First of all,
allow me to take this important opportunity to
congratulate Mr. Ali Treki on his election to preside
over the General Assembly at its sixty-fourth session. I
would like to assure him of the unconditional support
of the Republic of Angola in fulfilling his important
mission. The delegation of Angola is absolutely
positive that under his auspicious leadership, the sixty-
fourth session will reaffirm the importance of the
General Assembly in the search for consensual
solutions to the burning issues affecting humanity,
thereby greatly contributing to creating an increasingly
safe, free and fair world.
I would also like to express my delegation’s deep
appreciation to Mr. Treki’s predecessor, Mr. Miguel
d’Escoto Brockmann, for the high degree of efficiency
and vast expertise with which he conducted the work
of the presidency.
Guided by the most elementary sense of justice,
on behalf of the Republic of Angola, I express my
deepest appreciation to the Secretary-General, Mr. Ban
Ki-moon, for the excellence with which he has
managed to consolidate reforms and ensure the
fulfilment of the decisions of the Millennium Summit
and other major United Nations conferences, as well as
for the commitment that he has consistently shown in
placing the needs and development of Africa at the
centre of the international agenda. I would also like to
praise the Secretary-General for his timely initiative to
convene the high-level meeting on climate change.
The Assembly’s sixty-fourth session is taking
place in a political, social and economic context of
enormous complexity. Ensuring international peace and
security, fighting poverty, protecting the environment,
ensuring a better future for generations to come,
ensuring the rule of law in relations among the
members of the international community and
promoting and safeguarding human rights — all of
these issues are clearly among the major challenges
confronting us. Combating organized crime and the
implementation of the Anti-Terrorism Strategy are also
factors of extreme importance that require the steady
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attention of the United Nations as it calls for more
effective measures and a greater commitment from the
international community.
These challenges must be added to the list of
others to which our Organization must also devote
great attention, especially the lack of decisions on
disarmament, the persistence of armed conflicts and
the consequences of these conflicts for the lives of
people, and finally, the issue on the agenda for all
Member States — the reform of the Security Council
of the United Nations.
We live in a more globalized world, one that is
increasingly characterized by substantial economic and
social inequality. Hunger and poverty, aggravated by
the fact that they are linked to endemic diseases such
as malaria and tuberculosis, cause millions of deaths
every year and in Africa are devastating an entire
generation, dramatically jeopardizing the development
and progress of our continent. It is therefore urgent that
we reverse this situation, which is consuming our
people, putting men and women at the mercy of
inducements that inevitably lead to violence and crime
and, to some extent, are the cause of some of the
serious problems that humanity currently faces.
Food security thus seems to be one of the main
concerns of the African continent, due to its importance
to health, productivity, social and political stability and
economic growth. Angola believes that it is possible to
substantially reduce the food security deficit in Africa
if the international community comes together around
the following fundamental issues.
First, reserves of food and medicines for
emergency aid and for people in need should be
maintained. Secondly, national and regional integrated
strategies and programmes in agriculture, trade,
transport, water and vocational training — which can
be implemented with the support and experience of the
Food and Agriculture Organization, the International
Fund for Agricultural Development and other United
Nations specialized agencies — should be adopted.
Action plans within the framework of regional
initiatives are also extremely important and can
contribute to reducing food shortages and combating
disease. Among other initiatives, I would like to
highlight the New Partnership for Africa’s
Development, the 2004 Ouagadougou Declaration and
Plan of Action on employment and the eradication of
extreme poverty, the Maputo Declaration proposing the
allocation of 10 per cent of public expenditure to
agriculture and rural development, the Sirte
Declaration on agriculture and water, the Abuja
Resolution on food safety, and the Abuja and Maputo
Declarations on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and
other related diseases.
