It is always inspiring to
come to this forum and, time and again, observe that
there are many more things that unite rather than divide
nations around the globe. Indeed, we are united in our
vision of a world free of violence, where every
individual has freedom of choice and where human
dignity is respected. We are united in our aspirations to
meet the challenges of the twenty-first century, because
we know that in a globalized world a threat to one
nation is a threat to all nations.
Nowhere is this new reality more evident than in
the much-needed work of the United Nations. Poverty,
imbalances in development, armaments, the spread of
ideologies of hatred, cybercrime: those are some of the
threats that we face today. The new, daunting
challenges are different in kind. Therefore, both
individual States and the international community have
to find ways to deal with this new reality and how to
respond better to new challenges.
Seven years ago, at this United Nations conclave,
all nations made a historic step, pledging to eradicate
poverty, illiteracy and environmental degradation, and
to improve health and promote gender equality. That
was our response to the challenges of the time. This
year, we are halfway to the 2015 deadline for achieving
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Over the
past few years, an estimated 135 million people
managed to get out of extreme poverty. Significant
positive changes are taking place in the fields of
primary education for poor children, child vaccination
and better access to retroviral treatment for persons
with HIV/AIDS, to name but a few.
Yet overall progress in achieving the Millennium
Development Goals remains uneven and too slow. If
we want to live up to our commitments, we must
increase our efforts considerably and urgently.
The twenty-first century has also confronted us
with such challenges as a deteriorating environment.
Global warming affects all aspects of our lives from
social and economic growth to changing habitats and
migration patterns. Time is clearly not on our side. We
are taking measures to adapt our policies to counter
climate change, but our actions are obviously too slow
and sometimes too reluctant. Therefore, Lithuania
welcomes the Secretary-General’s focus on climate
change as a global challenge that requires global
concerted efforts. We believe that the United Nations
climate change process is the appropriate forum for
negotiating future global action in this effort.
But that already may not be enough. I am
convinced that the world needs a more coherent and
inclusive system of international environmental
governance. This system needs to be strengthened by
establishing a United Nations Environment
Organization, based on the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) with a revised
mandate. With December’s Bali climate change
conference in mind, I call on all countries to come to
the negotiating table later this year with the ambition
of concluding by 2009 a global and comprehensive
post-2012 agreement. Before such an agreement is
reached, Lithuania is doing its best to fulfil the
commitment of the European Union to achieve at least
a 20 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by
2020 compared to 1990 levels.
We have started to focus on a wider use of
indigenous and renewable energy resources. The share
of these resources in the primary energy balance in
Lithuania will increase up to 12 per cent by the year
2010. Last year alone, we planted 21,000 hectares of
trees, an area that corresponds to 32,000 soccer fields.
For a country the size of Lithuania, that is no small
measure. These are but a few of the concrete steps by
which my country shows political will sufficient to
fight new global challenges.
The necessity to fit in and effectively integrate
into the international system has been the cornerstone
of our policies since we regained our independence in
1990. Membership in the European Union and NATO
is the best example of success in that effort. Now we
are taking on increasing responsibility in the fields of
security, stability and sustainability in our region and
beyond. We are active at the front of the war against
terrorism, including our contribution to restoring
stability and security in Iraq. We are leading a
Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan’s Ghor
province. Over the past two years, Lithuania has
doubled its development aid budget and has committed
to increasing it to 0.33 per cent of its gross national
income by 2015. Our contribution to global security
and the vision of inclusiveness and of building a
“Europe whole and free” motivated Lithuania to offer
its candidacy for the chairmanship of the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 2010.
If Lithuania and the Baltic region in general are a
success story in terms of establishing themselves in a
new global environment, some countries in our region
are not. We may only guess why those countries
perceive the integration of democracies on their
borders as a national threat. We feel sorry for a society
at large when its Government chooses to spend the
country’s natural riches on guns and not on democratic
reforms. Clearly, we should not tolerate attempts to
falsify historical facts about the Soviet occupation of
the Baltic States or the denial of the deliberately
caused Holodomor in Ukraine, which killed millions.
Fitting in is never easy. Therefore, we consider
that the United Nations could help Member States to
efficiently integrate into the international system, as
the European Union is already doing by engaging its
neighbours in this process through various
neighbourhood instruments and cooperation formats.
However, our readiness to stand up and speak
openly to States if they cross the line is also an
indispensable element of that effort. We should ask
ourselves: where did we fail, that the killings of
hundreds of thousands of innocent people were
permitted to take place in Darfur?
Today conflicts occur on every continent, with
particularly grave consequences in Africa and the
Middle East. Some conflicts in the world, however, are
less visible. But that does not make them less
dangerous. Frozen conflicts in Eastern Europe and the
South Caucasus may become very hot one day unless
we act immediately. We consider it morally
unacceptable for the international community to remain
indifferent to the frozen conflicts in the GUAM area.
Let us not forget that it is not only the conflicts that are
frozen; the lives and dreams of the people living in
those areas of artificial conflict are also frozen. That is
where the United Nations should be more visible and
more outspoken. That also applies to Kosovo, where
attempts to create another frozen conflict must be
excluded.
It is not only States, but also the United Nations
itself that must adapt to new, changing realities. We
encourage the Secretary-General to continue the reform
of the United Nations, in particular making the
Organization’s operational system more consolidated,
coherent and effective, with the highest standards of
conduct and ethics. We must proceed with real actions
in carrying through the reform of the United Nations.
The Secretary-General has my full support in this
context. He should be applauded for his bold and
forward-thinking vision of the reform in United
Nations peacekeeping. We welcome all efforts by the
United Nations to streamline and reform the
peacekeeping procurement system.
I encourage the United Nations to further
strengthen, develop and use its capabilities in the area
of good offices and conflict prevention, as envisioned
in the 2005 World Summit Outcome (resolution 60/1).
That would enable us to address many issues in a more
efficient manner and, hopefully, to avoid costly
peacekeeping operations.
The prevention of nuclear proliferation and the
pursuit of nuclear disarmament in accordance with the
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
are crucial for global peace and security. We need to
strengthen the authority of the Treaty. Lithuania will
support the process leading to the elaboration of a
binding international arms trade treaty. Lithuania will
also continue to increase practical assistance and
funding to international mine action projects and the
implementation of the Programme of Action on Small
Arms and Light Weapons.
Two years have passed since the adoption of the
World Summit Outcome, which elaborated on the
concept of the responsibility to protect, and yet we
have been too slow in responding to massive violations
of human rights and mass atrocities. The principle of
the responsibility to protect can no longer be confined
to paper. We therefore encourage the Secretary-General
to follow up on the World Summit document and take
measures to operationalize that principle.
Only a reformed and proactive United Nations
will be truly instrumental and effective. Only such a
United Nations will have the required support and
financing. Only such a United Nations will be trusted
by the people.
The ability to adapt is the quality of the strong.
Fitting in is the least we can do for future generations.
It is the responsibility of every nation and the
international community as such.