Moldova, 2000

Allow me

at the outset, Mr. President, to convey to you our

cordial congratulations and regards on your election as

President of the fifty-fifth session of the General

Assembly. I am convinced that your competence and

active cooperation with United Nations Member States

will pave the way for a successful and fruitful session.

I would also like to express sincere thanks to your

predecessor, Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, Minister for

Foreign Affairs of Namibia, for the effective manner in

which he guided the work of the previous session.

At the same time, I wish to commend Mr. Kofi

Annan, the Secretary-General, for his firm leadership

since taking office and for his visionary and action-

oriented report “We the peoples:”. This report, together

with the forward-looking Millennium Declaration,

adopted two weeks ago at the historic Millennium

Summit, sets an ambitious agenda for the United

Nations for the twenty-first century.

I would also like to convey our warmest welcome

to Tuvalu, the newest Member of the United Nations.

As we enter the new millennium, the prospects

for the international community's evolution are marked

by justified hopes, generated by the significant changes

that occurred in the international arena during the last

decade, yet also by hesitation and sometimes by

scepticism regarding our capacity to efficiently face

today's worldwide challenges. The Millennium Summit

offered a unique opportunity to reflect on the global

problems that confront the world today and to identify

and act on the challenges ahead. It reaffirmed the

centrality of the world Organization in addressing the

global, social, security and economic needs for the

benefit of people. We have ahead of us a real challenge

to reshape the United Nations so that it can realize its

universal goals of peace, human security, cooperation,

poverty eradication and sustainable development. From

this perspective, the Republic of Moldova attaches the

utmost importance to the implementation of the

commitments inscribed in the United Nations

Millennium Declaration.

Though the international community, and in

particular international organizations, makes systematic

efforts aimed at resolving conflicts, we should

recognize that these efforts sometimes fall short of

reaching their proposed goals. Currently, on the

European continent alone, we are witnessing a number

of unresolved conflicts and potentially crisis-

generating situations.

Democratic transformations and economic

development in some South-Eastern European

countries, including the Republic of Moldova, are also

jeopardized by unresolved internal conflicts. In the past

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eight years we have made sustained efforts to settle the

conflict in the eastern region of the country, in full

compliance with the principles of international law and

international practice. The mechanism of settlement,

involving the Organization for Security and

Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the mediating

States, Russia and Ukraine, has been established.

Moldova is oriented towards a complete settlement of

the conflict, respecting the principle of the sovereignty

and territorial integrity of my country, and at the same

time granting to the region autonomous status. Despite

the reasonable compromises proposed by the

constitutional authorities, separatist tendencies still

persist. It is an apparent peace, which distracts the

attention of the international community from the

imperatives of finding ways to settle the conflict and

simultaneously impedes economic and democratic

reforms.

The situation becomes more difficult if the fact

that the region is over-militarized is taken into account.

Tens of thousands of tons of munitions, armaments and

equipment, sometimes accounted for and sometimes

not, that are limited under the Treaty on Conventional

Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), are deployed in the

region. An early, complete and unconditional

withdrawal of foreign troops, munitions and

armaments, as stipulated in the OSCE Istanbul Summit

documents, and as required by the CFE Treaty, would

undoubtedly facilitate the peaceful and complete

settlement of this conflict. I express our hope that,

together with our partners, and assisted by the relevant

international organizations, we will be able to ensure

the implementation of the schedule for the withdrawal

of foreign troops from the territory of Moldova. I

would like to take this opportunity to express our

gratitude for the political and financial support granted

by a number of States in order to facilitate the process

of withdrawal and the destruction of the armaments.

Although some of the so-called frozen conflicts,

at least in our region, do not appear to be getting

worse, there is a growing sense of frustration that the

solution is not yet within our reach. It is therefore

imperative to enhance political awareness regarding

unresolved or potential conflicts, with a view to

actively involving the United Nations and relevant

regional organizations in their settlement.

It is well known that the settlement of an ongoing

conflict requires incomparably greater political,

financial and moral efforts than are needed at the stage

of preventing conflict. It has become obvious that

United Nations mechanisms and strategies for dealing

with threats to stability are inadequate. They need to be

strengthened, not only to resolve conflicts and conflict

situations, but, more important, to prevent them. From

this perspective, the Republic of Moldova fully

supports the Secretary-General's efforts to direct the

United Nations strategy towards conflict prevention.

We welcome the Brahimi report on peacekeeping

operations. In our view the implementation of its

recommendations will significantly consolidate the

capacity of the United Nations in conflict prevention,

peacekeeping and peace-building.

Member States should provide the Organization

with the necessary support to enhance the rapid

deployment capabilities of the United Nations through

the involvement of the United Nations standby

arrangements system. Given this context, I would like

to inform the Assembly that Moldova has already

established the legal and institutional framework for its

future participation in peacekeeping operations and the

United Nations standby arrangements system.

