I wish
to convey to Mr. Ganev the most sincere congratulations of the Government of
Honduras on his well-deserved election to the presidency of the General
Assembly at its forty-seventh session. Through him we should also like to
extend our best wishes to the Bulgarian people, who, like other peoples of
Eastern Europe, are today, after much effort and self-sacrifice, helping to
keep alive the flame of freedom, democracy and progress in that continent.
To the new Members of our Organization, we extend a most cordial
greeting. We are fully convinced that through the United Nations we shall be
able to establish growing links of friendship and cooperation.
Our Organization is grounded on principles of equality, shared
responsibilities, and the promotion of international peace and security. We
hope that Serbia and Montenegro will best achieve those objectives by meeting
the legitimate expectations of the international community that an end will be
put to the war, persecution and intolerance in the countries of former
Yugoslavia, and that they will be able to become Members of this great family
of nations.
Moreover, in a world of changing realities, one which is none the less
marked by its attachment to universality and peaceful coexistence, my
Government, like other Central American countries, believes that we should
open the way for the Republic of China, with more than 20 million inhabitants
and authorities established in Taipei, to participate in the work of our
Organization and its specialized agencies as that country does in various
regional forums and international mechanisms. Membership in the United
Nations does not constitute diplomatic recognition of sovereignty, and there
have been and are precedents in the history of the United Nations for the
simultaneous presence of countries which are in search of their historical
unity but which, while they remain separated, have not been denied the
opportunity to make their contribution to the complex fabric of international
relations and obligations which bring together the peoples of the Earth
through the United Nations.
We are beginning a new era in the life of this Organization. For us, the
"Agenda for Peace" of our distinguished Secretary-General is a noteworthy
effort embodying both vision and realism that will enable us to make progress
in forging a more secure and prosperous world. The Government of Honduras
warmly supports the proposals on preventive diplomacy and on strengthening the
logistical and financial capacity of the United Nations for peace-keeping and
for peace-building when peace is threatened, when peace has been breached, or
when the persistence of situations of confrontation make peace vulnerable.
In accordance with those aims, Honduras also urges greater support for
and use of the international organs for the legal settlement of disputes such
as the International Court of Justice, which has only recently handed down a
judgment providing a definitive solution to a long-standing border dispute
between El Salvador and Honduras. The peoples and Governments of both
countries intend to comply in good faith with this judgement.
Honduras has also decided to lend its armed forces and police for
peace-keeping missions and is at present satisfactorily participating in the
conciliation mission in Western Sahara of the United Nations Mission for the
Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).
With the end of a bipolar world and of the cold war, the terrible threat
of a nuclear holocaust has dissipated. However, atomic weapons and other
powerful weapons of mass destruction continue to overfill the arsenals of
large and medium-sized Powers. My country therefore urges those who possess
nuclear weapons to pursue, and as appropriate to initiate, serious and
verifiable programmes for the reduction and destruction of such weapons, and
the dismantling of possible vehicles for them. We also urge that the
non-proliferation Treaty system be made more general and strengthened, with
guarantees of verification; this applies also to the regional systems such as
the Treaty of Tlatelolco. We shall also join in the broad movement that is
being generated at this session towards seeking and achieving the prohibition
of the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons.
In the Persian Gulf, the reasons for the vigorous response by the
international community in defence of the sovereignty and legitimate rights of
Kuwait still exist in several respects. More than ever before, the United
Nations should redouble its efforts to bring about faithful compliance with
the relevant resolutions of the Security Council ensuring an end to threats of
aggression and guaranteeing for the countries of the Gulf an environment of
peace and a future free of coercion and uncertainty.
In the Middle East, in southern Africa and in Cambodia, processes of
peace and reconciliation continue to move forward. Candidly acknowledging
past injustices, trusting in the mediating efforts of the United Nations, and
convinced that the fruits of peace are beneficial to their populations, the
leaders of all the parties involved in these conflicts should now more than
ever before strive to bring about equitable solutions to the differences that
separate them, in order to guarantee a speedy restoration in their respective
regions of stable and secure conditions of good neighbourliness.
The signing of the Chapultepec Peace Agreements in January this year
between the Government of El Salvador and representatives from the insurgent
The President returned to the Chair.
movement has brought an end to armed confrontation in our neighbouring country
and has opened the way for a complete reconciliation in the spirit of freedom
and democracy for the Salvadorian people. Honduras associated itself in the
well-deserved tribute paid to former Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar
for his mediating efforts. We have given and shall continue to give our full
support to Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali in the fulfilment of the
various stages of the peace agreement, including demobilization of formerly
opposed forces and integration into civil and political life of the insurgents
in a framework of complete legality.
