Moldova

Allow me at the outset, Mr. President, to convey to you our cordial congratulations and regards on your election as President of the fifty-fifth session of the General Assembly. I am convinced that your competence and active cooperation with United Nations Member States will pave the way for a successful and fruitful session. I would also like to express sincere thanks to your predecessor, Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Namibia, for the effective manner in which he guided the work of the previous session. At the same time, I wish to commend Mr. Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General, for his firm leadership since taking office and for his visionary and action- oriented report “We the peoples:”. This report, together with the forward-looking Millennium Declaration, adopted two weeks ago at the historic Millennium Summit, sets an ambitious agenda for the United Nations for the twenty-first century. I would also like to convey our warmest welcome to Tuvalu, the newest Member of the United Nations. As we enter the new millennium, the prospects for the international community's evolution are marked by justified hopes, generated by the significant changes that occurred in the international arena during the last decade, yet also by hesitation and sometimes by scepticism regarding our capacity to efficiently face today's worldwide challenges. The Millennium Summit offered a unique opportunity to reflect on the global problems that confront the world today and to identify and act on the challenges ahead. It reaffirmed the centrality of the world Organization in addressing the global, social, security and economic needs for the benefit of people. We have ahead of us a real challenge to reshape the United Nations so that it can realize its universal goals of peace, human security, cooperation, poverty eradication and sustainable development. From this perspective, the Republic of Moldova attaches the utmost importance to the implementation of the commitments inscribed in the United Nations Millennium Declaration. Though the international community, and in particular international organizations, makes systematic efforts aimed at resolving conflicts, we should recognize that these efforts sometimes fall short of reaching their proposed goals. Currently, on the European continent alone, we are witnessing a number of unresolved conflicts and potentially crisis- generating situations. Democratic transformations and economic development in some South-Eastern European countries, including the Republic of Moldova, are also jeopardized by unresolved internal conflicts. In the past 2 eight years we have made sustained efforts to settle the conflict in the eastern region of the country, in full compliance with the principles of international law and international practice. The mechanism of settlement, involving the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the mediating States, Russia and Ukraine, has been established. Moldova is oriented towards a complete settlement of the conflict, respecting the principle of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of my country, and at the same time granting to the region autonomous status. Despite the reasonable compromises proposed by the constitutional authorities, separatist tendencies still persist. It is an apparent peace, which distracts the attention of the international community from the imperatives of finding ways to settle the conflict and simultaneously impedes economic and democratic reforms. The situation becomes more difficult if the fact that the region is over-militarized is taken into account. Tens of thousands of tons of munitions, armaments and equipment, sometimes accounted for and sometimes not, that are limited under the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), are deployed in the region. An early, complete and unconditional withdrawal of foreign troops, munitions and armaments, as stipulated in the OSCE Istanbul Summit documents, and as required by the CFE Treaty, would undoubtedly facilitate the peaceful and complete settlement of this conflict. I express our hope that, together with our partners, and assisted by the relevant international organizations, we will be able to ensure the implementation of the schedule for the withdrawal of foreign troops from the territory of Moldova. I would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude for the political and financial support granted by a number of States in order to facilitate the process of withdrawal and the destruction of the armaments. Although some of the so-called frozen conflicts, at least in our region, do not appear to be getting worse, there is a growing sense of frustration that the solution is not yet within our reach. It is therefore imperative to enhance political awareness regarding unresolved or potential conflicts, with a view to actively involving the United Nations and relevant regional organizations in their settlement. It is well known that the settlement of an ongoing conflict requires incomparably greater political, financial and moral efforts than are needed at the stage of preventing conflict. It has become obvious that United Nations mechanisms and strategies for dealing with threats to stability are inadequate. They need to be strengthened, not only to resolve conflicts and conflict situations, but, more important, to prevent them. From this perspective, the Republic of Moldova fully supports the Secretary-General's efforts to direct the United Nations strategy towards conflict prevention. We welcome the Brahimi report on peacekeeping operations. In our view the implementation of its recommendations will significantly consolidate the capacity of the United Nations in conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peace-building. Member States should provide the Organization with the necessary support to enhance the rapid deployment capabilities of the United Nations through the involvement of the United Nations standby arrangements system. Given this context, I would like to inform the Assembly that Moldova has already established the legal and institutional framework for its future participation in peacekeeping operations and the United Nations standby arrangements system. Disarmament and non-proliferation are essential elements of the security architecture. The Republic of Moldova, like many other countries, considers that we should continue our efforts to achieve disarmament and non-proliferation, with universal ratification of the major multilateral disarmament instruments and negotiations on biological weapons, ballistic missiles and small arms. In particular, we should reaffirm the role of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty as the cornerstone of international peace, security and strategic stability. The Republic of Moldova attaches the utmost importance also to the issue of small and light weapons, primarily to the effort to create effective international mechanisms for the prevention of their illegal transfer, especially in areas of conflict. In this respect, we are prepared to bring our contribution to the preparation of the international conference on illicit trafficking in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects, to be held next summer. My country highly appreciates the proposals of the Secretary-General on the issues of development and poverty eradication as reflected in the millennium report and in the report on the work of the Organization submitted to the fifty-fifth session of the General Assembly. 