The economic and financial crisis, though of
exogenous origin, has also been seriously affecting the
growth of African economies, due, among other
reasons, to the reduction in asset values and financial
assets held abroad, and mainly due to a marked
decrease in the price of raw materials that are exported
by countries on the continent. Rather than finding
interim solutions in order to overcome immediate
problems, the entire current economic and financial
system should be reviewed. We need to identify ways
of restructuring the world so that it serves the interests
of all peoples and countries from a global perspective.
My Government welcomes the initiatives that,
though insufficient, have been taken in the context of
trade liberalization, and we support the idea of
reforming the regulatory institutions of the financial
and economic world. We also call for greater fluidity
and transparency in the transfer of capital to less
developed countries.
Similarly, Angola welcomes the various multilateral
initiatives, emphasizing the Forum on China-Africa
Cooperation, the Africa-South America Conference, the
Tokyo International Conference on African Development,
the Africa-Europe summit, the India-Africa Forum, the
South Korea-Africa summit, and, more recently, the
Turkey-Africa summit. The Angolan Government
considers that all of these initiatives are of fundamental
importance for the development of the least developed
countries, which include most countries in Africa, and
Angola in particular.
The Secretary-General presented an important
report to the high-level meeting on Africa’s
development needs (A/63/130), particularly on the
implementation of commitments made by partners of
the African continent, which took place on the margins
of the Assembly’s sixty-third session. Angola shares
the relevant concerns raised by the Secretary-General
in that report, especially the references to the
importance and urgency of moving from mere
expressions of political will to concrete actions, with a
comprehensive and vigorous pursuit of the goals
envisaged.
33 09-52604
The Secretary-General gave conclusive examples:
a reduction of aid levels and commitments;
cancellation of the foreign debt of African countries,
which is taking a long time to materialize; and the
negative effects arising from the failure to complete the
World Trade Organization round of negotiations, which
will result in fewer opportunities for the African
continent. Angola shares all those concerns. As we
conclude from all the eloquent statements by the
speakers before me, there are no magic solutions or
one-size-fits-all models to enable the least developed
countries to find easy and immediate answers to
development overnight.
As the President is certainly aware, economic
growth in Angola has been quite encouraging. The
invitation to my country to participate in the summit of
the Group of Eight, held in L’Aquila, Italy, on 10 July —
which greatly honoured the Angolan Government and
people — was unquestionable proof of the international
community’s recognition that Angola is on the right path
towards promoting sustainable development. Between
2004 and 2007, the national economy accumulated
growth of 92.4 per cent in real terms. In barely four
years, the value of the gross domestic product almost
doubled, with an average annual real growth of
approximately 17.8 per cent. In that same period, the
country saw a sharp rise in the level of public and
private investments, which generated a large number of
jobs, in particular in the agricultural sector.
Angola is firmly committed to achieving
universal education, as demonstrated by the fact that
we have tripled the number of students in our
education system. In 2005, as a result of the
investments that the Government directed towards the
social sector, Angola moved up five positions in the
United Nations human development index ranking.
And the country is committed to efforts towards
achieving the eight Millennium Development Goals. In
the area of sports, Angola recently won its tenth
African basketball championship, and next January it
will host the African Cup of Nations, having built the
necessary infrastructure for that significant event for
our continent.
Those major accomplishments, achieved in such a
short time, fill all Angolans with pride and strengthen
their confidence in the future. However, such
achievements are possible only in peace and social
harmony and when States themselves take on the
primary responsibility for the development, progress
and well-being of their populations.
Despite the progress already made in Africa in
the areas of good governance and the
institutionalization of the organs of the African Union,
as well as in growth and economic and social
development, we must be aware of the difficulties and
the long way still to go. I am referring, for example, to
the burning issue of promoting peace and security,
essential conditions for the development and promotion
of human rights.
In that regard, it is important to add that it is
essential that the Security Council continue to fund
operations for peace and security in Africa and to
support the efforts of African States to combat drug
trafficking, the illicit arms trade, piracy and terrorism.
