North Macedonia, 2003

I am greatly honoured to

address this distinguished gathering of the world's

leaders at the United Nations, a truly unique global

organization that is deeply engaged in the promotion of

human values and international peace and stability.

I would like to thank Mr. Jan Kavan for his

important contribution in the past year as President of

the General Assembly at its fifty-seventh session and to

congratulate Mr. Julian Robert Hunte on his election to

the post of President of the General Assembly at the

fifty-eighth session. I wish him every success in

executing that function of great responsibility.

On behalf of all citizens of the Republic of

Macedonia, I would like to pay special tribute to the

United Nations and Secretary-General Kofi Annan,

who delivered an indeed inspiring speech yesterday, for

their relentless dedication and efforts in pursuing the

righteous causes of protecting human rights and

freedoms and safeguarding prosperity and security in

the world.

We certainly remember a great person, Mr. Sergio

Vieira de Mello, who paid the highest price for

pursuing the noble role of the United Nations in Iraq.

We fully support the goals of the international

community in Iraq: the achievement of a free and

sovereign Iraq governed by the people of Iraq for the

people of Iraq. However, that sovereignty must be

based on democracy, freedom and peaceful existence

with its neighbours. To achieve those goals as quickly

as possible, the United Nations must play a more

comprehensive and active role in the transition back to

Iraqi sovereignty. I would also like to take this

occasion to express our satisfaction with the work

carried out by the coalition forces in helping the Iraqi

people to rebuild their country after the decades of

disasters of Saddam Hussein's despotic regime.

Reforming the United Nations, particularly the

Security Council, and revitalizing the General

Assembly are of crucial importance to us all. My

Government firmly believes in the need to pursue those

goals in a consistent and more efficient way.

The Republic of Macedonia strongly believes the

United Nations involvement in various parts of the

world will essentially improve the responses of

democratically oriented Governments and reform-

minded people and will add to the overall level of

legitimacy of their actions. It is obvious that we need to

offer more vocal support to multilateralism when

dealing with the substantial issues on the international

agenda to which we are fully committed: the

eradication of poverty, the fight against the scourge of

HIV/AIDS around the world, conflict prevention and

the protection of the environment, among others.

The World Summit on the Information Society, to

be held in Geneva this year and in Tunis 2005, along

with two other summits held last year on financing for

development in Monterrey, Mexico, and sustainable

development in Johannesburg, can be regarded, in the

context of globalization and the overall development

process, as landmarks of a new approach in dealing

with the challenges of today's world. Within the

aforementioned framework, it is essential fully to

implement the Millennium Declaration as a key

document for peace, security, sustainable development

and prosperity.

The most serious contemporary threat to

humanity is identified and visible. It is the evil of

terrorism. The fight against terrorism has been and

must remain our highest priority. In this regard, it

would be immensely helpful to make a commitment to

reaching a consensus in relation to the remaining

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disputed points in the process of drafting conventions

on international and nuclear terrorism.

Facing the challenge of the year 2001, we found a

way out by signing the Framework Agreement that

brought vital democratic processes back to our

institutions and re-established and reaffirmed

democratic procedures for addressing internal problems

of any kind. Today, I am very proud to say that I come

here in the same mood I was in three years ago when I

took part in the Millennium Summit full of

optimism and truly convinced that, after the hard work

had been done, strategic issues of our future had been

solved, once and for all, upon a broad political, social

and interethnic consensus. Progress towards a real and

authentic integration of all ethnic communities in the

State structures is significant and has roots in our

centuries-old model and tradition of multiculturalism

and inter-ethnic coexistence.

In order to contribute in a constructive way to

creating a more positive picture of the region and

productive cooperation among nations, the Republic of

Macedonia launched numerous regional initiatives in

the context of integration into the North Atlantic Treaty

Organization and the European Union. In parallel,

while pursuing very ambitious reform agendas, we

achieved an internal consensus about our foreign policy

priorities and realized that we will most successfully

leave behind the poor legacies of our unfortunate past

by promoting new substantial links among the people

who live in South-East Europe.

A month ago in Ohrid, we held a very successful

regional forum on dialogue among civilizations,

attended by numerous heads of State, other leaders and

scholars from all over the world, who spoke very

openly about the importance of having cultural

interchange as a permanent basis for the promotion of

continuous dialogue and cohabitation among peoples

and States. In the message adopted at the forum, all

participants agreed that a thorough and continuous

commitment would be needed by all to genuinely

transform our region and to defuse once and for all this

powder keg of Europe.

The Republic of Macedonia has built solid

cooperation with the United Nations Interim

Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and

developed a network of activities aimed at easing

communications and at liberalizing the movement of

people from both sides of the border. The Republic of

Macedonia welcomes the appointment of Harri Holkeri

as the new Special Representative of the Secretary-

General and gives him its full support. We are fully

supportive of the implementation of Security Council

resolution 1244 (1999) and the political position

declared by UNMIK calling for the fulfilment of the

standards of democracy and the application of the rule

of law before the onset of negotiations over the final

status of Kosovo. We express our deep concern over

the recent upsurge of inter-ethnic violence in Kosovo,

which only undermines the efforts of the international

community and the Kosovar people to fulfil the set

standards.

In the Balkans, we are seeing collaboration and

mutual respect emerging even between yesterday's

enemies and opposing factions. We are witnessing the

gradual but steady reconciliation of the nations. Last

but not least, important regional initiatives for free

trade, trade facilitation and building infrastructure are

connecting businesses and binding people in a

productive way, which helps to raise awareness of our

common future.

My country, the Republic of Macedonia, is an

indivisible part of these joint regional efforts to

transform our part of the continent into a decent place

to live in. To that end, we will need the understanding

and concrete support of the rest of the world

community, which should not neglect the call of

progressive people to join efforts to secure liberty. We

believe that the greatness of countries is dependent not

upon the size of their armies and the number of

weapons they possess, but upon the commitment and

dedication of their citizens to the noble ideas of

humanity and the legacy of our civilization. In this

tremendous task of preserving our common treasury

and of creating a better world for the generations to

come, we are more than willing to participate, because

we are all equal to each other, while contributing to the

common aim.

We are deeply concerned about the escalation of

violence in the Middle East. The parties need to

recommit themselves to the road map process, because

it is the only alternative that can bring security and

stability to Israelis and Palestinians alike. The

international community must step up its activities at

this extremely difficult juncture, ensuring that it

remains on the path of ending terrorism and occupation

and of establishing the State of Palestine, living side by

side with the State of Israel in peace and security.

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On disarmament matters, bearing in mind our

immediate concerns over the problem of small arms

and light weapons, the Republic of Macedonia has

been an advocate of strong international action towards

preventing, combating and eradicating the illicit trade

in small arms and light weapons, since these pose a

serious threat not only to the security and stability of

my country, but also to the broader region. We

welcome the conclusion of the First Biennial Meeting

of States to Consider the Implementation of the United

Nations Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and

Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light

Weapons in All its Aspects, held in July 2003, that

progress had been made worldwide within barely two

years of the adoption of the Programme of Action.

For the African countries, the main priority at this

moment is the fight against HIV/AIDS, a pandemic

that is taking a devastating toll on the African

population. The international community must work

hand in hand with the African Governments to defeat

this deadly disease. Africa must also work very hard to

achieve the strategic goals of the New Partnership for

Africa's Development in the areas of peace and

security, democracy, good governance, poverty

reduction and sound economic management.

I sincerely believe that we will find a common

language with regard to the issue of how to strengthen

our Organization and maintain its mission of peace,

prosperity, economic and social justice and human

rights.