Portugal, 1996

I should first like to

congratulate the President of the General Assembly on his

election and to express our confidence in his capability to

conduct the work of the current session. In congratulating

him on his election, I am pleased by the fact that he

represents a country, Malaysia, with which Portugal has

excellent relations in addition to deep historical and cultural

ties.

I believe that it is understandable that I should also

take this opportunity to pay tribute to the outgoing

President, my fellow countryman Mr. Freitas do Amaral,

for the dedicated, competent and innovative manner in

which he directed the work of the fiftieth session of the

General Assembly.

I wish also to express to the Secretary-General my

admiration for the manner in which he has carried out his

functions during a period in which the United Nations has

been called upon to take an ever more active role in a

variety of aspects of international life.

My colleague from Ireland has already addressed the

Assembly on behalf of the 15 member States of the

European Union, expressing positions to which Portugal

fully subscribes. Nevertheless, I would like to reflect on

some questions that are of particular importance to my

country.

Allow me to point out that while speaking in my

capacity as Minister for Foreign Affairs of Portugal, I am

also speaking as a representative of a country that is

extremely proud to belong to the Lusophone Community.

This is probably the newest international organization, and

as President of its Council of Ministers, I foresee an

important role for it in the concert of nations, in useful

and effective cooperation with the United Nations and its

agencies. It represents a strengthening of the solidarity

and fraternity that unite these countries and will empower

the economic and social development of its peoples, while

affirming and disseminating the Portuguese language,

which is the common heritage of over 200 million people

scattered over every continent.

The Lusophone Community, made up of Angola,

Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Sao

Tome and Principe and Portugal, is a political project

based on the Portuguese language, which is the historic

bond and a common heritage of the seven countries,

despite geographical separation. It will always be an open

forum, based on mutual support and close relationships

with all Portuguese-speaking communities of the world

and cooperation with other, similar organizations.

One year after the commemoration of the fiftieth

anniversary, we are still far from meeting the expectations

created and the real needs of the Organization. It is clear

that a process on this scale can be realized only in the

medium term.

A core issue of the reform process that we must

address is the resolution of the serious financial crisis of

the United Nations. We believe that the resolution of the

crisis can be found through three essential approaches: the

fulfilment of commitments, in full and on time; review of

the scale of assessments in order to reflect the capacity of

Member States to pay; and financial rigour and

rationalization of existing resources. In the spirit of

contributing to the resolution of this crisis, Portugal

voluntarily increased its 1995 contributions to the

peacekeeping budget, moving from Group C to Group B

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in the scale of assessments. That decision will result in a

five-fold increase of our initial contribution.

Equally important is the reform of the Security

Council. We are convinced that only with an adequate and

balanced representation of all the world’s regions will the

Security Council be more democratic and, consequently,

more effective in the formulation and implementation of its

decisions.

When considering the process of reform, I must also

refer to issues related to the Agenda for Development and

the Agenda for Peace. With regard to the former, we must

recognize the need to review the entire system of

international aid for development and consider the role the

United Nations should play in this domain.

The integrated and sustainable development we

propose should be pursued in all its facets, not only in the

economic field, but also in the consolidation of democratic

institutions. To meet these objectives, it will also be

necessary to implement the decisions taken at the major

United Nations global conferences, as it has been at those

conferences that the Agenda for Development has gradually

taken shape. This question is all the more important to us

in Portugal, since we focus special attention on the

North-South dialogue, which is attested to by the fact that

the North-South Centre is located in Lisbon.

Aware of the fact that today the important task in this

area is to help the developing countries, especially the more

vulnerable ones, Portugal has gradually increased the funds

it sets aside for development aid, both at the bilateral level

and through the framework of international organizations of

which it is a member. In this context, our official

development assistance exceeds the goal established for

donors at the Paris conference in 1990.

At the multilateral level, allow me to single out the

importance we attribute to the Lomé Convention as a vital

instrument of aid and cooperation between the members of

the European Union and the countries of Africa, the

Caribbean and the Pacific. Thus, we have strongly

advocated a review of the Convention based on maintaining

the principles of partnership and cooperation.

Maintaining international peace and security

undoubtedly continues to be the priority challenge faced by

the United Nations. The results achieved in most of the

relevant missions lead us to conclude that we should not

lessen our commitment or the dynamism of our activity.

It is true that the United Nations cannot abdicate its

mission of helping to restore peace. We also believe,

however, that efforts should be focused on conflict

prevention. But in both areas, the question of cooperation

between the United Nations and regional

intergovernmental organizations has been discerningly

raised. This can be seen in some recent successful

examples, such as the joint action of the United Nations,

the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the

Western European Union (WEU), the Organization for

Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the

European Union (EU) in the territory of the former

Yugoslavia, organizations of which Portugal is a member

and in which it participates actively.

