete, unconditional and orderly withdrawal of foreign troops, as stipulated in OSCE summit decisions required by the CFE Treaty, the keystone of European security and may on no account be violated. I hope that, together with our partners and the relevant international organizations, we can establish, very soon, an effective mechanism and detailed schedule for the takeover, destruction or removal of the foreign military arsenal from Republic of Moldova territory. I express my gratitude for the political support and, especially, for the financial assistance provided by many United Nations Member States for the withdrawal or elimination of those arsenals. I voice our hope that the proceedings of the General Assembly at its fifty-fourth session will be conducted in a spirit of solidarity and with a realistic and constructive approach to the complex issues confronting the contemporary world at the end of this millennium. The delegation of the Republic of Moldova is committed to contributing, alongside other Member States, to the fulfilment of the lofty goals of the United Nations.