Qatar, 2004

It gives me

great pleasure to address the General Assembly on

behalf of the Group of 77 and China, currently chaired

by my country, Qatar. I would like to seize this

opportunity to extend congratulations to Mr. Jean Ping

on his assumption of the presidency of the current

session of the General Assembly, wishing His

Excellency every success in the discharge of his

functions. I would also like to extend thanks to his

predecessor, Mr. Julian Hunte, for guiding the work of

the previous session.

It also gives me pleasure to express my

appreciation to His Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan, the

Secretary-General of the United Nations, for his

judicious conduct of the work of this Organization

during a critical period in which international relations

have faced and are still facing immense challenges.

The United Nations was established six decades

ago as an expression of the aspirations of all the

members of the international community to save the

world from the scourge of war, to maintain

international peace and security, and to achieve

cooperation among nations and people in various

fields. Roughly two decades after its inception, on

15 June 1964, to be exact, the Group of 77 was

established to express the aspirations of scores of

developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America

to work with each other under the umbrella of the

United Nations, with a view to promoting their

common economic interests, developing their

negotiating capacity regarding various international

economic issues and increasing the bonds of their

technical cooperation.

Just as the United Nations has grown, its

membership has increased and the scope of its activity

has expanded, so, too, the Group of 77 and China has

attracted new members into its membership — which

now stands at 132 States, constituting more than two

thirds of the membership of the United Nations.

Our Group embodies the commitment of the

developing countries to the mission of the United

Nations and their determination to be guided by the

lofty principles enshrined in its Charter. While the

ministerial meetings of the Group highlight with

utmost certainty its close relationship with the

international organizations, the actions of its States

since April 2000, when it convened its first meeting at

the level of presidents and heads of Government,

reaffirm the interest of its members in promoting

coordination among themselves, inspired by the

principles of the United Nations to achieve their aims.

In the view of the Group of 77 and China, the

difficult challenge facing the international community

today is that of maintaining international peace and

security while achieving economic welfare and

development. The history of international relations

over the second half of the last century has shown that

it is almost impossible to maintain peace and security

as long as people lack the minimum requirements for a

basic dignified livelihood. Poverty and destitution have

often resulted in tensions that have led to breaches of

international peace and security, and it is no

coincidence that the poorest regions in the world are

the ones that have suffered the most complicated

regional conflicts.

To achieve the aims of security and development

simultaneously, the international community needs to

adopt more equitable policies that do justice to a large

segment of the members of the international

community who still lack many of the basic necessities

of life.

It is indisputable that globalization has acquired

an immense momentum and yielded positive results.

Nevertheless, it has been accompanied by some

adverse effects as well, and a review and

reconsideration of a number of current international

economic policies is needed before globalization can

acquire the human face it is supposed to have.

The continued imbalance in the distribution of the

benefits of international economic interdependence, the

progressive widening of the gap between the developed

and the developing countries, and the deterioration of

the economic conditions in quite a few countries of the

South, with the attendant adverse effects on the

environment, will accentuate feelings of discontent and

frustration and could even lead to abhorrent forms of

international conflict.

Accordingly, it is necessary to eliminate the

obstacles that make it difficult for developing countries

to reap the fruits of world economic growth, and the

international community must reaffirm its commitment

to the eradication of poverty and the achievement of

the Millennium Development Goals through a deeper

and more comprehensive integration of the developing

countries in the world economy.

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The Group of 77 and China urgently calls for the

establishment of an open multilateral trading system,

one which takes into account the norms of justice and

the rule of law and is geared to assisting developing

countries combat poverty and underdevelopment. Such

a system requires the elimination of bias in the

liberalization of trade between the developed and the

developing countries and the discontinuation of

practices that continue to impede freedom of

commerce, such as recourse to agricultural subsidies,

support for certain products and restrictions on the

movement of individuals, which make it impossible for

developing countries to tap their potential or market

many of their products.

In this regard we call on the developed countries

to liberalize trade at a faster rate by removing the

various obstacles that have so far deprived the

developing countries of their right to enjoy

international trade relations based on equal

opportunity. While noting the progress achieved in the

Doha negotiations on the question of agriculture, we

support the access to the world market of other

products from developing countries and urge that this

issue should be accorded the priority it deserves.

Moreover, there should be agreement on specific

measures to ensure sufficient financial flows to

developing countries, especially foreign direct

investment, to assist those countries in building the

production capacity they need to compete in the world

market. We would also stress the importance of

enabling everyone to benefit from the achievements of

science and technology and thereby to gain access to

sources of knowledge and receive help in achieving

development.

A review of the implementation of the

Millennium Declaration indicates that its objectives

relating to the countries of Africa and the least

developed countries have so far seemed unattainable.

