Chile, 2011

I wish at the outset to congratulate Mr. Ban Ki-Moon

on his recent reappointment as Secretary-General, and

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you, Mr. President, on your election to preside over the

sixty-sixth session of the General Assembly.

In this meeting of the United Nations, a

multiplicity of countries and ethnicities, cultures and

languages, religions and creeds converges. All are

increasingly connected in this globalized world,

because over and above our legitimate differences, we

all live on the same planet, all breathe the same air and

are all warmed by the same sun. As inhabitants of

planet Earth, we share the same future. We share

similar challenges and opportunities. All of us have the

same desire for peace, freedom, justice and prosperity

for our peoples and nations.

I come before the Assembly to express, with

humble conviction, what my country has to say to the

international community. But I have also come to

listen, carefully and respectfully, to what other

countries have to say to our country. Chile is, and will

always be, proud to defend and promote dialogue as

the best mechanism for dealing with and settling

disputes. Chile profoundly believes that all nations,

cultures, traditions and creeds have something to teach

us. But we also believe that we all have something to

learn from others.

There is no doubt that we are facing a new

world — very different from the one we, or our

parents, have known and which emerged forcefully

during the past decades: a new world born of the

revolutions of knowledge, technology and information

that has created, and will continue to create, enormous

opportunities for material and spiritual progress for

billions of people throughout the world —

opportunities the world has never known.

It is also certain that this new world presents us

with new risks, challenges, threats and opportunities

that exceed any Government’s individual potential and

can only be addressed successfully through joint

action. For example, financial crises, in addition to

becoming more frequent each day, have increasing

regional and global implications that cannot be

ignored. The evils of modern society, such as terrorism,

drug trafficking and organized crime, have for a long

time ceased to heed borders, territories or jurisdictions.

Any attempt to deal effectively with global warming,

environmental protection, natural disasters, health

emergencies, hunger and extreme poverty will most

certainly require greater concerted and effective action

from the community of nations and international

bodies if we truly want to begin to change the course of

history.

Consequently, today it is urgent that we

reposition ourselves and reshape each international

organization, many of which emerged in a very

different world, during the post-war period. Today, as

we all know, they lack the ability to provide the

necessary effective responses to the realities,

challenges and opportunities of the present, as well as

those of the future that are beginning to emerge. There

is no doubt that we have achieved significant progress,

but we understand that it has been too slow and

insufficient. We cannot pretend to lead this new world

with old institutions. One day our children will ask us

how to face these challenges. In the end, these are our

challenges and we must deal with them now. If we do

not, then who will? If not now, then when?

While it is true that this revolution of knowledge,

technology and information is not the first revolution

the world has faced, all of us know that it is the most

far-reaching in magnitude and breadth, both in terms

challenges and the opportunities it has provided. But

like the revolutions of the past — of metals, agriculture

or the industrial revolution — this twenty-first century

revolution will be very generous vis-à-vis the countries

with the desire to embrace it enthusiastically. But the

revolution will continue to be indifferent, and even

cruel, to those countries that decide simply to ignore it

or let it pass by. It will therefore depend on us whether

it will become a factor for freedom, unity and progress

and a bridge to span the gap between developed

countries and emerging nations or, on the contrary, a

new factor of division and a new wall further

separating those countries in the world of opportunity

from those in the world of frustrations.

Certainly, the primary responsibility for rising up

to greet this revolution that is already knocking at our

doors lies with each country. But it is also a

responsibility for the international community. In the

case of the emerging countries, which include all those

in Latin America, including my country, Chile, this

signifies, in addition to a huge responsibility, a unique

opportunity to re-identify with our past. Most

important, it is an opportunity to meet up with our

future. It is clear that Latin America — now

celebrating 200 years of independence — has

everything it needs to overcome poverty and

underdevelopment. We have a large and fertile

territory, abundant natural resources, two closely

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related languages and, most important, peoples who

have demonstrated, with solidarity and vigour, their

ability to overcome any obstacle placed in our way by

nature or by Providence. We have not had wars such as

those experienced by Europe in the past century, or

ethnic or religious conflicts such as those affecting

other regions of the world.

