Georgia

I should like to begin by congratulating the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Mr. Hennadiy Udovenko, on his election as President of General Assembly at its fifty-second session. This is a compelling acknowledgment of the high international esteem in which Ukraine is held and of Mr. Udovenko’s personal qualities and extensive experience. At the same time, I should like to express gratitude to the President of the General Assembly at its fifty-first session, Ambassador Razali Ismail, who made a significant contribution to the successful guidance of that session. It is particularly important for us to be making this statement today from this lofty rostrum. Five years have passed since Georgia became a full-fledged Member of the United Nations. I believe that the time has come to assess the development of Georgian statehood, as well as the results of our full-fledged participation in and active cooperation with the United Nations. In this five-year period our country has travelled from civil war, chaos, economic collapse and rampant crimes to ever increasing stability, the establishment of democratic institutions and tangible economic progress. The fact that we have been able to emerge with dignity from the most critical phase in our independent development is, to a large extent, to the credit of the United Nations and its specialized agencies, which provided Georgia not only with moral support but with specific and timely financial and technical assistance. We shall always remember that with particular gratitude. We understand what a responsible task the United Nations has as it “strives to articulate an inclusive vision: community among nations, common humanity among peoples, the singularity of our only one Earth.” (A/51/950, para. 1) The criterion for the formation of such a vision is the destiny of each people and every State, including Georgia, whose recent history fully and clearly reflects all the virtues and flaws of the present world order. Georgia can thus serve as a model with regard to the need to implement long-awaited changes and radical reforms within the United Nations system. It is precisely on this subject that I wish to share my views. The global post-confrontational development following the end of cold war has not, unfortunately, been 20 as simple as had been expected. We have stressed on numerous occasions, including from this rostrum, that the global confrontation between two systems has given way to equally dangerous local and intra-State conflicts that carry within them the potential for enormous destruction, thereby posing the same global challenge to international security. One of the manifestations of this dangerous trend is the aggressive separatism that has plagued my country and several other newly independent States. We have also pointed out that the United Nations and other international organizations should act in a manner that takes account of these changes. Unfortunately, our recent experience shows that, as a result of somewhat entrenched attitudes, these realities are frequently misunderstood. The main obstacle to the strengthening and development of our statehood and to the full implementation of economic reforms continues to be the lack of a settlement of the conflicts in Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region. The situation in Abkhazia is particularly worrying. About 300,000 refugees and displaced persons from Abkhazia are still unable to return to their homes. These people, whom fate has not treated kindly, are already beginning to lose hope for a peaceful settlement of the conflict. We are obliged to note that, regrettably, the conflict in Abkhazia has become a kind of touchstone exposing the inadequacy of United Nations efforts. We therefore continue to insist on the need to find a new approach that can give a new impetus to the dialogue. We welcome the vigorous steps being taken to strengthen the role of the United Nations in settling the conflict in Abkhazia, Georgia. We have embraced with hope and optimism the new initiatives put forward by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. We would like to stress in particular that we attach importance to the resumption of the Geneva negotiations between the parties to the conflict, under the auspices of the United Nations and with the participation of the Russian Federation as facilitator, the group of Friends of the Secretary-General on Georgia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). We are confident that the Geneva process will not only promote a settlement of the conflict, but will also reveal the transformational role that the United Nations can play under the new conditions. Here I must express deep gratitude to the President of Ukraine, His Excellency Mr. Leonid Kuchma, who, from this lofty rostrum expressed support for the efforts of the United Nations in Abkhazia and reaffirmed Ukraine’s readiness to participate directly. The establishment of a United Nations standby force would be very useful in developing the potential for United Nations peacekeeping operations to prevent the escalation of conflicts in a timely manner. Such forces would be on constant standby. We believe that such a system must include a technically well-equipped and appropriately staffed headquarters. It would be responsible for the evaluation and assessment of emerging conflict situations. On the basis of such assessments United Nations rapid-reaction forces, which have yet to be established, could be quickly sent to zones of conflict. We are confident that, had such forces existed five years ago, the tragic development of the conflict in Abkhazia could have been prevented. As the vicissitudes of the conflict in Abkhazia, Georgia, have shown, there is still a need for clearly coordinated joint actions between the United Nations and regional and international organizations for the settlement of conflicts. The absence of such a practice considerably reduces the effectiveness of the peacekeeping efforts of our community. Georgia’s experience provides a positive example of cooperation between the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. This cooperation includes the joint United Nations-OSCE office for monitoring human rights in Abkhazia and the programme for the economic rehabilitation of the Tskhinvali region, proposed and implemented by the United Nations Development Program. I also believe that we should seriously consider the proposal of the acting Chairman of the OSCE, by which the State chairing that Organization would automatically join the group of Friends of the Secretary-General on Georgia, thereby promoting and increasing cooperation between the United Nations and the OSCE. We believe that there is a need to welcome the process of cooperation between the United Nations and regional international organizations, which has already begun. We