This is due in large measure to the failure of countries

to fulfil the commitments they so generously made at

various United Nations conferences and summits. As

the General Assembly is going to undertake the first

review of the Millennium Declaration next year, we

should seize the opportunity of our meeting today to

renew our commitment to the prompt implementation

of the Declaration. At the 2005 review of the

Declaration, the Group of 77 and China will present a

series of implementing proposals, most of which focus

on the development of multilateral international

relations, with particular emphasis on the situation in

Africa, the least developed countries and the

landlocked developing countries. We have participated

actively in seeking practical solutions to the problems

besetting those regions and will participate in the

forthcoming review of the Barbados Programme of

Action for the Sustainable Development of Small

Island Developing States early in 2005. I take this

opportunity to urge the international community to

support the Barbados Programme of Action, as it is an

integral part of our efforts to move towards a better

world.

Allow me now to address, on behalf of my

country, Qatar, a number of political issues closely

related to our aim of enabling the developing countries

and peoples to enjoy their full economic rights. In

particular, I wish to single out the absence of

democracy and the prolonged slackening of political

reform evident in a number of countries of the South,

and probably most apparent in the past few years in the

Middle East, where they have been at the root of most

of the harsh social and economic suffering currently

plaguing that region.

Political reform and people’s participation in

decision-making are no longer an option but have

become a definite necessity. As the history of

economic relations has shown, the States that have

made the greatest economic achievements — whether

in the North or in the South — have been those which

were most committed to the exercise of democracy.

The few exceptions — States that have managed to

improve their economic performance without following

the principles of democracy — have known limited

success and have continued to be vulnerable to sudden

economic upheavals.

Just as international economic relations are

dominated by the discourse on sustainable

development, another discourse must be launched on

what I would term “sustainable reform”. There is no

lesson to be learned from the experience of the

countries of the South which undertake political reform

one moment then regress the next or take one step

towards democracy to serve a selfish interest then take

two steps backwards once that interest has been

satisfied. One must instead look for guidance to the

long history of development, which shows that those

States which succeed are those which realize that their

economies must be based on efficiency and that

efficiency can be achieved, not by fiat and policies of

14

intimidation and confinement, but only by discussion

of and participation in public affairs.

The question of Palestine embodies the suffering

of a people deprived of both its political and its

economic rights and struggling, despite its difficulties,

to remedy the situation. However, the Israeli

occupation remains a crushing burden on the legitimate

Palestinian dreams of freedom and development. For

more than 50 years, the question of Palestine has been

on the agenda of the General Assembly. Hence, the

international community needs to listen to its

conscience and to reconsider its position, bearing in

mind that this question despite its humanitarian nature

and manifest legitimacy, has been allowed to fester

from one century to the next, thus compounding the

tragedy of the Palestinian people before the might of

the Israeli occupation forces. Compelling Israel to

implement the resolutions of international legitimacy is

more than a mere duty, because such legitimacy must

not be applied selectively. Also, Israel must fulfil the

commitments it has made, in accordance with the

advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice

issued on 9 July 2004 and later endorsed by the

General Assembly at its tenth emergency special

session. This includes its commitment to the road map;

halting the construction of the separation wall, which

has harmed the Palestinian homeland and disrupted

livelihoods; and enabling the Palestinian people to

exercise its right to self determination and to establish

an independent State, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its

capital, that would coexist in security and peace with

Israel.

Related to this is the need to achieve a

comprehensive peaceful settlement to the Arab-Israeli

conflict on the basis of Israel’s withdrawal from all the

territories occupied in 1967, including the Syrian

Golan and the Lebanese Shaba’a farms. In this regard,

we stress the need to transform the Middle East into a

zone free of weapons of mass destruction, without any

exception.

As regards Iraq, it is our hope that Security

Council resolution 1546 (2004) will help stabilize the

situation so as to allow the implementation of the

resolution’s timetable regarding the holding of free,

democratic elections and the timely drafting of a

permanent constitution as a prelude to the

establishment of an elected constitutional government.

Also, we will spare no effort in supporting the

reconstruction of Iraq, and we affirm our position of

principle regarding the need to safeguard its

independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity and

non-interference in its internal affairs. We would also

like to emphasize the central role of the United Nations

in Iraq.

We note with satisfaction the commitment of the

Sudan to work closely with the international

community to resolve the conflict in the Darfur region.

This makes it incumbent on the international

community to cooperate positively with the Sudanese

Government, especially since it has initiated actions to

restore the rule of law to mitigate the suffering of the

inhabitants of that region. We also welcome the

accords that were signed to find a peaceful settlement

to the problem of southern Sudan and urge the

international community to support the efforts of the

Government of the Sudan in this regard.

These last issues which I have raised, although

seemingly of a political nature related to chronic

regional problems, mainly in the Middle East, are not,

in fact, far removed from the endeavours of the Group

of 77 and China to achieve a more equitable

international order. The regional stability that is sought

in each of these cases will allow economic

reconstruction on a sound basis in every instance.

The Group of 77 has been striving for more than

40 years on more than one front. While building

bridges among developing counties, it has actively

sought to reach out to the developed countries and

convince them that the interest of the international

economic order lies in narrowing the gap, rather than

widening it. Moreover, it will always remain

committed to the principles of the United Nations,

mindful of the need for continuous coordination with

its organs and bodies.