Nevertheless, because we did not know how to

join the industrial revolution in time, our continent

remains underdeveloped, with more than one third of

its population living in conditions of poverty. However,

Latin America has learned the lesson and is today

becoming integrated with enormous conviction into

this new revolution of modern society, science,

technology, knowledge and information. This

integration will be successful only if we are able to

promote and expand what has been, and continues to

be, the inexhaustible source of progress for

humankind — freedom.

Freedom is an integral concept that cannot be

divided or compartmentalized. Freedom must be

expressed in all spheres of human life. In the political

sphere, it requires us to revitalize and deepen

democracy and the defence of human rights to the

farthest corner of the planet and at any moment in time.

In the economic sphere, this means fostering creativity,

entrepreneurship and innovation among human beings,

who are the only truly inexhaustible and renewable

resource we possess. We must demolish all of the

obstacles that are preventing many emerging nations

from fully integrating themselves into the newly

emerging world. In the social sphere, freedom means

promoting peace and helping States to become ever

more efficient and effective in the fight against poverty

and in the creation of real societies that provide equal

opportunities for all.

Chile has undoubtedly made, and will continue to

make, important contributions to each of those areas.

As well as strongly supporting the cause of democracy

and defending human rights in all countries of the

continent and of the world, where necessary, Chile has,

at the regional level, been a tireless and steadfast

advocate of improving the Inter-American Democratic

Charter and of finalizing a protocol on the preventive

protection of democracy within the Union of South

American Nations.

In addition, we continue to actively participate in

the negotiations on the reform of the Security Council

to increase its permanent and non-permanent members

in order to make it more representative of the realities

of the new world order. We have also supported the

reform of the Human Rights Council, to which Chile

was recently re-elected.

With regard to economic issues, Chile is a

country that has integrated into the world and has

concluded free trade agreements with more than 58

countries on all continents, representing more than

80 per cent of the world’s population. However, our

commitment to free trade does not stop there. We have

been strong supporters of the Doha Round of the World

Trade Organization so as to make progress, once and

for all after decades of stagnation, towards the

liberalization of world trade, because protectionism is a

poor response and is even worse when we face the

threatening crisis conditions that we are experiencing

today.

Moreover, with regard to the promotion of world

peace, Chile has recognized the Palestinian State, a

country that we hope to welcome to the Organization

very soon. We have resolutely supported all

international efforts to achieve a just, legitimate and

lasting settlement in the Middle East. Chile is firmly

convinced that the Palestinian people have the right to

a free, sovereign and democratic State and that the

State of Israel has the right to have recognized, secure

and respected borders. Only thus will Palestinians and

Israelis be able to coexist and move forward in peace

and harmony.

With regard to social development and the fight

against poverty, hunger and pandemics, we are

strengthening South-South cooperation. Such

cooperation is certainly triangular, but it neither

replaces nor substitutes the need for North-South

cooperation. We have set up and are implementing a

Chilean fund to combat hunger and poverty in Africa.

We have also made significant contributions to the

United Nations International Drug Purchase Facility in

order to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis,

which still wreak havoc in many parts of the world.

But we wish to go even further, and we are

implementing mechanisms that will enable us to

unilaterally reduce duties in order to promote our

imports from relatively less developed African

countries.

We were also very proud to strongly support

UN-Women, an entity headed by our compatriot

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Michelle Bachelet, whose principal goal is as strong

and as far-reaching as to ultimately ensure that, as

women and men, we have the same rights and the same

opportunities in this world, which belongs to us all.