In addition, I believe it important to emphasize that the
strategy of conflict prevention and resolution, in
particular the mandates of peacekeeping missions,
cannot be separate from measures to combat organized
and transnational crime and the relationship between
the illegal exploitation of natural resources and the
illegal trade in small arms. Moreover, the conflict
prevention and resolution strategy should be
complemented by measures to combat the financing of
terrorists, another major challenge facing the entire
international community.
Speaking for a country that has chaired the
United Nations Peacebuilding Commission, I am
particularly pleased to note the progress in the peace
processes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The
inclusion of Guinea-Bissau on the agenda of the
Peacebuilding Commission is also very important. In
that regard, without false modesty I stress here the role
played by Angola, not only in the negotiations that led
to the holding of free and fair elections in that country,
but also in consolidating peace and political, economic
and social stability of that brother country.
The active participation of Angola in resolving
the conflicts that have plagued several countries in
various regions of Africa has clearly raised the
expectations of the entire international community, in
particular the Secretary-General of the United Nations
and the Chairman of the African Union Commission.
Allow me to reaffirm my Government’s commitment to
continuing to work within the African Union and the
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United Nations in the search for lasting solutions for
peacebuilding and national reconciliation.
It is fitting to refer here to another issue of utmost
importance that is a consequence of armed conflict.
That is the humanitarian situation — the maintenance
and protection of refugee camps and identifying
durable solutions for the millions of refugees whose
rights must be protected and respected.
The United Nations is unquestionably the
principal forum of multilateralism, and its credibility
should constantly and increasingly be enhanced by the
adoption of effective, creative and practical measures.
Thus, the Government of Angola welcomes the new
format and functions of the Economic and Social
Council, especially the Annual Ministerial Review and
the Development Cooperation Forum. Among the
reforms that have already taken place, the
establishment of the Peacebuilding Commission and of
the Human Rights Council should also be highlighted.
My country’s Government, despite welcoming the
progress in the evolution and functioning of the United
Nations system, cannot help note that the United
Nations was created a long time ago — over half a
century ago — at a particular time in the international
community’s history that we all hope will never
reoccur.
The world today is substantially different. The
industrial, economic and social development of a large
number of countries has narrowed the gap between the
most developed countries and the least developed
countries. Communications have advanced; technology
has progressed; transport is much more sophisticated;
and Internet surfing occurs throughout the world.
Given this new reality, the Government of Angola
believes that the structure of the Organization, which
brings together people from around the world, cannot
remain indifferent to those developments and should,
therefore, adapt to the modern world.
Specifically, the Government of Angola considers
that the fact that the reform of the Security Council,
particularly aspects related to its composition and the
democratization of its decision-making mechanism, has
not evolved since 2005 suggests that this is a situation
that must be corrected with urgency.
In that context, my Government hopes that the
process of ongoing negotiations within the General
Assembly will be conclusive.
Furthermore, the Government of Angola attaches
great importance to the effort led by the United Nations
to implement the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of
Nuclear Weapons, and disarmament in general, and
recognizes that it deserves the utmost attention of all
its Members.
Angola also believes that the United Nations
should strengthen its monitoring of the implementation
of its Programme of Action on Small Arms and develop
initiatives to promote the universalization of the
Ottawa Convention on Landmines.
At the end of my statement, I would like to avail
myself of this golden opportunity to launch an appeal
for the lifting of the economic, trade and financial
embargo on Cuba. It is fair and imperative to abolish
that embargo, because it violates the principles of
international law, in particular Articles 1 and 2 of the
United Nations Charter.
Angola is fully convinced that the United Nations
will not refrain from once again taking a clear and fair
position on that embargo, a position that is also
consistent with the principles of the Charter.
Finally, I would like to reiterate my conviction
that with effort and determination, our Organization
will be in a position to correct asymmetries and
provide solutions to problems that still exist in the
international community in order to build a world that
is more fair, stable, and secure and able to provide
current and future generations with a standard of living
consistent with human dignity.