Belarus, 2002

I

congratulate you, Sir, on your election to the

presidency of this session of the General Assembly. I

believe your extensive diplomatic experience will

continue the successful and useful work done by your

predecessor, Mr. Han Seung-soo.

Belarus welcomes the further expansion of the

community of nations. We welcome the Swiss

Confederation to the United Nations membership. We

believe that the new Member State and the United

Nations will be good partners and will contribute to

peace and progress in the world.

The last session of the General Assembly was a

landmark for all of us. Last year the world changed

dramatically. The challenges of globalization have

turned out to be more serious than they seemed to all of

us when leaders of the Member States adopted the

Millennium Declaration.

The tragic events of 11 September 2001 were a

serious test of the stability of the United Nations and

our commitment to the principles and objectives of the

Charter. We bow our heads in memory of the victims of

the terrorist attacks. The American tragedy must never

be allowed to be repeated anywhere in the world. The

President of the Republic of Belarus, Alyaksandr

Lukashenka, wrote in a letter dated 11 September 2002,

to President George Bush of the United States:

Today we still bear in our hearts the memory of

the innocent people who perished in New York,

Washington and Pennsylvania on that dreadful

morning of 11 September 2001 ... Early in the

twenty-first century the world perceived the grave

reality of new challenges and threats. We also

came to understand that the evil of international

terrorism can be eradicated only through joint

concerted efforts.'

Today, we have every reason to state that the

world community has managed to confront the threat of

global terrorism by creating a broad international

coalition. The measures taken by the United Nations in

response to the unprecedented acts of international

terrorism mark a new and significant direction in the

Organization's activities.

Belarus considers itself an integral part of the

anti-terrorism coalition. We fully support the Counter-

Terrorism Committee and have been actively involved

with it in the context of unconditional implementation

of Security Council resolutions. We also believe the

Counter-Terrorism Committee provides a fruitful

exchange of experience in the area of combating

terrorism that involves the Member States,

international organizations and regional institutions.

The President, Government and Security Council

of the Republic of Belarus have been focusing on ways

to combat terrorism. In January 2002, we adopted a law

to combat terrorism, which has entered into force. Our

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country is a party to 9 of the 12 major multilateral

international treaties on combating terrorism. We are

now working on accession to the three other treaties.

The outcome of the groundbreaking work of the

Counter-Terrorism Committee will serve as a basis for

setting up a universal model for counter-terrorism

legislation and for its implementation.

The Republic of Belarus will contribute to

elaborating a comprehensive convention on combating

international terrorism and acts of nuclear terrorism.

Work on those two instruments should be the focus of

the Secretary-General's attention, since international

terrorism today has challenged two Powers, two

permanent members of the Security Council: the

United States and Russia. It has also challenged the

entire international community. We have accepted that

challenge; our response is clear. We, the United

Nations, will eliminate terrorism.

The focus of attention at the last session was

people and their needs in a global world; we agree with

that approach. The Millennium Declaration is our guide

as we work on those issues. We considered possible

options for implementing the Millennium Declaration

at two recent important international forums the

International Conference on Financing for

Development at Monterrey and the World Summit on

Sustainable Development at Johannesburg. Those two

forums marked a transition between identifying

common goals and actually implementing them. The

main task facing this session is to draw conclusions

with regard to that work and determine the specific

actions to be taken in order to implement the

agreements. Our delegation is ready to act together

with other Member States to this end.

My Government attaches paramount importance

to integrating environmental and social aspects into our

national strategy for sustainable development.

Belarus agrees with the analysis made at the

Johannesburg Summit of what has been done to

achieve sustainable development over the past decade

and how we can tackle global issues in the twenty-first

century.

Our country is entering the new millennium as an

important geopolitical element in a modern Europe. We

have a stable economic and social infrastructure and

the highest human development index among the

countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Belarus seeks constructive interaction and mutually

beneficial partnership with our neighbouring countries

in the interest of building a united Europe. The

prospect of sustainable development in Europe cannot

be realized without a stable Belarus acting as a reliable

Eurasian bridge. On that basis, our President and

Government have been determining the role that

Belarus will play in the implementation of the

decisions of the World Summit on Sustainable

Development.

The conferences at Monterrey and Johannesburg

showed the importance of taking into account the

interests of countries with transitional economies in

structuring a stable world for the twenty-first century.

Over the past decade, our countries have come a long

way in transitioning to the market economy and

integrating fully into international trade, economic and

financial systems. But the States in that group are at

different stages of macroeconomic and financial

stability and sustained economic growth because of the

particular characteristics of their individual situations

owing to internal and external factors.

Therefore, it is important to continue

international efforts to make market reforms

irreversible in the countries with transitional

economies. We must also take account of and try to

mitigate the social consequences and ensure that our

countries are fully integrated into the world economy.

Belarus looks forward to a fruitful discussion of the

draft, which we will be introducing at this session of

the General Assembly.

