While acknowledging the unique and irreplaceable role
played by the United Nations in international affairs,
one still has to recognize the need to reform this
institution according to present-day realities. Let me
briefly dwell upon our vision of these reforms.
It is necessary to significantly increase the
efficiency of the United Nations management, which
must set itself realistic and feasible objectives and
rapidly respond to challenges and threats. The reform
of the Organization must reflect the principles of
sovereign equality and non-interference in internal
affairs and strengthen the equal cooperation between
States. It must be based upon the principles of broad
international consensus.
The General Assembly needs to concentrate on
designing constructive ways of addressing the
problems of regional and global security, which affect
the interests of the majority of the Member States.
Much attention should be given to questions of post-
conflict rehabilitation and combating terrorism. The
United Nations should assume a coordinating role in
these spheres using the support of all Member States.
Such an approach will contribute to strengthening the
Organization’s ability to meet contemporary
challenges.
Security Council reform must ensure the fair
geographical and regional representation of both
developed and developing States whose authority has
been acknowledged by the international community
and who play an important role in addressing the main
tasks facing the Organization today.
The international community is about to make a
decision on an important issue — the election of the
new Secretary-General. Considering the principle of
rotation and the increasing political weight and
economic significance of the Asian countries, the
Republic of Uzbekistan fully supports the view that a
representative from the Asian group should assume that
post. We support the candidature of the Minister
forForeign Affairs and Trade of South Korea, Mr. Ban
Ki-moon.
The international community places its hopes on
the newly established Human Rights Council, which is
called upon to improve the work of the United Nations
in the field of human rights. It is important not to allow
the Council to be used as a tool for promoting the
interests of certain countries to the detriment of others.
Only by stopping the practice of double standards,
politicization and confrontation can we turn that body
into the forum for equal and open dialogue, enjoying
the trust of all Member States. The work of that United
Nations body must be guided by objective and
unbiased assessment of human rights issues. It must
assist in elaborating constructive solutions to all
problems that arise, instead of being used for political
purposes.
The fundamental changes in today’s world are
accompanied by the emergence of new challenges and
threats. At present, terrorism, extremism and drug
aggression pose a great danger to the sustainable
development of States and peoples of the world.
The principal approaches of the Republic of
Uzbekistan towards addressing these and other
problems of security include the following points.
Uzbekistan firmly supports the United Nations
Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (resolution 60/288),
15 06-53341
adopted by the General Assembly on 8 September
2006. Terrorism is not acceptable in any of its forms
and manifestations. The fight against terrorism can be
effective and efficient only by eliminating its causes,
the first of which is the ideological and extremist
centres that finance and direct the forces of
international terrorism. We must also design common
approaches to assessing this, the most dangerous
phenomenon of today’s world.
A universal convention on international terrorism
could become an effective basis for joint counteraction
against the threat of terrorism. This instrument must be
of a non-discriminatory nature, exclude the policy of
double standards and call upon States for concerted
action in countering the ideologies of extremism.
Maintenance of regional and global security is
not possible without establishing comprehensive peace
and stability in Afghanistan. One way to resolve the
Afghan problem and restore a peaceful and neutral
Afghanistan is effective and real progress in
implementing concrete projects, funded by the
international community, in the social, economic and
humanitarian spheres — those spheres that can affect
attitudes among the long-suffering people of
Afghanistan.
A fundamental strategy review and more efficient
coordination are required in combating one of the most
dangerous problems: drug production and drug
trafficking.
Uzbekistan, as an initiator of a nuclear-weapon-
free zone in the region, together with its neighbours, is
doing everything possible to strengthen the global
nuclear non-proliferation regime. On 8 September 2006
in Semipalatinsk, the Central Asia Nuclear-Weapon-
Free Zone Treat was signed. That initiative, put
forward by the President of the Republic of
Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, is a concrete contribution
of the States in the region to strengthening the global
non-proliferation process and also to creating a solid
system of regional security. Uzbekistan calls upon
nuclear powers to accede to the protocol on security
guarantees annexed to the Central Asia Nuclear-
Weapon-Free Zone Treaty as soon as possible. I wish
to take this opportunity to express gratitude to the
United Nations for its assistance in realizing this
initiative.
Mr. Sow (Guinea), Vice-President, took the Chair.
In closing, I express my sincere hope that the
results of the work of the General Assembly at its
sixty-first session will contribute to the successful
realization of the joint efforts of the Member States in
the struggle against threats and challenges to global
security and to furthering the peaceful development of
peoples.