Uzbekistan

Allow me to congratulate you, Sir, on your election to your high office, and to express our confidence in the success of the work of the current session. I also wish to thank sincerely Ambassador Razali Ismail for his enormous contribution to the work of the sessions of the General Assembly over which he presided. The changes which have been taking place in our world in recent years and the formation of a qualitatively new geopolitical system of international relations require the adaptation of the United Nations to new realities, with the creation of a flexible and efficient international mechanism which can take effective measures to address the new challenges of our time. In Uzbekistan we have a positive assessment of Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s plan for reforming the United Nations. Although a number of these proposals require careful study and additional elaboration, we can already highlight concrete aspects which deserve support. I refer primarily to the decision on the enlargement of the permanent membership of the Security Council through the inclusion of Germany and Japan, countries which today are playing a significant role in world economic and political affairs. We also support the enlargement of the non-permanent membership of the Security Council, which, in our view, would provide for a more democratic representation of other States in this body. To promote efficiency in implementing the resolutions of the United Nations, there is a need to reinforce and broaden the authority of the Secretary-General. In our view, we should also support the proposal to establish the post of a Deputy Secretary-General. The idea of merging all the United Nations entities in different countries under one flag in the so-called United Nations Houses seems to us quite rational. The reform of the United Nations administration structure will allow for reallocation of the funds saved to enhance development programmes. The creation of a single agency to combat crime, terrorism, drug-trafficking and money-laundering is also a timely proposal. The proposals on consolidating the economic and social departments, cutting down on United Nations administrative staff, replacing the Department of Humanitarian Affairs and establishing a streamlined Emergency Relief Coordination Office to coordinate activities of all the United Nations agencies in implementing assistance projects, also merit our attention. Maintaining security and stability in Central Asia and providing conditions for the sustainable development of the States of the region are among the crucial guidelines for the foreign policy of Uzbekistan. To achieve these goals, Uzbekistan has put forward concrete initiatives, particularly within the rostrum of the United Nations. I should like to take this opportunity to draw attention again to a number of problems which require an immediate solution, both at the regional level and at the broader international level. I refer first to the continuing conflict in Afghanistan, which has recently become particularly brutal, and to the continuing instability in Tajikistan. Our position of principle regarding the Afghan settlement remains unchanged. Its major aspects include such points as the maintenance of the territorial integrity of Afghanistan; the rejection of force as a means of settling the conflict; the cessation of external interference; the imposition of an arms embargo; the participation in a phased peace process of all the major forces involved in the conflict; the implementation of the peace process under the aegis of the United Nations, and with the participation of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC); and the creation of a broad-based coalition Government including all the various opposition parties. We share the view of the Secretary-General that if the meaningless civil war in Afghanistan is to be halted, regional and international participants must shoulder additional obligations. Despite all the complications of the situation around Afghanistan, trends have recently been observed which can, and indeed must, be used to begin the peace process. The proposal on imposing an arms embargo deserves special attention. Such an embargo, which has already been proposed by Uzbekistan on many occasions, must be considered the principal condition for halting external interference in Afghanistan’s affairs. We are well aware of the technical difficulties related to the implementation of this initiative in the conditions prevailing in Afghanistan. However, we do not think that they are insurmountable. In our view, the process of imposing an arms embargo should be divided into two stages: first, the adoption by the Security Council of a resolution on the embargo, which would be political in nature; secondly, the drawing up of United Nations control machinery for compliance. We welcome the stepping up of United Nations efforts to resolve the Afghan problem, in particular, the appointment of Mr. Brahimi as the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General. We hope that the United Nations will also support our initiative for the creation of a contact group from among the countries neighbouring Afghanistan, as well as the United States, Russia and other interested States, together with, of course, representatives of inter-Afghan forces. Uzbekistan fully supports the principle of the indivisibility of security — internal, regional and global. Our country was among the first of the newly independent States to accede to the Treaty on the Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. At the forty-eighth session of the General Assembly, in 1993, Uzbekistan called upon the international community to declare 2 Central Asia a nuclear-weapon-free zone, and we have been consistently moving towards the implementation of this initiative. Concrete confirmation of this policy was the holding of the international conference “Central Asia — Nuclear- Weapon-Free Zone” in Tashkent on 14 to 16 September, under United Nations auspices and with the participation of high-level representatives of more than 60 international organizations and countries. This forum was a major international event in the history of the region. However, we are well aware that the process of establishing a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Central Asia is not a one-time political action. It must be carried out within the framework of existing agreements and in accordance with international experience, in particular within the framework of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. In this regard, on the regional level a reliable system of collective efforts by States participating in this initiative should be developed. Those efforts must ensure the non- proliferation regime, the ecological safety of hazardous industries that involve nuclear raw materials and the prevention of leakage of nuclear technologies and materials. On the international level it is necessary to give priority attention to the settlement of regional problems. The phased advancement towards global security is possible only after we create secure and stable regions. In other words, when dealing with global problems, it is essential to follow the principle of moving from regionalism to globalism. It is also necessary to fundamentally reconsider the security guarantees provided to the non-nuclear States, first and foremost to those participating in nuclear-weapon-free zones. We need to organically combine the efforts for promoting non-proliferation and ensuring global nuclear security with the resolution of regional problems. The problem of non-proliferation must be considered in close linkage with significant reductions of other types of weapons of mass destruction. Uzbekistan highly appreciates the efforts of international organizations — first of all the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) — for their support of the Central Asian initiative. We would like to request the General Assembly, its President and the Secretary-General to assist in the passage of a special resolution in support of the initiative declaring Central Asia a nuclear-weapon-free zone and in the establishment of a United Nations expert group to study the forms and elements of the regional agreement on this issue. Our cooperation within the framework of the OSCE is making a significant contribution to enhancing regional security in Central Asia. We consider the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Expanded Bureau Meeting Seminar, held in September 1997 in the capital of Uzbekistan, as the world community’s recognition of Central Asia’s importance in issues related to strengthening peace and stability on the regional and global levels. The creation of the Central Asian collective peacekeeping battalion by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan was an important step towards safeguarding peace and stability in the region. For the first time on the territory of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan broad-scale exercises of the Central Asian collective peacekeeping battalion, Centrazbat 97, were held, with the participation of multinational forces. These exercises constituted a serious test, the successful completion of which confirmed this battalion as a fully fledged unit in the United Nations reserve peacekeeping forces. Once again we should like to take advantage of this United Nations forum to call upon the international community to pool its efforts to tackle the serious threat to the security of the Central Asian region that may also have consequences on the global level. I am referring to the ecological situation in the Aral Sea basin. The current session of the General Assembly — the Reform Assembly, as it was called by Secretary-General Kofi Annan — must give a fresh impetus to the joint efforts of the international community in combating organized crime, drug dealing and terrorism. We need to develop transnational programmes to confront these challenges and threats. We may confidently say that if favourable conditions and trends are maintained, in the twenty-first century Central Asia, given its geostrategic significance and its vast natural, energy and human resources, will become a promising and dynamic regional market of a global importance. The interdependence of the situation emerging in Central Asia, the common European security system taking shape and the outlook for developing situations 3 within the vast Asian continent means there is an urgent need for the international community to take measures to ensure durable peace and stability in this region along with its sustainable development.