Another component of the efforts towards peace is

disarmament. Portugal welcomes the adoption of the

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).

Portugal, which will contribute significantly to the CTBT

verification system, has signed and will shortly ratify the

Treaty, and appeals to all Member States of the United

Nations to do the same.

It is urgent that the process of enlarging the

Conference on Disarmament be completed, as well as that

of deliberating on its agenda and the rules for decision-

making and for admission of new members, which should

be improved. It is increasingly essential to seriously

debate nuclear disarmament, with a view to achieving the

ultimate goal of the permanent eradication of nuclear

weapons. We advocate that the Conference on

Disarmament should, early at its next session, begin

negotiations on a treaty for the banning of the production

of fissile material for nuclear weapons.

With regard to the serious problem of anti-personnel

landmines, Portugal hopes that concrete measures will be

taken this year towards a complete prohibition of the

manufacture and export of those devices of death and

destruction. For our part, we have already decreed a

moratorium on the manufacture and export of such

weapons. Furthermore, I would like to mention that on 23

August last my country ratified the Convention on the

banning of chemical weapons.

Among the many activities of the United Nations, I

would like to single out two areas which I consider

essential: the environment and human rights.

The protection of the environment is becoming an

increasingly prominent issue. In this field, we recognize

the great importance of the problems of climate change,

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desertification and the protection of the marine

environment. For this reason, Portugal has been closely

following the implementation of the principles and

decisions adopted in this regard at major United Nations

conferences.

I would also like to underline the particular sensitivity

of Portugal, whose territory includes two archipelagos —

the Azores and Madeira — to questions relating to the sea

from a perspective of the development of balanced

management of fishing and marine resources. To this end,

my country is currently concluding the necessary

procedures that will soon permit it to ratify the United

Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Furthermore, on Portugal’s initiative, the General

Assembly, at its forty-ninth session, declared 1998

International Year of the Ocean. Focusing on this subject,

Expo 98 will be held in Lisbon that same year, with the

theme, “The oceans: a heritage for the future”. Its central

focus will be the relationship between the current state of

knowledge on marine resources and the urgency of

ensuring, through a rational and scientific management

process, a greater ecological equilibrium on our planet.

The defence and promotion of human rights is one of

the principal concerns of Portuguese foreign policy. We

believe that it is the responsibility of every Government to

guarantee in their respective countries the full enjoyment of

all human rights, but that it is also legitimate for the

international community to concern itself with ensuring the

promotion and protection of those rights around the globe.

We consider that the United Nations has a key role to

play, and thus it is indispensable that the High

Commissioner and the Centre for Human Rights be

provided with adequate human and financial resources for

the fulfilment of his important task.

A constant pursuit of Portuguese foreign policy has

been to stress the need to find a political and diplomatic

solution to the question of East Timor, without which it

will not be possible to put an to end the systematic abuses

of human rights that continue to prevail in that territory.

Portugal has repeatedly stated — and I do so here

once again — that its sole objective, apart from the

immediate concern of defending the human rights and

identity of the people of East Timor in their different

aspects, is to find a just, comprehensive and internationally

acceptable solution to the question of East Timor, in

accordance with international law and the full respect for

the rights of its people, namely its right to

self-determination.

Despite the difficulties that have been encountered,

the difference between the substantive positions of

Portugal and Indonesia and the slowness of the process,

we continue to be committed to finding such a solution

through dialogue and under the auspices of the Secretary-

General, whose patient efforts I wish to pay tribute to

here. In the pursuit of that objective, we consider it

extremely important to continue the active association of

Timorese representatives to that process, which deserves

the unequivocal support of the international community.

In this regard, I must note here the increasing

support that this question has received from the

international community, namely through the adoption of

positions that range from the resolutions of the European

Parliament to the declarations of the 21 Heads of State

and Government of the member countries of the Ibero-

American summit, and include the common position

adopted this year by the 15 member States of the

European Union, to which a further 14 European

countries associated themselves.

Portugal, exercising its responsibilities as

administering Power of the non-self-governing territory of

East Timor, will continue to cooperate constructively with

the United Nations, with full regard for the Charter of the

United Nations and the relevant resolutions, towards the

indispensable conclusion of the process of decolonization

in East Timor.

In this era, at the close of the millennium, marked

by such profound changes and close interdependencies,

we believe that the African continent deserves special

attention from the international community. To that end,

all efforts should be pooled towards the creation of

conditions that will permit it to benefit from a

development process similar to that enjoyed by other

regions of the world.

