Allow me,
Mr. President, at the outset, to express to you my sincere congratulations on
your election to the presidency of the forty-seventh session of the General
Assembly and to salute your friendly country, Bulgaria. In wishing you
success in conducting the proceedings of this session, it gives me pleasure to
assure you of our readiness to cooperate closely with you in furthering the
Organization's objectives and upholding its principles at a time of rapid
change in the world order marked by an increasingly important role for the
United Nations in addressing world problems is gaining new momentum.
I also seize the opportunity to extend our thanks and appreciation to
your predecessor, Ambassador Samir Shihabi, the Permanent Representative of
the sisterly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the able and judicious manner in
which he guided our work as president of the forty-sixth session of the
General Assembly.
It is also my pleasure to voice our appreciation of the efforts of
His Excellency Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secretary-General of the United
Nations during the short period since he took office, both in restructuring
the Organization and in strengthening its role in the maintenance of world
peace and security.
It is gratifying indeed to witness the emergence, this year, of a large
number of independent States and their accession to membership of the United
Nations. The emergence of those thirteen States, is telling proof of the
strength of their people's nationalist sentiments and aspirations, which have
surged with the end of the cold war. My country's delegation has the pleasure
to welcome the new Member States. We are convinced that they will contribute
constructively to the enhancement of the United Nations role and the
furtherance of its goals and objectives.
This session is convened at a time the likes of which the world
Organization has rarely witnessed throughout its history. The winds of change
have swept away the very foundations of an international system which, for
nearly half a century, was based on the foundation of the cold war's
precarious balance of power. The ideological barrier between East and West
has been brought down and, with it, the strategies of nuclear deterrence upon
which the leaders of the bipolar world political order depended throughout the
post-Second World War era.
Our world today is in a state of flux. It is emerging from a past that
is now collapsing under our eyes and is moving towards a future that has not
taken shape yet. Intimations of that future are being brought home to us on
the crests of mighty waves and the winds of heavy storms that have brought
down the Berlin wall, caused the collapse of the Eastern bloc and the
dismantling of the Soviet Union side by side with the many developments and
conflicts we now witness on the international arena.
Although the features of the new world order broke forth sharply in waves
of violent and profound transformations, the winds of change have not been
able to uproot the problems of the cold war. For in the wake of the fall of
certain States, there was the eruption of severe national and ethnic disputes
on which the lid had been kept by the bipolar balance of power. Scrutiny of
the changes witnessed by the world today clearly reveals that the threads of
past and present are interwoven even though developments are taking place so
fast towards the creation of a delicate and precarious balance between the
status quo and change as the new world order unfolds.
The gap between the realities of the present and forecasts of the future
is engulfed in ambiguity and uncertainty at this historic juncture which we
watch with apprehension and with hope and expectation, for it is our
aspiration that man will finally achieve on this planet what he failed to
achieve during the cold-war-era. It behooves us to watch out for developments
and be prepared for them in a manner conducive to the creation of a climate in
which the rights of States, both small and large, are safeguarded, their
security strengthened and a role ensured for each and every one of them in
determining the future course of humanity. Therefore, we should all endeavour
to come to grips with the world in this new stage and identify the role each
of us should play in the formulation of that world's features and the laying
of its foundations. Without such a collective partnership on the part of all
members of the international community, the world will continue to lack
equilibrium and stability and remain vulnerable to upheavals and setbacks that
could undermine the very foundations of the future.
In the context of those international changes, the United Nations has
been able to regain some of its vitality and effectiveness in the
international arena over the past few years. It has exerted commendable
efforts to end the Iraq/Iran war, bring about the liberation of Kuwait, solve
the problem of Afghanistan and bring about the independence of Namibia. Its
efforts continue in connection with the questions of Western Sahara, Cyprus,
Cambodia, El Salvador, South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Somalia.
The future role of the United Nations should be one that rises to the
level of contemporary international challenges so that the Organization may be
able to influence the course of international politics and deal with
transformations that involve interaction of regional and international factors
and controversies. Consequently, it is our view that the role of the United
Nations should evolve to embrace the following three major tasks:
First, the creation of an advanced mechanism that would enable the United
Nations to carry out the tasks of achieving international peace and security
in a manner that would be compatible with transformations in the international
arena;
Secondly, the creation of a modus operandi for cooperation between the
United Nations and regional organizations in the maintenance of international
peace and security, the peaceful settlement of international disputes and
respect for States' sovereignty and territorial integrity;
Thirdly, adequate development of the role of the United Nations in
dealing with world problems that constitute a common concern for the
international community as a whole and are sources of anxiety to people
throughout the world, such as the problems of development, the environment,
refugees, famine, poverty and a host of other international questions.
The question of world peace and security with its economic and social
roots has given rise to a new multifaceted vision of international security.
Undoubtedly, the overlapping and intertwining of such issues require serious
action on our part to coordinate policies and develop programmes for United
Nations organs so that they may be able to meet changing world needs.