should also reconsider the important concept of post-conflict peace-building. We are sometimes prisoners of stereotyped notions of a phased approach to settling conflicts, and as a result we sometimes fail to notice how thin the line is between establishing peace and peacekeeping itself. In the process of conflict settlement it is more effective to use elements of post-conflict peace- building, including them in the strategy of peacekeeping operations. Elements of post-conflict peace-building such as social and economic rehabilitation of conflict zones and the establishment of a basis for their further development would facilitate confidence-building between the parties involved and create a favourable social and 21 economic environment for the achievement of a final political settlement. We believe that the United Nations should remain actively seized of this matter. The creation of a special fund would allow the United Nations potential for post-conflict peace-building to be strengthened. “Development dividends” could provide one source of revenue for this. On the other hand, the fund could also consider the economic interests of the parties to the conflict, and on that basis develop relevant projects, thereby assisting in conflict prevention. The uniqueness and indispensability of the United Nations as a central and multilateral mechanism of cooperation in the post-confrontational world must first and foremost be manifested in its leading role in the creation of a qualitatively new comprehensive system of security, stability and development. The most important role here must be played by a global system of economic security, the formation of which should run parallel with the development of the process of world integration. A characteristic feature of today’s world is that formerly isolated historico-geographic regions are gradually overcoming their isolation and are cooperating to create a shared global infrastructure of human activities. Therefore, regional economic unions should be viewed as a driving force of the mechanisms for building such an infrastructure. For example, the Caucasus region clearly demonstrates the potential of the so-called graded model of global integration. I refer, in the first place, to subregional cooperation within the framework of a given region and, further, in the light of the geo-strategic situation of the Caucasus, to its role as a link for interregional cooperation, namely between Europe and Asia. Such a structure for integration, such a global model is in keeping with the realities of our day. We believe that the coordinating role of the United Nations in this process can be very effective. Such a vision of the role of the Caucasus region has already been embodied in the concept of the Euro-Asian corridor, a kind of Silk Road for the twenty-first century. This historic conduit for trade, the importance of which is continuing to grow and gain in recognition, is already working and proving its effectiveness. Similar corridors present a unique opportunity for the establishment of new material and cultural values and for bringing economies and cultures together. On this basis, they must — and, unquestionably, will — also play an important role in the establishment and strengthening of stability in the region. Georgia has been called upon to actively promote the implementation of this concept. Even a superficial glance at a map shows the strategic importance of geopolitical and geo-economic dimensions of this central conduit for world trade. Therefore, we express our readiness to cooperate with all those who are interested in making it a reality. The broad functions of the United Nations as a universal organization are the basis for the initiatives spelled out by Secretary-General Kofi Annan in his report “Renewing the United Nations: A Programme for Reform”. First and foremost, we believe there is a need to focus on the treaty defining the international legal profile of today’s world order: the Charter of the United Nations. Conceived under specific circumstances, it provided a mechanism that was aimed, for the most part, at prevention and settlement of conflicts between States. As a result, the United Nations has often reacted inadequately to such challenges as the numerous conflicts occurring within States. The principles that constituted the basis for traditional peacekeeping operations, in particular the concept of consent of the parties, are often untenable in cases of so-called ethnic conflict. This leads us to the idea that the Charter to a great extent needs to be rethought and made to conform to current realities. In this regard, Georgia supports the creation of a ministerial commission to study the necessity of fundamental reforms in the Charter and in those legal documents that define the mandates of the United Nations specialized agencies. Georgia also supports the proposal for the appointment of a First Under-Secretary-General who would be called upon to play a special role in ensuring the success of programmes and plans of the various functional sectors of the Secretariat. Undoubtedly, the crux of the United Nations reforms is the enlargement of the Security Council and the improvement of the activities of the General Assembly and of the other main bodies. Also important is the question of the optimal reallocation of authority between the General Assembly and the Security Council. In this respect, we reaffirm our unwavering position concerning the inclusion of Germany and Japan among the permanent members of the Security Council and also concerning the enlargement of the Council, including adding one seat for the Eastern European countries. 22 We favour growing transparency in the work of the Security Council. From our point of view, it is important that concerned States be able to participate in informal consultations of the Council, at which substantive discussions take place and decisions are taken. The international community should also be equipped with reliable tools of justice to enable it to react not only to unlawful actions of States but also to those of individuals who have perpetrated crimes against humanity. In this connection, we call upon all the Member States to do all they can to conclude successfully the diplomatic conference and to adopt a treaty on the establishment of an international criminal court by 1998. In closing I would like to recall the initiative of the Secretary-General to hold a special session of the General Assembly in the year 2000, as a “millennium Assembly”. Very little time remains before mankind enters the new millennium, and we must do everything we can to see to that the reformed United Nations becomes a genuinely new United Nations for the world order of the coming century. I am confident that Georgia, together with other States, will occupy a worthy place in it, as a democratic and prosperous country.