We are therefore acting in the context of the

international organizations of which we are members,

with the aim of preventing the marginalization of the

African continent and ensuring that it receives priority

treatment on the agenda of the international community.

Because we actively uphold this view, Portugal has

proposed to its European Union partners that a

Euro-African summit take place, open to the participation

of all African States without exception, so as to allow for

21

a political dialogue at the very highest level on issues of

mutual concern. The goal is to achieve a new dimension to

our relations and provide a further impulse to traditional

areas of mutual cooperation in order to create the

foundations of a new global partnership. The 15 Member

States of the European Union have already recognized the

interest and importance of this initiative.

In this manner, we are seeking to include Africa in all

its aspects on the international agenda, stressing, on the one

hand, the scale and economic potential of the African

continent, which is deserving of a new approach and a new

model for dialogue, and, on the other hand, encouraging

African countries to embark on their own process of

development based on the promotion of peace, democracy,

stability and economic and social progress.

We supported from the very beginning the creation

and establishment of the Mechanism for Conflict

Prevention, Management and Resolution by the

Organization of African Unity at the Cairo summit in 1993.

Portugal attaches great importance to strengthening the

dialogue between the European Union and the Southern

African Development Community. The second ministerial

summit, planned for this October in Windhoek, will

certainly allow for a global review of the adequacy of the

activities undertaken as a result of the Berlin conference.

Portugal, a member of the troika of observers to the

peace process in Angola, continues to be particularly

engaged in the implementation of the Lusaka Protocol,

which seeks, in general terms, the re-establishment in

Angola of constitutional democratic life and the formation

of a single national army.

I take this opportunity to salute the Special

Representative of the Secretary-General of the United

Nations, Mr. Alioune Blondin Beye, whose negotiating

skills constitute an important factor in placing peace and

hope in a better future once more on the horizon for all

Angolans.

We note with satisfaction the positive developments

that have taken place over the last few months in the

implementation of the Lusaka Protocol, which have

permitted the cessation of hostilities throughout the entire

territory of Angola. However, we cannot ignore the fact

that important tasks remain to be completed, without which

the irreversibility of the peace process cannot be

guaranteed. The postponement of the resolution of military

and political questions is difficult to understand and may

jeopardize the process of consolidating peace.

Allow me therefore to recall the concerns expressed

in the declaration of the troika of observers — Portugal,

the Russian Federation and the United States — issued on

22 August 1996. I appeal to the Government of Angola

and to UNITA to continue to follow the path of peace

they have set out on in order to contribute decisively to

the full implementation of the Lusaka Protocol, namely

through one armed force and the creation of conditions

for the free movement of people and goods, which would

make possible the normal functioning of society, the

economy and the institutions in that great African country.

I should also like to appeal to the international

community to support the reconstruction and rehabilitation

of Angola. In particular, it is urgent that the necessary

funds be made available for the implementation of the

programmes for the demobilization of former combatants.

Social stability is indispensable to the success of the

peace process.

I would not like to end this reference to Africa

without expressing concern for the situation currently

prevailing in the Great Lakes region, which has tragic

repercussions on the security and well-being of innocent

peoples. Portugal is participating in the efforts of the

international community to bring to an end this tragedy of

the African continent and to ensure the return of stability

to that region.

Portugal did not remain indifferent to the suffering

of the peoples of the Balkans or to a situation with

serious consequences for peace and stability in the region.

Portugal therefore participates in the Implementation

Force with a significant military, police and civilian

contingent, very often demonstrating a greater effort and

engagement than that of other countries with larger

economic capacities.

The recent elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina

represented an important step towards the consolidation of

peace, and we are confident that they will have a lasting

effect on the consolidation of the Bosnian State — based

on its two entities — allowing for a self-sustained

stability of the country and the reconfiguration of the

International Force so as not to affect the fundamental

goal of guaranteeing peace and the coexistence of the

three communities.

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Portugal will be the host country for the next summit

of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

(OSCE), which will take place in Lisbon on 2-3 December

next. We hope that the 53 Heads of State and Government

will take substantial decisions with regard to the

cornerstone principles of a security model for the twenty-

first century. I am certain that the Lisbon charter, to be

adopted at that meeting, will represent a significant step

towards the stability of the European continent and the

institutional strengthening of the OSCE.

Portugal has promoted closer and deeper ties with the

countries of the Mediterranean, especially those of the

Maghreb, a region of fundamental importance for the

security, stability and development of the entire region. In

the short term, it is necessary to adopt confidence-building

measures that would contribute to launching the foundations

of a new type of relationship between the peoples of both

sides of the Mediterranean. Portugal is committed to the

creation of a Euro-Mediterranean charter, a matrix for a

new partnership that will contribute decisively to the

political, economic, social and cultural development of our

Mediterranean partners.

