Azerbaijan, 2000

Mr.

President, allow me first of all to congratulate you

sincerely on your election to the presidency of the

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fifty-fifth session of the General Assembly and to

express my confidence that under your skilful

leadership the Assembly will cope successfully with all

the issues before it.

I would also like to commend the President of the

previous session, Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, on his

remarkable contribution to the success of the fifty-

fourth session as well as to the preparations for the

Millennium Summit.

I would like to take this opportunity to

congratulate a new Member of our Organization,

Tuvalu, and to wish it a successful start in the work of

the current session.

Two weeks ago, we all witnessed a unique

historic event: the Millennium Summit of the United

Nations, in which about 150 Heads of State or

Government took part. Remarkable ideas and proposals

were voiced and a Summit Declaration was adopted.

The time that we have to fulfil the commitments made

by our leaders at the Millennium Summit has already

begun to elapse.

The twentieth century is coming to an end.

Humankind will recall this century as an epoch of

outstanding contrasts: scientific-technological and

spiritual-intellectual progress, the bloodshed of two

world wars, the collapse of empires, the emergence of

new sovereign States, the cold war and collective

efforts for the sake of peace and stability. What will the

world be like in the approaching century?

The end of the confrontation of two systems and

the prevalence of ideas about democracy and the free

market should contribute to the formation of a world in

which the interests of all States are taken into account

and a genuine and equal partnership is established.

However, an analysis of the development of the

international environment leads us to the bitter

conclusion that stereotypes of rivalry are still alive. We

are living through a very difficult period, when a single

wrong step could destabilize the situation and,

tragically, lead to a return to the past. We have a long

way to go to build a just and secure world order. It can

be achieved only by the joint efforts of all States, large

and small, rich and poor, developed and developing.

The year 2001 has been declared the United

Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations. We are

convinced that we should not let this opportunity slip

by, and should use this dialogue to consider together

the prospects for resolving the complex problems

facing humankind.

The year 2001 will also stand out because of

another remarkable event: the special session of the

General Assembly to review the outcome of the World

Summit for Children, which will be held next

September. I believe that I do not need to underline its

significance. As a member of the Executive Board of

the United Nations Children's Fund, my country is

actively participating in the preparations for this

important event.

The fact that both of these events are being held

at the juncture of two millenniums is highly symbolic

and should contribute to the achievement of a

qualitatively new level of interaction among States

aimed at global progress.

Globalization is the main feature of the current

stage of the development of the world economy. It is a

complex and objective process. Countries are

concerned about the prospects of this phenomenon.

While opening up new possibilities for developing

economies, ensuring sustainable development and

improving the welfare of peoples, globalization could

also have tangible negative consequences for States

with economies in transition and for developing

countries.

In this regard, I would like to underline that the

United Nations must make fuller use of its capacities,

as well as those of its specialized agencies, to assist

States in anticipating and ensuring the early prevention

of the possible negative consequences of globalization

and the increasing interdependency of States. The

United Nations is called upon to continue to play a key

and effective role in strengthening international

economic cooperation and advising States on all major

issues of global development.

Azerbaijan is making its own contribution to the

development of the process of globalization. Located at

the point where Europe and Asia meet, with a

diversified economy and rich in natural resources,

including hydrocarbons, my country serves as an

effective link in the development of East-West and

North-South cooperation. Azerbaijan is actively

participating in projects for the development and

transportation to international markets of the

hydrocarbon resources of the Caspian Sea, as well as in

the project to restore the Great Silk Road, all of which

are of global importance.

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Azerbaijan, together with a number of the Great

Silk Road countries, is currently working on a new

landmark project, SILKSAT, to provide the countries of

the Great Silk Road with a global satellite

telecommunications system, in addition to existing

communication lines. These projects are crucial to

enhancing trade and industrial ties among the

participating countries, developing their economies and

making them interactive and strengthening their

integration into the global world economy.

However, external threats, internal problems,

outside pressures and involvement in the struggle for

spheres of influence are depriving these young and

fragile democracies of the opportunity freely to carry

out policies that would respond to the interests and

expectations of their people, to strengthen and improve

their statehood and to engage in peaceful development.

Since their very inception, they have been forced to

fight a difficult battle for independence, sovereignty

and territorial integrity.

As the victims of aggression, seizure of their

territory, “ethnic cleansing”, aggressive separatism and

terrorism, these States rightly expect the United

Nations to take the most effective action to create a just

and secure world and to protect the principles of the

United Nations Charter. Unfortunately, the southern

Caucasus has become a region where all of these

problems, threats and risks have their explicit

manifestation.

