On behalf of His Majesty and the people
of Brunei Darussalam, I would like to congratulate our
new President, His Excellency Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz
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Al-Nasser. These are not only personal congratulations.
We also congratulate his country, Qatar, our fellow
Member of the United Nations. We greatly appreciate
its significant efforts to promote dialogue, consultation
and mediation in many difficult situations, both in its
own region and far beyond. Thus we thank the
President, as its representative, and warmly welcome
him to the General Assembly as the representative of
us all.
We would also like to express our appreciation to
his predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Joseph Deiss. His
term of office saw another impressive contribution by
the United Nations to meeting the great international
challenges Members face in the first decade of this new
century.
Some of that work began right here, in this
building, with our efforts to reform the Security
Council and revitalize the General Assembly. Other
efforts addressed our world at large and the
confrontation between essential economic growth and
critical environmental realities that it faces. Still others
were aimed directly at the people we represent. Those
efforts addressed their health and food security;
considered their personal and legal status, whether at
home or as members of immigrant communities; and
examined the systems of governance under which they
live.
This is a fine record, and we thank the outgoing
President for his leadership. He was greatly assisted in
his work by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. We offer
the Secretary-General our very best wishes for the
coming year. We welcome his reappointment and join
fellow Members in thanking his staff and the United
Nations volunteer workers, peacekeepers and agencies
for all of their efforts in many extremely difficult
situations.
It is a tribute to their work that one of the
longest-running and most complex situations of all has
been resolved this year. As a result, we add our own
words of welcome to the Government and the people of
South Sudan as a new Member of the United Nations.
We also commend all parties involved in the process of
dialogue, negotiation and final resolution. At the same
time, it is our deepest wish that these same sentiments
may soon be expressed to the parties directly involved
in efforts to reach a fair and equitable two-State
solution to the situation in Palestine.
The President of the Assembly has asked us to
consider the role of mediation in the settlement of
disputes by peaceful means. In doing so, we follow the
direction given by His Majesty the Sultan in his
address to the General Assembly in 1984, when we had
the honour of becoming a Member of this great
Organization. In outline, it committed us to mutual
respect for territorial integrity and the principles of
dialogue and negotiation in disputes, no matter how
long or how frustrating the process may be.
We still adhere to that principle. We give
whatever practical assistance we can, whenever asked.
We do so directly, through peacekeeping and
monitoring efforts, and indirectly, through financial
contributions made bilaterally and to relevant United
Nations and regional bodies. In these ways, we seek to
follow the commitments made in our first General
Assembly debate.
Nevertheless, we increasingly recognize that
those commitments were made over a quarter of a
century ago. Twenty-five years is a common definition
of a generation in human terms, which means that a
new generation is now moving into positions of
authority. Behind it, a further generation is now
coming of age. It has no personal memory of the global
situation that shaped international policy in the Cold
War era. Although both generations are naturally still
influenced by those times and the leaders who brought
them to this point, they are also new generations, for
whom the new century shapes world affairs.
In our statement to the General Assembly three
years ago (see A/63/PV.10), we outlined our approach
to this by broadly setting out what are now regarded as
the challenges of this new century. Some involve
security in all of its forms — political, physical and
economic. Others address the natural environment and
the effects of climate change. Still others raise
questions about sustainable development and many
challenges arise from the concept of good governance,
both nationally and in world organizations such as the
World Trade Organization, the International Monetary
Fund, the Group of Twenty and even the United
Nations itself. We have given our full support to the
great institutions of which we are members and will
continue to do so.
But our Government has emphasized one thing
throughout this year in all international gatherings we
have been privileged to attend. It is not a change in our
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overall approach; it represents a particular focus. It
means that more and more we are trying to identify the
challenges in basic human terms, because we feel that
such a focus relates directly to the wise theme the
President proposed for this debate.
We acknowledge with deep respect that
successful mediation has always been a cherished
objective of the United Nations, and we strongly
support that ideal. At the same time, however, we
maintain that no mediation can be successful unless the
parties involved share common ground.
What concerns us is that the dynamics of the
twenty-first century have the potential to exclude many
from this common ground. It will become the exclusive
territory of great unseen globalized forces, whether in
the market, the workplace or in the world of great
decision-making forums. That development could be so
divisive as to destroy any common ground.
We believe such common ground will only be
created by ordinary people, as individuals and in their
families and communities, who feel that they are
indeed occupying that common ground. For them,
political security lies in the principles of diplomacy
among all nations, especially respect for each other’s
traditions, values, beliefs and ways of life. Physical
security means the rule of law. Economic security is
food on the table, a job and the best possible support
for health, education and old age.
In all these efforts, we have felt well guided by
the United Nations, above all through the
encouragement it provides towards achieving the
Millennium Development Goals and the confidence in
the future that they give to all people. That, we believe,
will lead us towards the common ground we are trying
to discover. It will be reached when it is shared among
the most powerful of industrialized nations and the
smallest of threatened island communities. The search
for common ground is the immense task of both
present and future generations. We believe that only
when it is concluded can mediation successfully
perform the role suggested in the President’s theme.