Disarmament and non-proliferation are essential

elements of the security architecture. The Republic of

Moldova, like many other countries, considers that we

should continue our efforts to achieve disarmament and

non-proliferation, with universal ratification of the

major multilateral disarmament instruments and

negotiations on biological weapons, ballistic missiles

and small arms. In particular, we should reaffirm the

role of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty as the

cornerstone of international peace, security and

strategic stability. The Republic of Moldova attaches

the utmost importance also to the issue of small and

light weapons, primarily to the effort to create effective

international mechanisms for the prevention of their

illegal transfer, especially in areas of conflict. In this

respect, we are prepared to bring our contribution to

the preparation of the international conference on illicit

trafficking in small arms and light weapons in all its

aspects, to be held next summer.

My country highly appreciates the proposals of

the Secretary-General on the issues of development and

poverty eradication as reflected in the millennium

report and in the report on the work of the Organization

submitted to the fifty-fifth session of the General

Assembly.

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In conditions of globalization, which has

generated profound transformations in the global

economy, this issue becomes even more important,

particularly for less developed States and for States

with economies in transition. A United Nations system

better adapted to the necessities of economic

development should pay more attention to the

harmonization of commercial policies, cooperation in

the technological field, and the monetary policies of

member States and international institutions.

In these efforts, the United Nations should enlist

the support of governmental economic and financial

institutions, the private sector and non-governmental

organizations, thus promoting a partnership with a view

to development. A redefinition of the cooperation

framework and international help is needed, which

should involve new strategies and investment policies.

My country favours the elaboration of strategies of and

measures for globalization management, and also

favours the holding of a special session of the General

Assembly regarding globalization and a United Nations

conference on the less developed countries next year.

In order to reach sustainable development

focused on the human being, there is a need to improve

the partnership among developing and developed

countries, international institutions and civil society.

We consider that the United Nations, as a framework

for international cooperation, should play a key role in

supporting and coordinating national efforts. Within

the framework of the United Nations development

programmes and funds, the United Nations

Development Programme (UNDP) plays a special role

in human sustainable development. United Nations

assistance provided through UNDP has contributed to

strengthening the legal and institutional framework

necessary for the continuation of countries' reforms.

Currently, the framework for cooperation between

the Republic of Moldova and the United Nations

Development Programme embraces approximately 40

projects in the fields of governing and democracy,

environmental protection and regeneration, the

protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms,

the promotion of women, poverty reduction and

eradication, economic and social strategies, and human

sustainable development. I would also like to mention

the important role of the United Nations Economic

Commission for Europe. By promoting the

dissemination and implementation of the instruments

of the Commission, we would ensure the adjustment of

economies in transition to international and European

standards. Thus, the projects implemented by the

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

would contribute directly to the integration of these

economies into the world economy.

The Republic of Moldova supports the activity of

these institutions. We consider, however, that their

financial resources should be increased and the

management of resources should be more efficient. We

welcome the actions undertaken by the UNDP

Administrator, reflected in the Administrator's business

plans, and those of the Executive Secretary of the

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe,

meant to enhance the efficiency of the activities and

resource management of these important institutions.

We consider that the establishment of strong positions

regarding development policies, through an

understanding of the characteristic conditions and

specific needs of countries, would contribute

significantly to the Organization's reaching its goals in

this domain.

The reform of the Security Council lies at the

heart of the general reform of the United Nations. It

should be guided by the principles of equitable

geographic representation, democracy, effectiveness,

efficiency and transparency. It is on this foundation

that we can modernize the composition of the Security

Council and bring it into line with the substantial

increase in the general membership of the United

Nations since 1963, the year of the only previous

reform of the Council. The Republic of Moldova

pronounces itself in favour of a moderate enlargement

of the Council's composition and of a reasonable

increase in the number of permanent and non-

permanent members which would correspond to the

principle of fair geographical distribution and ensure

an adequate balance between the industrialized and

developing countries.

Our country also welcomes the process of

revitalization and improvement of the General

Assembly's efficiency and, at the same time, supports

the idea of restoring the central role of the Assembly as

the debating and main representative body of the

United Nations. We consider that it is necessary to

continue the efforts to consolidate the coordinating

functions of the Economic and Social Council

regarding United Nations funds and programmes.

Under existing conditions it is clear that United

Nations reform will continue successfully only if the

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financial problems affecting the Organization's

activities are solved. We support the proposals aimed at

the reform of the United Nations scales of assessments,

including the peacekeeping scale, taking into

consideration the payment capacity of each State.

Despite the difficulties it faces, my country makes

every effort to reduce its United Nations budget

arrears.

The evolution of the situation in the international

arena in the past 55 years calls for imposes a new

vision and a redefinition of the concrete mechanisms

for realizing the fundamental objectives of the

Organization, which spring essentially from the

founding philosophy of the Charter of the United

Nations. In this respect, the Organization should draw

conclusions from its own past and, relying on

permanent support from States, should accomplish new

tasks from the perspective of adapting to the

imperatives of time. We express our hope that the

United Nations, which remains indispensable for the

international community in the twenty-first century,

will be able to impose a positive direction on this

evolution.