The main destabilizing factor of the situation in

the southern Caucasus has been the aggression of

Armenia against Azerbaijan, which has brought

incalculable tragedy to millions of people. As a result

of the aggression, Armenian armed forces have

occupied 20 per cent of the territory of Azerbaijan,

carried out “ethnic cleansing” and ousted 1 million

Azerbaijanis from their homes. In this connection, the

United Nations Security Council adopted four

resolutions which unequivocally reconfirmed the

sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of the

borders of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and called for

the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of

Armenian armed forces from all of the occupied

territories of Azerbaijan. However, from 1993 to date,

those Security Council resolutions have remained a

dead letter.

Since 1992, the Organization for Security and

Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has been engaged in

brokering a settlement of the conflict between Armenia

and Azerbaijan, but its activities have not been

successful. Bilateral discussions between the Presidents

of Azerbaijan and Armenia are continuing, but they,

too, have failed to produce results. The two countries

have observed a ceasefire for the last six years, but it is

not a solution to the problem.

We call on the United Nations to take all

necessary measures to implement the Security Council

resolutions. Peace and security in the region cannot be

achieved without a settlement of the conflict between

Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as other regional

conflicts, and the removal of external pressure,

including foreign military presence. Bringing political

integrity and neutrality to the southern Caucasus would

make possible the establishment of a normal

relationship among the States of the region and ensure

their harmonious integration into the world economic

system.

We would like to express our gratitude to the

organizations of the United Nations system and to

donor countries for their assistance to Azerbaijani

refugees and displaced persons, who have been living

in great distress for over eight years. Of critical

importance to us is the continuation of and increase in

the humanitarian assistance being provided to them

until they can return to their homes.

The United Nations is the key forum for

coordinating inter-State relations. The need to make

significant efforts to enhance the Organization's

effectiveness is not in doubt. In recent years, under the

leadership of the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, a

serious evaluation of the resources and capacities of the

United Nations, as well as of the Organization's

activities in the post-cold-war decade, has been made.

We had never before heard such self-criticism as that

expressed in the reports on tragedies in Srebrenica,

Bosnia and Herzegovina and Rwanda. In this general

context, we commend and support the Secretary-

General's efforts to reform the United Nations.

The United Nations bears great responsibility for

the fate of the world, and we place our hopes in it.

Serious and rational reforms should increase the

effectiveness of the Organization and, first and

foremost, of the Security Council. Given the Council's

special significance, the question of adopting reform

decisions by two thirds of the Member States has been

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affirmed by a consensus resolution of the General

Assembly. Azerbaijan fully supports such an approach.

We also believe that the representation of the

States of Asia, Africa and Latin America in the

Security Council should be in keeping with modern

political realities. We have already expressed, and

today we reconfirm, our support for the election of

Germany and Japan as permanent members of the

Security Council. At the same time, I would like to

point out that one additional non-permanent seat should

be allocated to the Group of Eastern European States

because of the unprecedented doubling in the

membership of the Group. Otherwise, each country of

the Eastern European Group could only be elected a

non-permanent member of the Council once every 38

years.

We have studied with great interest the Brahimi

report on strengthening United Nations peacekeeping

capacities. We would not like the ideas and

recommendations contained in that remarkable report

to remain a dead letter.

We also hope that the International Criminal

Court will become an effective organ to bring to

justice, on behalf of the international community, those

who have committed war crimes, genocide, crimes

against humanity and the crime of aggression. Should

the Court become hostage to the interests of various

groups of States and to the practice of double standards

rather than being guided by international legal norms

equal for all, perpetrators will go unpunished.

Azerbaijan is interested in taking an active part in

combating international terrorism, organized crime and

illegal drug trafficking. The fight against those

problems, which are growing in scale, can be effective

only with the concerted efforts of all countries at both

the regional and the global levels.

In this connection, I would like to draw attention

to a proposal made by the group of States that includes

Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova

(GUUAM) on the establishment of an international

anti-terrorism centre.

Speaking of GUUAM in a wider context, I would

like to stress that the meeting of the GUUAM heads of

State during the Millennium Summit could be

characterized as a landmark in the history of the group.

The New York memorandum adopted at the meeting

confirms the orientation of the GUUAM States towards

further developing mutually beneficial and

multifaceted cooperation in various spheres.

There is yet another urgent issue whose resolution

cannot be postponed. I am speaking of the difficult

financial situation of our Organization that has arisen

as a result of delays by Member States in making their

contributions to the regular and peacekeeping budgets.

Member States should fulfil their financial obligations

to the Organization in full, on time and without any

conditions.

At the same time, our delegation believes that the

time has come to reconsider the current scale of

assessments for both the regular and the peacekeeping

budgets. We are ready to cooperate constructively with

other delegations on this matter. We believe that the

principle of a State's capacity to pay should be the

basis for the future reform of the scale of assessments.

Our Organization is designed to play a leading

role in overcoming obstacles to global peace and

progress. I would like to underscore our collective

responsibility for peace and security on our planet, and

to express my confidence that the results of the

Millennium Summit and the entire fifty-fifth session of

the General Assembly will become a reliable basis for

achieving a more stable and peaceful twenty-first

century.