Brunei, 2002

Mr. President, I extend my congratulations to you and

to the people of the Czech Republic on your election. I

offer my very best wishes in all your work during the

coming session.

I would also like to thank my colleague, His

Excellency Mr. Han Seung-soo of the Republic of

Korea, our regional neighbour, for his leadership of the

General Assembly over the past year.

Also, may I congratulate the Government and the

people of the Swiss Confederation on their decision to

join the United Nations. They have long given very

distinguished support to the institutions of world peace,

and it will be good to work with them here.

At the same time, I would like to welcome the

coming membership of our neighbour, the Democratic

Republic of East Timor. In doing so I would like to thank

all the members of the United Nations Transitional

Administration in East Timor. We are very grateful for

their fine work there. I assure you that we will be doing

our best to consolidate those United Nations efforts for

peace in our region. It has been a pleasure working

with President Gusmão and his new Government. As

they plan their future development, we look forward to

continuing this work, not only bilaterally as friends and

neighbours, but also through the long-standing process

of consultation and cooperation we have established

within our regional association.

I mention this aspect of our regional work for a

specific reason. It is the main point I wish to make at

this time. The process I refer to has been at the heart of

the work of the Association of South-East Asian

Nations (ASEAN) since its founding well over 30 years

ago. It is not confined to our neighbours in South-East

Asia. It also involves dialogue partners from all over

the world as well as all the permanent members of the

Security Council. It now covers the whole spectrum of

cooperation: political, economic, functional and, since

the end of the cold war, all aspects of security

cooperation. In other words, it is a comprehensive

approach to modern regional and international affairs.

It comprises many layers of cooperation bound

together by one institution, the United Nations. An

enormous amount of work has gone into it. That is why

we place equally enormous value on it. We believe it

offers a secure way forward for every citizen we

represent.

I make this point for reasons that deeply concern

every one of our colleagues here. In the past year we

have been made brutally aware of one terrible fact. The

whole process of consultation and cooperation is now

threatened. The opportunities it presents to our people

are profoundly at risk. Like our fellow Members of this

Organization, we have had to accept a grim reality.

There is a dark side to the international life we share

today: to globalization, to development, to progress, to

knowledge and even to the beliefs we cherish, whether

they be religious, political or social.

We have been taken to this dark side. It is a

pitiless, bleak and miserable landscape. There is no

path through it along which nation-States can safely

proceed. It is, in that sense, a terrifying vision. In

South-East Asia we have responded to it as such. We

have deeply mourned the innocent victims of terrorism

in America, Africa, Europe and Asia. We have

condemned all who took those lives.

We are, however, trying to move beyond

condemnation. We have taken many immediate and

practical short-term measures. We have committed

ourselves to long-term action. We have had to do this.

Without security and stability, there is little chance for us

to implement the far-reaching programme of development

we have set for ourselves. So, in no way can we permit

those who engage in any form of terrorism to succeed.

By this, I mean any group that tries to drag our

affairs across to their dark side: not just extremists, no

matter what cause they claim to represent, but also

those who seek to corrupt international systems of

trade, commerce, and banking or who wilfully destroy

our environment or who trade in human misery. They

stand in the way of the deepest interests of the people

we represent here, the people for whom the United

Nations is the direct opposite of the dark vision of the

terrorist. It offers them a totally different side of world

affairs: one that rejoices in the diversity of peoples,

cultures and beliefs; one that at all times seeks the

consensus that comes out of dialogue and negotiation;

and one where informed direction is given to the great

changes that are sweeping through all societies — in other

words, the bright side of international affairs lit by a

beacon of hope. That is how we see this Organization.

We want our regional efforts to help fuel this

beacon. We want them to complement the work of the

United Nations.

So, put simply, we see only one permanent

agenda item here: How can the world body give hope

and purpose to the lives of every family in every

community in each of its 190 Member nations?

That is why we strongly support the efforts being

made by the Secretary-General to express our purpose

in that way, not in the language of confrontation that

was heard throughout the last century or in the

appalling vocabulary of terrorism, but in the human

terms offered at the Millennium Summit.

In short, our hopes include an end to historical

injustices, especially those which our brothers in

Palestine continue to suffer, and a determined effort to

help communities earn a good living in a responsible

manner. Those were the basic hopes I believe we all

had at the turn of the century. We do not wish to see

them set aside. So we appeal to all our fellow Members

to make sure they are not forgotten. We urge everyone

to use the mechanisms we have here to that end.

Whenever there are grave threats to international

peace, we are confident that the members of the

Security Council will guide us well. We acknowledge

the vital role they have in ensuring that international

principles are upheld by every Member. In this, they

have our full support, and we will contribute to their

work in whatever way we can.

But the Council is still only one part of the work

of the United Nations. There are many other tasks:

above all, the peaceful work that binds all our layers of

cooperation together.

We do not wish to see the Organization's

attention directed solely towards the dark side of

international life. Building a secure framework for

international cooperation involves a long, consistent

and comprehensive process. Like any process, it has to

be constantly refined. We accept this. We do not feel,

however, that the events of the past year mean that it has

to be abandoned and redesigned. In saying this, I believe

we share the deepest hopes of all developing nations.