Sustainable development in Belarus relates

directly to dealing with the consequences of the

Chernobyl disaster, the largest radiation disaster of the

past century. Economic damage in Belarus is estimated

at $US 235 billion. We have invested $US 13 billion in

restoring the social and economic sectors of that

region. The health of the affected population is still a

serious concern. At the same time, Chernobyl-related

issues have been losing the attention of the

international community, leaving Belarus to face the

consequences alone. Belarus has urged a shift in focus

of international Chernobyl-related cooperation away

from humanitarian assistance to socio-economic

rehabilitation and sustainable development in the

affected regions.

We welcome the active role played by the United

Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian

Affairs, Mr. Kenzo Oshima, who personally visited the

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affected regions earlier this year. We are grateful to

Secretary-General Kofi Annan for supporting Mr.

Oshima in this endeavour. We welcome the work of

some members of the United Nations Inter-Agency

Task Force on Chernobyl, who seek to set up an

International Chernobyl Research Board to study the

long-term consequences of radiation effects on human

beings and the environment in Belarus.

Belarus supports United Nations partnership with

non-governmental organizations and the private sector.

We believe this can help to mobilize additional

resources for our purposes. However, voluntary

initiatives should supplement intergovernmental

agreements, not replace them.

Peace, security and stability are prerequisites to

sustainable development. But this past year has shown

that international peace and security are still fragile.

We witnessed a sharp escalation of confrontation in the

Middle East. This region could become the centre of a

dangerous collision between civilizations.

The Middle East Quartet, with the participation of

the United Nations, the European Union, the Russian

Federation and the United States, inspires some

optimism from the standpoint of the understanding

reached by all participants in the peace process that

two independent states Israel and Palestine have

to coexist. This understanding is enshrined in legally

binding documents of the United Nations. Gradually

taking steps to mutual reconciliation through

continuous dialogue between the parties involved will

help, and the United Nations must be active here.

There is no alternative to the peace process in

Afghanistan. Significant financial, material and human

resources have already been allocated to Afghanistan to

help to create a new Afghanistan, a stable and

predictable partner in modern international relations.

Belarus wishes to make its contribution. Our State

Aviation Committee has participated in transporting

humanitarian supplies from Europe to Afghanistan.

We believe the establishment of the African

Union was a landmark step for Africa. This major

regional association, with support from the

international community, will hasten a solution to

African problems, particularly ethnic and religious

conflict. Belarus will help to approve projects and

programmes for economic and humanitarian

development in Africa through the United Nations.

This year was marked by important agreements

on strategic stability. Belarus welcomes the signing in

Moscow of the Treaty on Strategic Offensive

Reductions between the Russian Federation and the

United States. We support constructive dialogue

between the nuclear States in order to create a

genuinely safe multi-polar world.

International efforts for the entry into force of the

Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) must

continue. A new impetus must be given to the

Conference on Disarmament. More work must be done

on reducing conventional weapons.

Belarus has contributed to setting up the new

security architecture from Vancouver to Vladivostok by

depositing our ratification instruments for the Open

Skies Treaty in November 2001.

At this session, we will be proposing a draft

resolution entitled Prohibition of the development and

manufacture of new types of weapons of mass

destruction and new systems of such weapons'. We

trust it will be unanimously supported, as it was last

year in the General Assembly.

Belarus believes the Security Council must play a

key role in maintaining international peace and

security, including the situation of Iraq. Belarus

welcomes the recent decision by the Government of

Iraq to allow for the immediate and unconditional

return of United Nations weapons inspectors to Iraq.

Any action or attempt to evade the authority of

the United Nations Security Council, or any non-

fulfilment by States of decisions by the Council, will

undermine the legal basis of the existing system of

international relations and jeopardize the basis of the

international legal order.

Reform of the United Nations is essential to

successfully accomplish its tasks. As a founding

member, Belarus has always advocated strengthening

the role of the United Nations. In an era of

globalization, only an institutionally strong

Organization will be capable of making a genuinely

effective contribution to coordinating member States'

efforts to attain the noble goals enshrined in the

Charter.

Although there has not been much progress in the

Working Group on Security Council reform and on

increasing the Council's membership, Belarus

welcomes the progress made in improving its working

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methods by increasing transparency and having more

open meetings and briefings. Reform of the General

Assembly is also speeding up, and informal

consultations should serve as a basis for effective work

at this session.

We have been monitoring the work of the

Economic and Social Council, and we welcome

internal reforms there. We support more interaction

between the Economic and Social Council, the Security

Council and the General Assembly. We welcome the

coordinating role of the Council as set forth in the

Charter and the Millennium Declaration.

As we look at what we have done and what

remains to be done, we inevitably reach the conclusion

that there is little time for thought due to the speed at

which the world is changing today; therefore, we

believe that the only key to success is to purposefully

move forward to solve specific tasks. Belarus will work

together with other member States to that end.