With peace in El Salvador, Central America, under the sign of democracy,
is returning to the path of integration and development. Our countries are
aware of the countless challenges posed by the insufficiency of our productive
infrastructure, poverty and inequalities. But we also know that with
dedication and vision, and especially with unity, we shall be able to overcome
them.
That is why the Tegucigalpa Protocol (A/46/829, annex III) of
13 December 1991 has entered into force, establishing a system for Central
America integration which, working in the summit meetings of Presidents of the
Central American isthmus, will impart force and impetus to a broad movement
towards integration. Honduras hopes that the ever-stronger voice of Central
America will be heard and that our region, a region of peace, democracy,
freedom and development, will join and participate actively in the new forms
of global interdependence that are taking shape on the eve of a new millennium.
For Honduras, an essential part of this integrated vision is the
formation and implementation of national, regional and international
strategies to fight poverty and to overcome long-standing problems that strike
hardest at children, women and the elderly.
If we justly aspire to economic development, and to growing expansion of
trade in goods and services originating from all continents, we should
likewise aspire to, and indeed make possible, real improvement in the quality
of life of the inhabitants of our countries. Enhanced social well being
should not be conceived of as a generous remedy that may prove insufficient to
the communities receiving it, but rather as a joint undertaking to facilitate,
through international cooperation, conditions for vocational training and
better access to the opportunities that can be provided by open and growing
economies.
On 12 December 1991, in Central America, the Heads of State and
Government of the seven countries of the isthmus assumed that very commitment,
and, in the presence of various distinguished figures and executives of the
United Nations and regional organizations, initiated a coordinated programme
of human development with goals, objectives and resources defined for the
present decade to culminate in the year 2000.
Those initiatives of our subregion are universal in conception. That is
why Honduras, like Chile and other friendly countries, will continue to give
impetus to, and participate in, the appropriate preparations for and holding
of a world conference on social and human development that may serve as a
forum for reflection and initiatives to effectively set in motion
international measures and policies in this respect.
In an ever more integrated world, our countries, which share not only a
rich cultural heritage exemplified by the common use of a single language, but
also a democratic and modern vision of international relations, are naturally
seeking to strengthen our links of fraternal friendship and our presence in
the world. Those are the fundamental reasons that led us to constitute the
Ibero-American Conference, which, following its founding declaration in
Guadalajara, signed in July 1991 by the Heads of State and Government of the
Hispanic-American countries, Brazil, Spain and Portugal, has now formally been
constituted.
Within the Ibero-American Conference, as a mechanism for interaction and
cooperation, we have been designing programmes of mutual benefit primarily in
the fields of education, exchanges of programmes via satellite, the creation
of an indigenous fund and the launching of a broad programme of exchanges of
scholars and researchers.
The Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Madrid this year also
gave support to growing and leading involvement by our countries in a world
programme of human development.
Maintenance of an open multilateral trading system is of vital importance
to the expansion of world trade and the economic development of all
countries. For that reason we must join our efforts to bring about the speedy
culmination, on satisfactory terms, of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade
Negotiations. Stagnation of the negotiating process would have very serious
consequences for world trade and would affect prospects and the structural
programmes that many developing countries have undertaken at the cost of great
sacrifice to find our proper place in the trend towards large trading blocs.
This year there has been a dramatic fall in the prices of commodities
essential to our economies. This leads us to stress the need to bring about
better regulation of conditions of access guaranteeing the growth of sales of
our competitive products at fair prices.
In this context we must also, in our judgement, strengthen the transfer
of technology for industrial development and more flexible terms in financing
the modernization of industrial plant in developing countries.
The urgent need to share responsibilities and to act together to
guarantee global economic stability independently of the economic and
political power of each nation, together with the growing convergence of views
as to global priorities, were clearly and positively demonstrated at the Earth
Summit held in Rio de Janeiro.
The Government of Honduras takes great satisfaction from the common
reflection on urgent environmental problems initiated at that conference, and
we reiterate our support for the principles adopted by it and for Agenda 21,
which comprehensively encompasses a whole programme of action in the
environmental sphere and for sustainable development.
We must persevere in this direction. The deterioration of nature must be
halted. Together we can design conservation strategies that allow for the
rational use of natural resources to meet the needs of employment and the
economic growth of our populations.
The new strategy of peace is also necessarily a new strategy of
development. Only by growing together can we survive; only by pooling our
efforts can we secure for future generations a better world in harmony and
concord.