However, in this new century and this new

knowledge and information society, as well as relying

on robust democracies, with open, competitive and

integrated economies, and effective States to combat

poverty and for greater equality of opportunity, we

must recognize that those are merely old pillars that are

necessary but completely inadequate today. As

emerging countries, we must commit to building new

development pillars. Those are investment in science

and technology; the promotion of innovation and

entrepreneurship; the building of more flexible

societies that can adapt to a world in which change is

the only constant; and, above all, making a huge effort

to improve our human capital, the education of our

young people and the training of our workers, as that is

surely the major source of wealth and primary resource

for leaving behind underdevelopment.

There is no doubt that we must win the race for

development and the battle for the future in the

classroom by giving each and every one of our children

quality education. We have said it many times:

education is the true mother of all battles.

Unfortunately, it is also the Achilles heel of many

emerging economies. In my country in recent weeks,

thousands of young people have taken to the streets to

demonstrate for a noble, great and fine cause, namely,

giving all children and young people quality education

that enables them all to be actors in, and not mere

spectators of, their own destiny and participation in

this knowledge and information society.

Our Government has shared, and consistently

shares, that goal. It is ready for the greatest reforms

and has committed the largest economic, human,

professional and technical resources in order to bring

about fundamental change in our education system that

seeks to substantially improve the quality of education

and to increase coverage, in particular in the education

of children from minorities and the most vulnerable so

that they participate in education soon, not when the

years have made it irreversible. We must also

substantially increase funding and access at all levels

of education in order to ensure something as simple as

quality education for all, free education for all those

who need it and adequate funding for all others in

order to realize the dream that no bright child or young

person remains excluded from higher education owing

to the socio-economic situation of their family or to

scarce resources.

We want to appeal to all Latin American

countries, in the context of the Community of Latin

American and Caribbean States, to establish a true

strategic partnership that will engage the heart and soul

of our Governments in that extensive reform of our

educational systems, which will be our greatest

possible contribution to the overall development of

people to enable them to utilize their talents to the full,

and to the growth of our economies, while enhancing

peace and strengthening our democracies.

That is why I would also like to mention what the

President of Bolivia said yesterday when he referred to

his country’s claim to obtain sovereign access to the

Pacific Ocean through Chilean territory (see

). In that regard, I wish to reiterate that

there are no territorial issues pending between Chile

and Bolivia. They were settled once and for all by the

Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1904, that is to say,

concluded more than 100 years ago now. That Treaty

was lawfully negotiated more than 20 years after the

end of the conflict between the two countries.

Moreover, the parties agreed to it; their Parliaments

ratified it; and, as Bolivia itself acknowledged, the

Treaty was the outcome of free and consensus-based

negotiation. Therefore, in accordance with

international law, both Chile and Bolivia are obliged to

respect and implement it in good faith.

Chile has fully implemented in a timely way each

and every clause of that 1904 Treaty of Peace and

Friendship. Furthermore, the facilities that Chile

granted exceeded the Treaty provisions, including

going far beyond those that the United Nations itself

established in the Convention on Transit Trade of

Land-Locked States. Our country has been, and always

will be, willing to engage in dialogue with Bolivia on

the basis of full respect for the treaties and

international law. We are sure that, through such

dialogue, we will have the best possibility of agreeing

with Bolivia concrete, feasible and useful solutions for

both countries.

All of us here have not only the right but the duty

to speak and act in defence of the interests of our

respective countries and peoples. However, we cannot

fail to note that, for that to be fruitful, requires that we

work on the many things that unite us rather than on

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what legitimately divides us. When all is said and

done, whether we like it or not, responding to the risks

and the storm clouds that we see looming on the

horizon — but also the challenges and the

opportunities that we are getting ready to confront, and

the responses and the solutions that together we shall

have to implement, will only be fruitful and efficient if

we do so with unity and goodwill. Some might believe

that, acting alone, they will be able to move forward

faster, but history will never cease to remind us that it

is only when we act with unity and goodwill that we

will be able to build on solid bedrock and not sand;

only that will allow each country — and the world as a

whole — to go far in fulfilling our tasks, achieving our

goals and overcoming our challenges.