3 In conditions of globalization, which has generated profound transformations in the global economy, this issue becomes even more important, particularly for less developed States and for States with economies in transition. A United Nations system better adapted to the necessities of economic development should pay more attention to the harmonization of commercial policies, cooperation in the technological field, and the monetary policies of member States and international institutions. In these efforts, the United Nations should enlist the support of governmental economic and financial institutions, the private sector and non-governmental organizations, thus promoting a partnership with a view to development. A redefinition of the cooperation framework and international help is needed, which should involve new strategies and investment policies. My country favours the elaboration of strategies of and measures for globalization management, and also favours the holding of a special session of the General Assembly regarding globalization and a United Nations conference on the less developed countries next year. In order to reach sustainable development focused on the human being, there is a need to improve the partnership among developing and developed countries, international institutions and civil society. We consider that the United Nations, as a framework for international cooperation, should play a key role in supporting and coordinating national efforts. Within the framework of the United Nations development programmes and funds, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) plays a special role in human sustainable development. United Nations assistance provided through UNDP has contributed to strengthening the legal and institutional framework necessary for the continuation of countries' reforms. Currently, the framework for cooperation between the Republic of Moldova and the United Nations Development Programme embraces approximately 40 projects in the fields of governing and democracy, environmental protection and regeneration, the protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms, the promotion of women, poverty reduction and eradication, economic and social strategies, and human sustainable development. I would also like to mention the important role of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. By promoting the dissemination and implementation of the instruments of the Commission, we would ensure the adjustment of economies in transition to international and European standards. Thus, the projects implemented by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe would contribute directly to the integration of these economies into the world economy. The Republic of Moldova supports the activity of these institutions. We consider, however, that their financial resources should be increased and the management of resources should be more efficient. We welcome the actions undertaken by the UNDP Administrator, reflected in the Administrator's business plans, and those of the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, meant to enhance the efficiency of the activities and resource management of these important institutions. We consider that the establishment of strong positions regarding development policies, through an understanding of the characteristic conditions and specific needs of countries, would contribute significantly to the Organization's reaching its goals in this domain. The reform of the Security Council lies at the heart of the general reform of the United Nations. It should be guided by the principles of equitable geographic representation, democracy, effectiveness, efficiency and transparency. It is on this foundation that we can modernize the composition of the Security Council and bring it into line with the substantial increase in the general membership of the United Nations since 1963, the year of the only previous reform of the Council. The Republic of Moldova pronounces itself in favour of a moderate enlargement of the Council's composition and of a reasonable increase in the number of permanent and non- permanent members which would correspond to the principle of fair geographical distribution and ensure an adequate balance between the industrialized and developing countries. Our country also welcomes the process of revitalization and improvement of the General Assembly's efficiency and, at the same time, supports the idea of restoring the central role of the Assembly as the debating and main representative body of the United Nations. We consider that it is necessary to continue the efforts to consolidate the coordinating functions of the Economic and Social Council regarding United Nations funds and programmes. Under existing conditions it is clear that United Nations reform will continue successfully only if the 4 financial problems affecting the Organization's activities are solved. We support the proposals aimed at the reform of the United Nations scales of assessments, including the peacekeeping scale, taking into consideration the payment capacity of each State. Despite the difficulties it faces, my country makes every effort to reduce its United Nations budget arrears. The evolution of the situation in the international arena in the past 55 years calls for imposes a new vision and a redefinition of the concrete mechanisms for realizing the fundamental objectives of the Organization, which spring essentially from the founding philosophy of the Charter of the United Nations. In this respect, the Organization should draw conclusions from its own past and, relying on permanent support from States, should accomplish new tasks from the perspective of adapting to the imperatives of time. We express our hope that the United Nations, which remains indispensable for the international community in the twenty-first century, will be able to impose a positive direction on this evolution.