In response to the recommendation by the Security Council in its meeting
at the level of Heads of State and Government, held on 31 January 1992, the
Secretary-General of the United Nations presented his report "An Agenda for
Peace". It contains important recommendations and ideas that aim at
developing the international Organization's political performance through
preventive diplomacy, peacemaking and peace-keeping. The concept of
preventive diplomacy is a new strategy based on good forecasting and early
intervention by the United Nations to prevent the eruption of conflicts and to
prevent the escalation to the level of hostilities of existing conflicts.
In this context, we should like to commend the role played by United
Nations peace-keeping operations, a role that has proved to be effective in
containing conflicts, defusing tensions and maintaining peace in various
regions of the world. Since 1987, 13 peace-keeping operations have been
undertaken. It is incumbent upon the international community, especially now,
to bolster and enhance the United Nations financial and operational capability
in this field so that it may be able to maintain its leadership in
peace-keeping, bearing in mind that the cooperation of States Members of the
United Nations is the key factor that would enable those forces to achieve
their objectives and the only guarantee that they will be able to do so.
Peacemaking, peace-keeping, and preventive diplomacy are undoubtedly
interrelated and mutually complementary. We believe that the concept of
post-conflict peace-building introduced by the Secretary-General, together
with the preceding concepts, form an important stanchion of the Organization's
future role in the area of promoting peaceful solutions and preventing the
recurrence of conflicts. In this context, the United Nations can cooperate
with and benefit from the potential and abilities of regional organizations
and arrangements in the peaceful resolution of disputes among Member States,
bearing in mind that most of the disputes that threaten international peace
and security are of a regional nature.
The role of regional organizations in peace-keeping is consonant with the
objectives of the United Nations Charter. It is also called for by current
international developments. And yet, for four decades now, the United Nations
has not been able to benefit from the capabilities of regional organizations
because of the cold war. That cooperation is of singular importance. Its
importance is highlighted now by the aggravation of discord in parts of
Eastern Europe and other parts of the world under the influence of ethnic
sentiments, territorial claims and border disputes. It is in this area that
the United Nations, in cooperation with the appropriate regional
organizations, could use the tool of preventive diplomacy to prevent the
eruption of tragic ethnic conflicts, futile border hostilities, the occupation
by force of other peoples' territories, or the changing of existing boundaries.
In concert with the principles and objectives which we seek to
consolidate within the framework of the United Nations, our responsibility
lies in maintaining the momentum generated by the new international climate of
respect for international legality with a view to achieving stability in
sensitive regional situations, foremost among which is that in the Gulf area.
In this respect, the State of Bahrain reiterates its demand that United
Nations resolutions relating to the situation between Iraq and Kuwait be
complied with.
The State of Bahrain has been following with deep concern the recent
unfortunate developments in the Gulf area as a result of the actions by the
Islamic Republic of Iran on the island of Abu Mousa. While we emphasize the
sovereignty and territorial rights of the United Arab Emirates, our adherence
to the good-neighbourliness principle and our desire to avoid any further
tensions in the area, we call upon the Islamic Republic of Iran to abide by
the memorandum of understanding it has signed with the United Arab Emirates.
For the past several years, international relations have undergone
enormous transformations in the political and economic fields that herald a
pattern of new economic cooperation among countries. There are expectations
that with the end of confrontation between the two super-Powers, the world
will enter an era of fruitful cooperation between States. Yet an escalation
of the confrontation in the economic arena, a widening of the gap between the
North and South, and the prevalence of extreme poverty in a number of
developing countries continue to endanger world security and stability.
Peace and development are the most important foundations of our
civilization at present. It is therefore incumbent upon the United Nations,
which has had about half a century of experience in international
organization, to undertake side by side with the task of peace-keeping, the
task of promoting development in the developing countries. The United Nations
is qualified to be the forum for the elaboration of international development
strategies and the provision of appropriate political impetus for a number of
such interrelated economic issues as the problems of debt, the transfer of
technology, trade, finance, commodities, and the environment. It is thus
essential to reactivate the role of the United Nations in the field of
economic development for the peoples of the world. Although the United
Nations designated the 1970s and the 1980s as the second and third Decades for
development, it has failed to achieve the objectives thereof due to lack of
funds to finance the plan.
If rich industrial countries are to fulfil their global responsibilities,
they ought to respond to the needs of developing countries in terms of
development assistance so that the cold war between the East and West may not
be replaced by another cold war between the North and South or, as the
Secretary-General put it, so as not to erect an iron curtain between the North
and South similar to the one that used to exist between the East and West.
In the light of this situation, the State of Bahrain, as a member of the
Economic and Social Council, a major organ of the United Nations, believes
that the Council's role should be reinvigorated if it is to fulfil its mandate
as provided for in Article 65 of the Charter, and if it is to furnish the
Security Council with comprehensive reports on the economic situations in the
world's different countries. It is clear that if such situations were left to
fester and deteriorate, they may indirectly threaten international peace and
security.
