Belarus

I congratulate you, Sir, on your election to the presidency of this session of the General Assembly. I believe your extensive diplomatic experience will continue the successful and useful work done by your predecessor, Mr. Han Seung-soo. Belarus welcomes the further expansion of the community of nations. We welcome the Swiss Confederation to the United Nations membership. We believe that the new Member State and the United Nations will be good partners and will contribute to peace and progress in the world. The last session of the General Assembly was a landmark for all of us. Last year the world changed dramatically. The challenges of globalization have turned out to be more serious than they seemed to all of us when leaders of the Member States adopted the Millennium Declaration. The tragic events of 11 September 2001 were a serious test of the stability of the United Nations and our commitment to the principles and objectives of the Charter. We bow our heads in memory of the victims of the terrorist attacks. The American tragedy must never be allowed to be repeated anywhere in the world. The President of the Republic of Belarus, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, wrote in a letter dated 11 September 2002, to President George Bush of the United States: Today we still bear in our hearts the memory of the innocent people who perished in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on that dreadful morning of 11 September 2001 ... Early in the twenty-first century the world perceived the grave reality of new challenges and threats. We also came to understand that the evil of international terrorism can be eradicated only through joint concerted efforts.' Today, we have every reason to state that the world community has managed to confront the threat of global terrorism by creating a broad international coalition. The measures taken by the United Nations in response to the unprecedented acts of international terrorism mark a new and significant direction in the Organization's activities. Belarus considers itself an integral part of the anti-terrorism coalition. We fully support the Counter- Terrorism Committee and have been actively involved with it in the context of unconditional implementation of Security Council resolutions. We also believe the Counter-Terrorism Committee provides a fruitful exchange of experience in the area of combating terrorism that involves the Member States, international organizations and regional institutions. The President, Government and Security Council of the Republic of Belarus have been focusing on ways to combat terrorism. In January 2002, we adopted a law to combat terrorism, which has entered into force. Our 22 country is a party to 9 of the 12 major multilateral international treaties on combating terrorism. We are now working on accession to the three other treaties. The outcome of the groundbreaking work of the Counter-Terrorism Committee will serve as a basis for setting up a universal model for counter-terrorism legislation and for its implementation. The Republic of Belarus will contribute to elaborating a comprehensive convention on combating international terrorism and acts of nuclear terrorism. Work on those two instruments should be the focus of the Secretary-General's attention, since international terrorism today has challenged two Powers, two permanent members of the Security Council: the United States and Russia. It has also challenged the entire international community. We have accepted that challenge; our response is clear. We, the United Nations, will eliminate terrorism. The focus of attention at the last session was people and their needs in a global world; we agree with that approach. The Millennium Declaration is our guide as we work on those issues. We considered possible options for implementing the Millennium Declaration at two recent important international forums the International Conference on Financing for Development at Monterrey and the World Summit on Sustainable Development at Johannesburg. Those two forums marked a transition between identifying common goals and actually implementing them. The main task facing this session is to draw conclusions with regard to that work and determine the specific actions to be taken in order to implement the agreements. Our delegation is ready to act together with other Member States to this end. My Government attaches paramount importance to integrating environmental and social aspects into our national strategy for sustainable development. Belarus agrees with the analysis made at the Johannesburg Summit of what has been done to achieve sustainable development over the past decade and how we can tackle global issues in the twenty-first century. Our country is entering the new millennium as an important geopolitical element in a modern Europe. We have a stable economic and social infrastructure and the highest human development index among the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Belarus seeks constructive interaction and mutually beneficial partnership with our neighbouring countries in the interest of building a united Europe. The prospect of sustainable development in Europe cannot be realized without a stable Belarus acting as a reliable Eurasian bridge. On that basis, our President and Government have been determining the role that Belarus will play in the implementation of the decisions of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The conferences at Monterrey and Johannesburg showed the importance of taking into account the interests of countries with transitional economies in structuring a stable world for the twenty-first century. Over the past decade, our countries have come a long way in transitioning to the market economy and integrating fully into international trade, economic and financial systems. But the States in that group are at different stages of macroeconomic and financial stability and sustained economic growth because of the particular characteristics of their individual situations owing to internal and external factors. Therefore, it is important to continue international efforts to make market reforms irreversible in the countries with transitional economies. We must also take account of and try to mitigate the social consequences and ensure that our countries are fully integrated into the world economy. Belarus looks forward to a fruitful