Algeria

Mr. President, I would like to congratulate you most warmly on your election as President of the fifty-eighth session of the General Assembly, whose proceedings will undoubtedly benefit from your personal qualities and your skills and experience in international relations. I am also certain that you are an excellent successor to an excellent predecessor. I would like also to pay tribute to our Secretary- General, for his determined efforts and dedication to the service of world peace and the fulfilment of the purposes of the United Nations. The current session of the General Assembly takes place in a complex international situation characterized by mounting threats that imperil the purposes and role of our Organization. Indeed, recent developments have marked the opening of a new phase of instability, uncertainty and apprehensiveness, highlighting the dangers arising from the side-stepping of our Organization in the conduct of world affairs. More than ever before, the Organization’s irreplaceable role is brought to the fore, as a universal forum responsible for maintaining an international order based on peace, security and cooperation for development. The international community finds itself squarely faced with the duty to restore its cohesion and mobilize its means and energy towards full rehabilitation of the United Nations, through the upholding, by all, of the Charter’s purposes and principles, which constitute the indispensable foundations for a civilized international society. We have to revive the strong momentum gained as a result of the Millennium Summit and further enhanced and carried forward through the role played by the United Nations in organizing a collective response against terrorism in the wake of the wanton attacks of 11 September 2001. Those attacks were truly barbaric. Peace, security, and development issues are at the core of the mission of our Organization. Today, they require a renewal of our commitment to international cooperation, especially since we live in an increasingly interdependent world, where problems are also closely interrelated. We strongly support the view that the United Nations remains the best place where Member States should join in collective endeavours in their quest for the common good. We should cooperate within the framework of our Organization and work together to promote development and compliance with international law, in order to lay the foundations for a stable and secure world rooted in solidarity. 13 Therefore, strengthening our Organization and improving its effectiveness stands as a collective task, a top priority and a shared responsibility of all Member States that seek to prevent crisis situations, address threats to international peace and security, and ensure necessary conditions for sustainable development. Among the challenges that should be confronted by the international community, I will dwell on terrorism first, because preventing and combating terrorism still requires a high level of vigilance, mobilization and multifaceted cooperation at the national, regional and international levels. At the risk of repeating ourselves, we will continue to warn against all misconceptions and the tendentious association of terrorism with a particular religion, civilization or geographical area. Equally, we need to agree upon an accurate definition of terrorism, so as not to affect national liberation struggles and the legitimate right of peoples to self-determination. Such a clarification should be provided as part of the draft global convention against terrorism, currently on the international agenda. Launching a genuine dialogue among cultures and civilizations will be helpful in fostering rapprochement and understanding among peoples, by combating prejudiced viewpoints and narrow-minded perceptions. Situations will still be tense wherever peoples are deprived of their rights, and denied freedom and dignity. This is the case in Palestine, where the Palestinian people are still denied the enjoyment of their right to exist, despite the universal recognition of their national rights today. The prevarication, delaying tactics and systematic repression used by Israel for decades to defer the settlement of the Palestinian problem, have now led to an explosive situation that seriously threatens regional and global peace and security. The international community should become involved in a more decisive manner to put an end to this spiralling situation, and firmly urge Israel to fully cooperate for a global, just and lasting solution which necessarily includes the establishment of an independent and fully sovereign Palestinian State, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital, and the withdrawal from the Lebanese and Syrian territories remaining under occupation. In this same sensitive region, the Iraqi people’s tragic predicament endures. We must emphasize the urgent need to help them establish their own independent institutions, to exercise unhindered control over their economy and natural resources and to maintain their unity and territorial integrity. In our opinion, only the United Nations can legitimately and effectively accompany the institution-building and reconstruction of the country, and its role in these processes is of paramount importance. In our immediate region, in Western Sahara, the people of this territory, 28 years after withdrawal of the former colonial Power, are still waiting for the right to exercise in freedom, and without constraint, their inalienable right to self determination in compliance with international legality. Algeria has consistently lent its support to the efforts of the Secretary-General and his personal envoy, as evidenced by its support of the Settlement Plan and the Huston Agreements, signed and accepted by the parties to the conflict, the Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front. By accepting the peace plan for self- determination of the people of Western Sahara, unanimously endorsed by the Security Council last July, and submitted by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Mr. James Baker, Algeria has once again shown its availability to fully contribute to the settlement of this conflict. This settlement must comply with the right of the people of the Western Sahara to decide, in sovereignty, on their destiny through a fair and free referendum of self- determination, to be organized and monitored by the United Nations. The challenges facing the world in the fields of peace, security and economic and social development are particularly acute in Africa. This continent has endeavoured over the last few years, with resolve and determination, to settle the conflicts affecting several of its regions, thus generating and encouraging a peace dynamic. In order to achieve its peace and developmental goals, Africa must, above all, rely on the support and enhancement of African endeavours. No doubt, however, it also needs increased international cooperation and support. The strategy of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) aims specifically at an optimal mobilization of both African and international resources, and the harmonization of these contributions through a partnership based on 14 mutual commitments and balanced interests and responsibilities. The G-8 countries and European Union member States, as well as other countries and organizations that are partners of Africa, have already taken steps to focus their Africa-related policies and programmes in support of NEPAD. Such a partnership should be intensified to help Africa, which is still lagging behind, to increase the pace of its development, to catch up in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, particularly that of reducing poverty to half its present level by the year 2015. Enhancing international cooperation is also an urgent task, in order to ensure the bases for sustained growth of the world economy, and actual integration of developing countries into the fields of production, technology and trade. Basically, there is a need to ensure the necessary conditions so that globalization will offer genuine opportunities for all. This implies promoting equitable rules of the game to advance trade, finance, investments and technology transfer. In this connection, we are concerned that the recent World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference, held in Cancún, did not manage to draw a framework for negotiations to revitalize the Doha meeting, which was already well behind schedule. We are still convinced that the reactivation of these negotiations and their successful completion, in conformity with the development agenda, holds to a large extent the key to the growth prospects of the world’s economy. It is therefore of critical importance to overcome the remaining difficulties on the basis of an approach that takes into account the interests and concerns of all parties, as well as the need to restore the multilateral trading system’s integrity, and effectively implement the special and differential treatment afforded to developing countries. Adequate international action is also required to address growing phenomena that are becoming more pronounced, such as speculative flows, money-laundering, financing of terrorism, illicit payments and bribery, as well as harmful practices in the field of corporate governance. This is needed to stimulate productive investment and ensure sustained long-term growth. It is therefore important to tap the huge investment opportunities available in the developing world, in particular, which eventually will benefit the world economy as a whole. Significantly increasing official development assistance and acting with greater resolve to find solutions to the problem of the external debt burden of developing countries, as well as improving access to world markets for the products of the countries of the South would all go a long way towards enhancing the investment climate in those countries and towards increasing their share of world trade, which remains the ultimate goal for achieving sustained financing for development. At stake is the establishment of a new international partnership based on the equitable sharing of responsibilities and benefits. To conclude, let me once again put on record our full confidence in our Organization, whose mission in favour of world peace and economic and social development for all peoples, remains more valid than ever. We shall therefore continue to call on all Member States without exception to contribute to enhancing the Organization’s authority and to provide it with the means necessary to fulfil its responsibilities.