Angola, 2009

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.