Portugal is following with great concern the latest

developments in the Middle East peace process.

We believe that the future of the region depends

essentially on the will of the parties urgently to restart the

negotiations in accordance with the principles of Madrid

and the Oslo terms of reference. I appeal to all interested

parties to exhibit restraint and to honour previously

assumed commitments, which is the only way to achieve a

just, comprehensive and lasting peace for the region. The

dramatic incidents that have just occurred are the clearest

demonstration that there is no alternative to the peace

process.

Portugal has very strong human, historical and cultural

ties with Latin America. The next Ibero-American Summit,

which will take place in Chile, will represent another

occasion to debate the important advances that the

processes of democratization and development have

achieved on that continent. Furthermore Portugal welcomes

the holding in 1998 of the seventh Ibero-American Summit

of Heads of State and Government.

Portugal welcomes the projects for inter-American

regional integration, as well as the mechanisms for

cooperation, that have been gradually established between

the countries of that continent and the European Union.

The development of a relationship with Asia also

constitutes one of the Government of Portugal’s foreign-

policy priorities. We share a common historical heritage

with many countries in that region. At the bilateral level,

in addition to opening new embassies in South-East Asia,

we will be seeking to strengthen even further our

relationship with the Pacific island States, which will

certainly be reflected in the framework of the Lomé

Convention.

In terms of our multilateral participation, we hope

that the new dialogue created in the framework of the

Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) will

represent a significant step in the relationship between

Europe and Asia, leading to a more open and broader

contact on all matters of mutual interest to the European

Union and Asia.

The transitional process in Macao, to be completed

at the end of 1999, based on a constructive dialogue and

close cooperation with China, is of the greatest

importance to the Government of Portugal, whose

fundamental concern is to guarantee the prosperity and

stability of the territory, as well as to preserve its identity.

The multilateral dynamic is undeniably gaining an

ever-greater importance in the international realities of the

present. Portugal has been developing unequivocal efforts

towards strengthening its participation in the organizations

to which it already belongs and becoming involved in

new multilateral frameworks. Clear evidence of Portugal’s

attitude in this respect is our increasing participation in

peacekeeping operations. Portugal has considerable forces

in Bosnia and Angola, and currently has the sensitive

responsibility of ensuring command of the United Nations

force in the Western Sahara. I am pleased to note that in

the domain of peacekeeping and international security, we

are the European Union’s sixth-largest troop contributor

to United Nations peacekeeping operations, and the ninth

largest among those countries that make up the Western

European and other States group. We are clearly in the

top half of the list of countries that contribute forces to

United Nations peacekeeping operations. We also lead

other Member States with greater resources and per capita

output.

Portugal’s candidature for membership of the

Security Council should be considered as an important

expression of the will of my country to continue to

participate, as fully as possible, in the multilateral

dimension of today’s world. Portugal is a country with a

universalist commitment, which is used to establishing

23

contact with many and diverse regions of the world, and to

understanding and accepting different cultures and

civilizations.

We therefore believe that as a member of the Security

Council we would be able to contribute to finding solutions

in accordance with the principles and purposes enshrined in

the Charter. We also believe that participation in the

Security Council by States of a size and with characteristics

similar to those of Portugal would contribute to greater

equilibrium and representativity in the decisions taken by

that body.

This will be possible only when full respect is given

to the principle of sovereign equality of all Member States,

which, in truth, represents the principal guarantee of

democracy in the Security Council. Yet this principle has

not been observed in practice. Indeed, out of the 185

Member States, 79 have never served on the Security

Council and 44 have served only once, as is the case with

Portugal.

We can and should improve this situation. Indeed, to

guarantee adequate representation by Member States on the

Security Council, obstacles or precedents must not be used

that would prevent a healthy rotation in that organ. For

these reasons, the Portuguese candidature for membership

of the Security Council is based on its own merits. We

refuse to resort to any alliances, coalitions or other artificial

means that would limit and condition the right of choice of

Member States.

Portugal’s candidature was not launched to defend

interests or to respond to the demands of domestic politics,

nor was it launched to pursue or consolidate external

ambitions. Portuguese foreign policy is an undivided whole.

It is part of, and evolves within, a well-defined

geo-strategic space. It is not based on arrogance or

economic power, nor has it been altered to accommodate

Portugal’s candidature. The foreign policy of my country is

based consistently on its universalist commitment to

dialogue with all the peoples of the world.

Before concluding, I should like to cast my vote of

confidence in the future of the United Nations and to

reiterate Portugal’s full commitment to the reform of the

Organization.