Let me first welcome Tuvalu as a new Member of the United Nations. The current session of the General Assembly is an important landmark for the international community. We are still feeling the beat of the Millennium Summit. Our crucial task now is to seek specific ways to implement the provisions of its final Declaration. In his address to the Summit, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka of Belarus clearly defined an ultimate objective, as we see it, for shaping the image of the United Nations in the twenty-first century, which is to meet the needs and aspirations of our respective nations and seek practical opportunities for real improvement of the quality of life of every single individual. This is the imperative that reality has been dictating to us. It is also the main thrust of the Secretary-General's report (A/54/2000) “We, the peoples: the role of the United Nations in the twenty- first century”. Belarus holds in high respect the unique historic role played by the United Nations in international developments of the second half of the twentieth century. As can be seen from all the Organization's previous experience, a stable, just and prosperous world can only be attained on the basis of the sovereign equality of States, their territorial integrity and political independence, non-interference in their internal affairs 20 and respect for national traditions. Humanity has had to confront conflict and humanitarian stress every time those principles were disregarded. We believe that they will continue to be of similar importance in the next century. Just as was the case 55 years ago, there is hardly a more pressing task for the United Nations than the maintenance of international peace. All Member States have equal rights to peaceful and sustainable development. Thus the security of no State, whether small island country or super-Power, can be achieved through disrespect for the interests of others. The Republic of Belarus is committed to its choice of a nuclear-weapon-free world. We believe in the generosity and great meaning of the initiative by the head of our State to establish a nuclear-weapon-free space in Central and Eastern Europe. We are confident that in due time this idea will receive a sufficient number of proponents. During this session Belarus has deposited its instruments for ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and the additional Protocol to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, the Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons. At the same time, a continuing absence of visible consensus within the United Nations on the key issues of the international disarmament process is becoming a dismaying reality. To exit this dead end would essentially require setting priorities and embarking upon an active dialogue aimed at achieving progress in both nuclear and conventional disarmament. Five million victims over the past decade — is this not serious enough to make real action imperative? It is crucial to maintain and consolidate the strategic global parity built under the complex conditions of the twentieth century. In this regard, preservation of and respect for the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty is a logical basis for the maintenance of international stability. Its violation could result in an extremely dangerous disruption of the established set of interdependent agreements in this area. The Republic of Belarus will again sponsor the resolution on the ABM Treaty during this session. The time-span between the two most recent sessions of the General Assembly has been marked by the United Nations active involvement in the peaceful settlement of disputes, post-conflict peace-building and rehabilitation. We observe with satisfaction the actions taken by the Security Council, more resolutely and consistently than in the past, with respect to such complex situations as conflicts in Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia and Eritrea, Angola and East Timor. My country has been following with hope the developments in the Middle East. We believe that the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Southern Lebanon and the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks will favour the resolution of the crisis in the region. For over a quarter of a century attempts have been made to break a stalemate in the settlement of the Cyprus problem. It is crucial that the United Nations continue its work to resolve this crisis on the basis of the appropriate resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly. The development of specific preventive measures for the elimination of root causes of potential conflicts should be the focus of United Nations attention in the near future. It is important to make irreversible the growing trend in international efforts to define universal mechanisms and specify practical measures of conflict prevention and crisis management. The activities of the Panel of experts headed by Ambassador Brahimi, in addition to the upcoming Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, are an important contribution thereto. As the Secretary-General has rightly observed, the very credibility of the Organization as regards playing a decisive role in the war and peace process is at stake. In this respect, the Republic of Belarus has been and remains firmly committed to the preservation of the primary role played by the Security Council in decision-making on actions to avert threats to peace and security. Viewed from that perspective, further improvement in the working methods of the Council and reform of its membership on the basis of equitable geographic representation are not merely an important task, but a pressing imperative. Belarus reconfirms its determination to constructively contribute to the activities of the Council should my country be elected as a non- permanent member for the period 2002-2003. The tremendous benefits of globalization will be reduced to nothing unless there is a clear understanding of the dire need for the international community to learn a common language — that is, the language of 21 law. In recent years we have witnessed practical demonstrations of situations in which even the slightest deviation from internationally accepted norms would inevitably present an extreme danger not only for the violators themselves, but also for the entire international community. It is an encouraging fact that since its outset the United Nations has gained significant potential by accumulating all the far- reaching ideas, hopes and aspirations of humankind for building a better world. Implementing the norms of international law at the national level should become a priority for the United Nations and its partners. Today my country is a party to the United Nations most important conventions and treaties. The establishment of a legislative model based on the United Nations Charter and international treaties and conventions, complemented by national legislation, is the objective we must all strive for. The stability of the interdependent world is hardly attainable when the system of international politics is perceived solely as the domination of one State or interaction among separate groups of States. Differences in social and economic advancement will persist for a long time. Therefore, in a globalizing world the United Nations should play a more active role in promoting the economic development and social progress of all countries. Belarus supports a sharper focus in international efforts on the problems of the developing countries, particularly in Africa. We also deem it expedient to take into account the needs of countries with economies in transition, which would by no means soften the focus on the problems of the developing world. We see no contradiction in such an interlinkage, as appropriate goals and objectives to this end could only be formulated jointly with the United Nations. The Republic of Belarus shares the apprehensions expressed by many States over the environmental future of our planet. In this regard, we perceive as highly indicative the debates at the Millennium Summit and at the Summit meeting of the Security Council. Belarus has signed and ratified a number of important international agreements in the area of environmental protection, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity. Against this background, we continue to be acutely sensitive to the ever-diminishing interest by the international community in the Chernobyl disaster, the world's largest technological catastrophe of the past century, to which Belarus fell a major victim. In this regard, I should like to quote once more from the address by the President of our country at the Millennium Summit: “Without awareness of our joint responsibility for preserving the common human environment, all discussions of a fair distribution of the benefits and disadvantages of globalization will remain just shallow talk.” (A/55/PV.4) We are confident that the United Nations, which has so far contributed significantly to assisting our people in the relevant area, will be in a position to find new sources and mechanisms to help Belarus overcome the Chernobyl tragedy. The ideas of democracy and respect for human rights can certainly play a key role in continuous human development in the twenty-first century. Yet to make this goal attainable, it is essential to relinquish attempts to use those principles to discriminate among peoples and “punish” unwelcome States and Governments. Regrettably, we must note a certain involvement by the United Nations in efforts to establish a “club of countries of advanced democracy” on the basis of some random criteria. It is inadmissible that the idea of the forum of new and restored democracies approved within our Organization should lead to the separation of peoples into teachers and pupils. The principle standpoint of Belarus on this issue is the following: a truly democratic world can only be based on an equal dialogue among different civilizations. This year is of special significance to the development of democracy in my country. Parliamentary elections due in October will be held in full conformity with democratic standards. We have invited international observers to monitor the elections and look forward to seeing them carried out and contributing in real terms to democratic development in Belarus. Each session of the United Nations General Assembly is a milestone in the evolution of the United Nations itself and the development of the system of international politics as a whole. In that sense, the current session has been endowed with very special 22 powers. It is up to us all to determine how much the United Nations will be able to show that the hopes and aspirations of our nations at the dawn of the new century were justified. In the discharge of these noble duties, the international community can invariably count on a due contribution by the Republic of Belarus.