A number of important international conferences have been held this year,
most significant of which »ere the Eighth United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development held in Colombia, and the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development which was held in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and
which culminated in the issuance of the Rio Declaration, Agenda 21, and other
international agreements relating to environment and development. The Rio
Declaration, with its 27 principles, recognizes the integral interrelated
character of the Earth and links sustainable development to environmental
protection. Agenda 21 reflects a global consensus on cooperation in the areas
of environment and development and aims at addressing urgent problems in that
respect and at equipping the world with the means to rise to the challenges of
the next century.
The fact that these two Conference were held in relatively quick
succession demonstrates the enormous capability of the United Nations to
conduct political dialogue in the areas of development and international
economic cooperation. In order for the United Nations role to be strengthened
in that respect. Member States should provide the Organization with the
wherewithal to enable it fully to perform its mandated tasks. For
wherewithal, read: the political will.
In the midst of international transformations, many peoples look forward
to a secure future for themselves and for their future generations. I must
voice here the hope of my delegation that peace may prevail in the Middle
East. We welcome the signs that may lead to a just settlement of the question
of Palestine in particular and of the Middle East conflict in general. The
rounds of talks, which started in Madrid late in October 1991, have vividly
demonstrated the earnest nature of Arab positions and the commitment of Arab
negotiators to achieving a comprehensive and just peace in the Middle East on
the basis of the land-for-peace formula in accordance with Security Council
resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) and other relevant United Nations
resolutions.
It is imperative to intensify international efforts to induce Israel to
forswear its policies of expansion and settlement-building in the occupied
Arab territories, to recognize the inalienable rights of the Palestinian
people, to withdraw from the Syrian Golan Heights, to withdraw from southern
Lebanon in accordance with Security Council resolution 425 (1978), and to
respond to all constructive disarmament proposals which, if implemented, could
bring about parity in military capabilities qualitatively and quantitatively
and ensure security through equal commitments applicable to all Middle East
States, including Israel.
In this connection, I would like to reiterate our support for freeing the
Middle East region from all weapons of mass destruction, and reaffirm our
readiness to deal with the proposed convention on the prohibition of chemical
weapons, to the extent that other States in the region are willing to respond
to international demands by acceding to that convention, to the Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and to the international system of
safeguards and inspections on the basis of equity and equality, in the
interests of the security of all States of the region without discrimination.
The human tragedy that has befallen the Somali people, and the
degradation of their human dignity, call for immediate mobilization of the
concerted efforts of the international community to put an end to that
tragedy. Medical assistance and food supplies should be provided urgently to
save the Somali people from their painful plight. We welcome the United
Nations efforts in Somalia, and are of the opinion that an appropriate
political mechanism should be created to put an end to the bloodshed, to
effect national reconciliation, to eliminate the causes of strife between the
warring factions and to help achieve security and stability in Somalia.
We also wish to express our deep concern over the tragic situation in
Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose people are the targets of mass annihilation and
human-rights violations. At a time when the world looks forward to the
emergence of a new world order in which peace and security would prevail, we
believe the United Nations is duty-bound to act resolutely to put an end to
this tragic situation and to preserve the integrity of the Republic of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, a State Member of the United Nations.
South Africa, which is going through a delicate phase of its history,
requires special attention on the part of the international community.
Despite the positive reforms initiated last year by the Pretoria Government
with a view to drawing up a new constitution for South Africa, it is urgent
that apartheid be completely eradicated by means of constitutional reforms
guaranteeing the participation of the majority of the people of South Africa
in building a non-racial State. In that connection, we support United Nations
efforts to put an end to violence and to help create favourable conditions for
negotiations on transforming South Africa into a non-racial, unitary State.
The Cyprus problem has eluded solution for a long time. However, there
have been signs recently that may lead to a solution. We welcome the new
positive movements as well as the Secretary-General's efforts in that
direction.
The peoples of the world look forward with full confidence to a new world
in which security and prosperity prevail. Yet, despite our hopes for the
future, threats to the human race and the environment abound. Unless we all
work to overcome those threats and to address their causes, we will be opening
a Pandora's box, releasing all its evils while leaving hope locked inside.
The success of the United Nations in dealing with the new challenges will
depend on its ability to build confidence among nations and, with the help of
a broad creative vision, to mobilize efforts, resources and knowledge with a
view to bringing them to bear on the transformation of world society into a
society in which real security, peace, tranquility and equality may prevail.
If we may liken the desired world order to a ship, then peace, security
and economic development are the canvas of which its sails are made;
international legality is its pennant; and only through stability can it sail
to safety. It behoves us to work together in weaving the yarn to make the
canvas of the sails, and to steer our ship toward a secure future for all our
peoples.