North Macedonia, 2005

It gives me great pleasure to address this

forum and to share with the General Assembly my

Government’s views on issues of the highest relevance

to our Organization. But first of all, let me express our

solidarity and heartfelt condolences in connection with

the loss of life and the damage caused by Hurricane

Katrina in our host country — the United States of

America.

I wish to congratulate Mr. Jan Eliasson of

Sweden on his election to the post of President of the

General Assembly at its sixtieth session. I am sure that

under his able guidance we will make substantial

progress in implementing the decisions adopted just a

few days ago by the heads of State. At the same time,

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let me congratulate Mr. Jean Ping of Gabon, President

of the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session, for a

job well done. I would like also to commend Secretary-

General Kofi Annan for his skilful leadership of the

Organization in what has turned out to be a very

difficult year.

The High-level Meeting and the outcome

document reaffirmed our commitment to the core

values and principles of the United Nations Charter

and to effective multilateralism, and it identified areas

for future action. The summit has also provided us with

a unique opportunity to explore new ways to adapt the

United Nations to new realities.

The Organization was created 60 years ago.

However, the vision of its founders — to bring about a

more secure, democratic and developed world — needs

to be pursued more vigorously today. As a wise man

once said, we should be both speakers of words and

doers of deeds. I am happy that we all agree that we

need a reformed, more effective and more credible

United Nations.

The high-level segment made a fair assessment of

the progress achieved in the implementation of the

Millennium Declaration and of the Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs), as well as of the

outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and

summits.

The assessment by the world leaders was both

realistic and upbeat. They boldly assessed the status of

current and longstanding problems — extreme poverty,

hunger, disease, the HIV pandemic, child mortality,

environmental degradation, lack of good governance,

disregard for human rights and the rule of law — and

showed strength and resolve in defining steps and

actions to be taken or reinforced in order to meet our

targets, and they were cautiously optimistic about the

deadlines to be met.

Today we live in a world in which our peoples,

nations and Governments depend on each other. We

must recognize that in this interdependent and

globalized world, all threats are threats to us all. No

one is immune to them, nor does any single State have

a cure.

But how should we proceed? I believe that many

of us share the view that, in fact, we already have a

multiplicity of documents and agreed positions, as well

as many political commitments and adopted

declarations. Much has been achieved by the United

Nations, and we are proud of that. My own country has

also benefited from United Nations efforts — the

United Nations engagement in the first-ever preventive

deployment mission. That was a good example of the

effectiveness of joint efforts and cooperation.

However, turning to the main questions, we have

found that we are still lagging behind on some of the

issues to which have so strongly committed ourselves.

One of the avenues for moving forward involves

implementation and visibility. These are not new

words. Many promising United Nations ideas and

projects have been sidelined due to inappropriate

follow-up and inadequate implementation measures, or

simply due to insufficient support and funding by the

Member States. We should avoid such pitfalls.

The sooner the effects of the implementation of

our decisions become visible, the greater international

public support will be, and the greater the chances of

creating a better world for us and for generations to

come. But we should not shy away from sharing that

responsibility with all those who can assist us, with

those who have the capacity to help promote and

implement our goals. There are many positive

examples in recent memory, beginning with the greater

involvement of regional organizations, the civil sector,

non-governmental organizations, the private sector, and

so on. Let us make greater use of them. We can only

benefit.

On this occasion, I will not dwell in detail on the

processes of United Nations reform and the

strengthening of the Organization. President

Crvenkovski elaborated Macedonia’s position on those

issues here last week.

Macedonia also aligns itself with the European

Union statement. Nevertheless, allow me to say a few

words on some current United Nations reform issues of

particular interest to us. Macedonia supports the view

that human rights, the rule of law and democracy

should be given a prominent place in the United

Nations reform proposals. Freedom from fear could be

said to sum up the whole philosophy of human rights,

as former Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld put it.

It has long been a strong position of my country

that respect for those principles, coupled with

development, is the best conflict-prevention measure

and a vital precondition for peace and prosperity. For

that reason, we see great merit in establishing a

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peacebuilding commission. I trust that a balanced

gender representation on the commission will only lead

to its better functioning and give added value to

peacebuilding. Furthermore, the establishment of the

human rights council must be seen as a powerful tool

to regain the values and principles originally envisaged

by the creation of the United Nations.

We are very satisfied that the concept of

“responsibility to protect” has found its well-deserved

place for the first time in a United Nations document

and welcome its endorsement.

The democracy fund is a noble idea which

deserves our full creative engagement.

Terrorism has turned into the plague of modern

times. Since the last session of the General Assembly,

many atrocious terrorist attacks have taken place

throughout the world. Our firm commitment to fighting

terrorism should engender more joint activities and

actions. Our struggle must be based on full respect for

human rights because it is human rights that terrorists

are afraid of and seek to undermine. We need further

consolidation of the global anti-terrorist coalition and

strengthened cooperation with regional organizations.

The United Nations is at the core of activities in

the area of counter-terrorism. The Republic of

Macedonia supports the elaboration of the United

Nations comprehensive counter-terrorism strategy, as

outlined by the Secretary-General in Madrid. I would

like to appeal to the Member States to agree on the

comprehensive convention on international terrorism.

This year, we took a significant step by adopting the

International Convention for the Suppression of Acts

of Nuclear Terrorism, which we signed on 16

September. The victims of recent acts of terrorism

painfully remind us to move forward.

From the very beginning, the Republic of

Macedonia has been a part of the international anti-

terrorist coalitions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Peace and

democracy-building in those two countries remain among

the key challenges to the international community and to

the Iraqis and Afghans themselves. I would like once

again to reiterate our support for their efforts to rebuild

their countries and to create better lives for their people.

Today, my country, Macedonia, is a functional,

multi-ethnic democracy. Over the past three years, we

have launched and carried out a large number of reform

projects. Our hard work has brought us closer to the

Euro-Atlantic structures. We have developed genuine

partnerships with the Union and the alliance. We

expect the European Commission to give a positive

evaluation of our achievements and Macedonia to be

granted the status of candidate at the December 2005

summit. I firmly believe that the time has come for our

European perspective to turn into a European reality. As

for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, we expect the

invitation to join at the next enlargement summit.

The Government has recently announced its

economic programme, primarily aimed at increasing

economic growth and reducing unemployment. At the

same time, it has intensified the development of a

climate favourable to foreign investment and safe

business conduct. As a critical complement to

economic reforms, Macedonia is also focused on

reform of the judiciary and the fight against organized

crime and corruption. We have set a goal to do better.

The reforms are not easy, but we are firm in our

resolve to implement them.

Regional cooperation has become a major

characteristic of the foreign policies of all countries in

South-East Europe. We have been patiently building a

new spirit of cooperation, while at the same time

learning the true meaning of developing relations based

on mutual trust and solidarity. That includes our

bilateral relations, as well as a large number of regional

initiatives. Recognizing that reality and the need to

cooperate and to build good-neighbourly relations and

mutual confidence was not an easy undertaking, but it

is the only way ahead. We take pride in seeing the

region move forward. The Republic of Macedonia will

continue even more vigorously to pursue such policy.

There is no alternative to dialogue and all outstanding

regional issues should be resolved in that manner.

In closing, I am confident that our deliberations

will contribute to better and faster follow-up of the

commitments agreed at the High-level Plenary

Meeting. I believe that we can soon come up with

implementation mechanisms that will give life to what

was conceived by our leaders. There were many

debates, some of them very contradictory, showing

how different we are. But diversity should not prevent

us from having a common vision and goals for a better

future. That is why we are here at the United Nations.