Mongolia, 1995

May I be permitted

to offer to His Excellency Mr. Freitas do Amaral my

sincere congratulations on his election to the high post of

President of the golden fiftieth session of the General

Assembly. I am confident that, under his able

stewardship, the Assembly will succeed in advancing the

noble aims and objectives of our Charter. I wish also to

record my delegation’s profound appreciation to his

predecessor, Ambassador Amara Essy of Côte d’Ivoire,

who presided most ably over the various activities of our

Assembly during the forty-ninth session.

The year 1995 is to be singled out for its landmark

anniversaries. The fiftieth anniversary of the end of the

Second World War is being observed worldwide with a

renewed sense of comprehension of its painful lessons.

This coincides with the golden jubilee of the

founding of the United Nations, which embodies in its

Charter the aspirations of our forefathers who, having

stood actual witnesses to the horrors of a most devastating

war, pledged to save succeeding generations from the

scourge of war and settle international disputes by

peaceful means.

At the time of this historic celebration it is only

fitting to pay tribute to the architects of the Charter,

whose vision inspired it with continued viability and

validity.

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The family of the United Nations has come to

embrace 185 sovereign States, a fact that unequivocally

attests to the genuine universality and validity of its

underlying purposes and principles. The world Organization

has throughout served as a powerful engine for bringing

about dramatic changes both in the domain of international

relations and in the development process of nations.

The United Nations is to be credited with impressive

accomplishments in strengthening international peace and

security, marshalling the efforts of the international

community to put an end to colonialism and apartheid,

ensuring the independence and sovereignty of developing

countries and supporting their socio-economic development,

advocating human rights and fundamental freedoms and

protecting and preserving the environment, as well as in

promoting education, culture, science and health.

It can be said that at the heart of these

accomplishments lies the international community’s

growing realization of the prevalence of global priorities

and the objective trends in historical developments, along

with the wisdom of mastering the philosophy of fine-tuning

the differing interests of States.

However, the book of the Organization’s half-century

history does not consist exclusively of success stories.

There are chapters portraying the set-backs and failures of

the United Nations when it was effectively handicapped by

the then prevalent ideological antagonisms and military-bloc

confrontation. There were times when sovereign States

could not exercise their right to become Members of the

United Nations. Mongolia, for one, which steadfastly sided

with the Allied forces and other peace-loving nations during

the Second World War, and made its humble contribution

to the great victory, was until 1961 prevented from

exercising its legitimate right to join the world

Organization.

The upcoming solemn celebration of the fiftieth

anniversary of the United Nations by the largest ever

gathering of world leaders demonstrates that the

international community, by associating its present and its

future with the United Nations, is placing its hopes and

aspirations in the Organization. We hope that the special

commemorative meeting will be crowned with the adoption

of the visionary document reaffirming the underlying

purposes and principles of the Charter and outlining

forward-looking strategies commensurate with the

challenges of the new millennium. In this regard, the

Secretary-General’s stimulating reports “An Agenda for

Peace” and “An Agenda for Development” and their

subsequent supplements help greatly in revamping our

concepts of peace, security and development, as well as

in our collective reflection on our future.

The United Nations has served as a catalyst for

convening a series of global conferences — conferences

on the protection of children, on the environment, on

human rights, on population and social development and

on the advancement of women — resulting in the

formulation of common strategies and specific platforms

for action, now and into the twenty-first century. In order

to ensure the full implementation of this comprehensive

strategy of sustainable human development it is

imperative to streamline the existing machinery for

multilateral cooperation. Here, I wish to emphasize the

urgent need for reform to take in the entire system of the

United Nations, including the Bretton Woods institutions,

by, inter alia, increasing the effectiveness of organizations

in the economic and social fields, as well as improving

their coordination.

Momentous post-cold-war change has, in fact, failed

to embrace international economic relations — an area of

major concern to the United Nations. The persisting

inequities and imbalances, as well as protectionist

tendencies, the growing external-debt burden, the inability

to participate equally in international decision-making and

declining official development assistance flows, weigh

heavily on the efforts of the developing countries

effectively to address the pressing socio-economic

problems that they face.

Mongolia fully supports the efforts of the Non-

Aligned Movement and the Group of 77 to call the

attention of the international community, and of the

Group of Seven in particular, to the question of

addressing these acute problems. It goes without saying

that this common objective can be attained only through

joint North-South action.

The persistence and proliferation of wars and crisis

situations testify to the fact that conventional attitudes

towards the use of force as a standard means of settling

disputes have not been done away with and that the worth

of the human person and his or her right to life continue

to be denied.

Against this backdrop, the United Nations has seen

over the last few years a marked expansion in its

activities in the area of peace-keeping, peacemaking and

preventive diplomacy. Despite the difficulties encountered

and the growing complexity of their missions, the peace-

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keeping operations have largely succeeded in places where

they have intervened for the purposes of restoring peace

and normality. The failures suffered by the United Nations

should not, however, frustrate its efforts in the future.