discussion of the draft, which we will be introducing at this session of the General Assembly. Sustainable development in Belarus relates directly to dealing with the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, the largest radiation disaster of the past century. Economic damage in Belarus is estimated at $US 235 billion. We have invested $US 13 billion in restoring the social and economic sectors of that region. The health of the affected population is still a serious concern. At the same time, Chernobyl-related issues have been losing the attention of the international community, leaving Belarus to face the consequences alone. Belarus has urged a shift in focus of international Chernobyl-related cooperation away from humanitarian assistance to socio-economic rehabilitation and sustainable development in the affected regions. We welcome the active role played by the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Mr. Kenzo Oshima, who personally visited the 23 affected regions earlier this year. We are grateful to Secretary-General Kofi Annan for supporting Mr. Oshima in this endeavour. We welcome the work of some members of the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Chernobyl, who seek to set up an International Chernobyl Research Board to study the long-term consequences of radiation effects on human beings and the environment in Belarus. Belarus supports United Nations partnership with non-governmental organizations and the private sector. We believe this can help to mobilize additional resources for our purposes. However, voluntary initiatives should supplement intergovernmental agreements, not replace them. Peace, security and stability are prerequisites to sustainable development. But this past year has shown that international peace and security are still fragile. We witnessed a sharp escalation of confrontation in the Middle East. This region could become the centre of a dangerous collision between civilizations. The Middle East Quartet, with the participation of the United Nations, the European Union, the Russian Federation and the United States, inspires some optimism from the standpoint of the understanding reached by all participants in the peace process that two independent states Israel and Palestine have to coexist. This understanding is enshrined in legally binding documents of the United Nations. Gradually taking steps to mutual reconciliation through continuous dialogue between the parties involved will help, and the United Nations must be active here. There is no alternative to the peace process in Afghanistan. Significant financial, material and human resources have already been allocated to Afghanistan to help to create a new Afghanistan, a stable and predictable partner in modern international relations. Belarus wishes to make its contribution. Our State Aviation Committee has participated in transporting humanitarian supplies from Europe to Afghanistan. We believe the establishment of the African Union was a landmark step for Africa. This major regional association, with support from the international community, will hasten a solution to African problems, particularly ethnic and religious conflict. Belarus will help to approve projects and programmes for economic and humanitarian development in Africa through the United Nations. This year was marked by important agreements on strategic stability. Belarus welcomes the signing in Moscow of the Treaty on Strategic Offensive Reductions between the Russian Federation and the United States. We support constructive dialogue between the nuclear States in order to create a genuinely safe multi-polar world. International efforts for the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) must continue. A new impetus must be given to the Conference on Disarmament. More work must be done on reducing conventional weapons. Belarus has contributed to setting up the new security architecture from Vancouver to Vladivostok by depositing our ratification instruments for the Open Skies Treaty in November 2001. At this session, we will be proposing a draft resolution entitled Prohibition of the development and manufacture of new types of weapons of mass destruction and new systems of such weapons'. We trust it will be unanimously supported, as it was last year in the General Assembly. Belarus believes the Security Council must play a key role in maintaining international peace and security, including the situation of Iraq. Belarus welcomes the recent decision by the Government of Iraq to allow for the immediate and unconditional return of United Nations weapons inspectors to Iraq. Any action or attempt to evade the authority of the United Nations Security Council, or any non- fulfilment by States of decisions by the Council, will undermine the legal basis of the existing system of international relations and jeopardize the basis of the international legal order. Reform of the United Nations is essential to successfully accomplish its tasks. As a founding member, Belarus has always advocated strengthening the role of the United Nations. In an era of globalization, only an institutionally strong Organization will be capable of making a genuinely effective contribution to coordinating member States' efforts to attain the noble goals enshrined in the Charter. Although there has not been much progress in the Working Group on Security Council reform and on increasing the Council's membership, Belarus welcomes the progress made in improving its working 24 methods by increasing transparency and having more open meetings and briefings. Reform of the General Assembly is also speeding up, and informal consultations should serve as a basis for effective work at this session. We have been monitoring the work of the Economic and Social Council, and we welcome internal reforms there. We support more interaction between the Economic and Social Council, the Security Council and the General Assembly. We welcome the coordinating role of the Council as set forth in the Charter and the Millennium Declaration. As we look at what we have done and what remains to be done, we inevitably reach the conclusion that there is little time for thought due to the speed at which the world is changing today; therefore, we believe that the only key to success is to purposefully move forward to solve specific tasks. Belarus will work together with other member States to that end.