Lessons drawn from these failures should help the

Organization to weigh its potentials and limitations

realistically and to act within mandates that are clear and

attainable.

If the Security Council is to reflect today’s realities

and to live up to the challenges ahead, the reform

process — democratization of its working methods and the

introduction of greater transparency into its activities —

should be further intensified. It is Mongolia’s considered

view that expansion of the Security Council should be

based on the principles of fairness and equitable

representation. This should be ensured by, inter alia, the

admission of countries with a global reach, like Japan and

Germany, as well as representatives of developing

countries.

It is important to take specific steps to ensure the full

implementation of the resolution on the protection and

security of small States adopted at the last session.

Mongolia welcomes the Secretary-General’s report on the

specific development needs of small Member States, and

expects that the ideas and recommendations that it contains

will be duly reflected in the activities of the United

Nations.

Mongolia highly appreciates the international

community’s understanding of the problems and hardships

faced by countries in transition and the support for their

efforts to integrate into the world economy. We deem it

important that the General Assembly has decided to

consider this issue at its fifty-first session. My delegation

hopes that the report on this subject to be prepared by the

Secretary-General will take due account of the

characteristics of all countries — in particular, geographic

location, climatic conditions and infrastructure development,

among others.

We applaud the entry into force of the Convention on

the Law of the Sea, which is widely acclaimed as one of

the historic achievements of United Nations cooperative

efforts. There is no need to emphasize the importance of

that Convention to countries like Mongolia, which is a

geographically disadvantaged, land-locked developing

country with an unfavourable road and transportation

environment.

The Mongolian delegation expresses its hope that the

General Assembly will at its present session endorse the

recommendations adopted last June by the Second

Meeting of Governmental Experts from Land-locked and

Transit Developing Countries and Representatives of

Donor Countries and Financial and Development

Institutions.

We believe that the World Trade Organization will

facilitate the integration of developing countries into the

international trading system and ensure the protection of

their interests through benefits derived from the trade-

discipline mechanism.

The disarmament agenda was highlighted this year

by the Review and Extension Conference of the Parties to

the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

(NPT), which considered the operation of the Treaty and

decided on its indefinite extension.

Among the important objectives and principles

aimed at strengthening the nuclear disarmament process

with practical measures, special mention should be made

of those related to the conclusion of a comprehensive test-

ban treaty. It is, however, deplorable that two nuclear-

weapon States Parties to the Non-Proliferation Treaty,

contrary to the commitments undertaken, are conducting

nuclear tests and have announced their intention to

continue them. A zero-yield comprehensive test-ban

recently announced by the United States Administration

will, in our view, speed up the negotiations on the treaty

so that it may be concluded next year.

We wish to express our concern over the slow pace

of ratification of the chemical weapons Convention, which

is unnecessarily delaying its entry into force. We call

upon those countries that have not yet done so to ratify

the Convention as soon as possible.

Mongolia welcomes the interim agreement on the

second stage of autonomy reached by the Palestine

Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel within the

framework of achieving the full realization of the

Palestinian people’s right to self-determination. That

agreement represents a major step towards consolidating

the peace process in the Middle East.

My delegation also expresses its satisfaction at the

recent agreements regarding the former Yugoslavia, which

give us hope for the eventual solution of the protracted

crisis there.

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We believe that the Eleventh Conference of Heads of

State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries, which will

take place in Colombia shortly, will outline the tasks of the

Movement in the years to come and will make its

contribution to the efforts of the world community aimed at

solving a host of interrelated problems of strengthening

international peace and security and promoting development

and progress.

It is of great importance that with the strengthening of

peace, stability and economic growth in the Asia-Pacific

region, the contours of regional and subregional cooperation

are becoming more pronounced. The progress achieved in

resolving the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula has had

a positive bearing on the prospects of overall settlement in

that part of our region.

Mongolia, in line with its foreign-policy priorities, is

endeavouring to participate more actively in the process of

regional integration. We trust that this stance will enjoy

greater support from other Governments.

More than five years have elapsed since Mongolia

embarked upon the road of democracy and economic

liberalization. A solid foundation for a new political fabric

and its legal guarantees has been laid down. The economic

decline has been checked, and signs of recovery are being

discerned. We are gratified by the support and assistance of

the world community, donor countries and international

organizations, which continue to play an important role in

consolidating these positive beginnings.

However, the hardships of transition are still being

acutely felt as, inter alia, our gross national product is quite

far from its pre-crisis level, living standards are in decline

and poverty is on the rise. Under these circumstances, my

Government, in addition to mobilizing its own resources to

the utmost, is compelled to seek further assistance from

outside. In this regard, we look forward to the fifth donor

meeting, to be held in Tokyo early next year.

In conclusion, may I express my confidence that at

this commemorative session the General Assembly will

consider the items on its agenda in a constructive manner

and will adopt decisions responding to the challenges

ahead.