Russia, 2000

The Millennium Summit has given all of us

the priority task of establishing a new and equitable

world order — an order which would meet the interests

of all and every member of the international

community and ensure adequate solutions to the

problems with which the twenty-first century is

confronting us.

I am convinced that in this era of globalization

and enormous scientific and technological progress,

humankind can and should have a comprehensive and

forward-looking strategy. While in the past century

human civilization's main task was that of survival,

today we are confronted with significantly more

difficult problems which are much more varied in

terms of their scope and orientation.

The strategy of survival must give way to a

strategy of sustainable development aimed at ensuring

the prosperity of humankind. It must be based on the

recognition of the indivisibility of international

security, the use of modern scientific and technological

achievements for the benefit of the entire international

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community, and a gradual closing of the development

gap between the various States.

These ambitious goals can be achieved only

through the preservation and strengthening of strategic

stability in its very broadest sense.

Strategic stability means further progress in the

disarmament process, reliable prevention of the spread

of weapons of mass destruction. Today nuclear

disarmament and non-proliferation are no longer the

subject of exclusive interaction between Russia, the

United States and other nuclear Powers. What is

needed is the effective involvement of multilateral

United Nations mechanisms and the entire world

community in those processes.

The outcome of the Millennium Summit provides

additional opportunities for the achievement of a major

breakthrough in disarmament in the twenty-first

century. This will require consistent joint efforts aimed

at strict compliance with the agreements already

concluded; a step-by-step reduction and eventual

elimination of weapons of mass destruction under

effective international control, and the limitation of

other types of armaments; and prevention of the arms

race in new spheres.

The time has come to give a new impetus to the

work of the Conference on Disarmament, which has

proved in practice the effectiveness of multilateral

diplomacy under the auspices of the United Nations.

Russia advocates the resumption of substantive work at

that forum on major issues on the disarmament agenda.

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear

Weapons (NPT) provides an indispensable international

legal basis for nuclear disarmament. This has once

again been reaffirmed in full by the 2000 Review

Conference. Russia will work to ensure that the

decisions of the Millennium Assembly promote the

practical implementation of the agreements reached

during that Conference. It is precisely for that purpose

that the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir

Putin, put forward an initiative on the development and

implementation, under the auspices of the International

Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), of an international

project designed to phase out the use of enriched

uranium and pure plutonium in the civilian nuclear

energy sector.

We are satisfied to note the increasing number of

States acceding to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty

(CTBT). Its speedy entry into force is in the interests of

the entire international community. Having ratified the

Treaty, we call on those that have yet not done so to

follow suit.

We expect that the United States will follow

Russia in completing ratification of the Treaty on the

Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic

Offensive Arms (START II), which will help make it

operational. We are ready to actively continue the

process of nuclear disarmament and to move towards

the conclusion of a START III Treaty with an even

lower threshold of nuclear warheads — down to 1,500

units. But this will be feasible only if the 1972 Anti-

Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty remains intact. It is

universally acknowledged that this major Treaty

concerns the vital security interests of the international

community as a whole. Its preservation is a key

element of global stability and a strong barrier to the

arms race in regard to nuclear weapons, missiles and

other weapons of mass destruction.

Russia will be introducing a draft resolution in

support of the ABM Treaty. We hope that, as was the

case last year, our initiative will receive broad support

within the United Nations.

A peaceful earth needs a peaceful outer space. At

the Millennium Summit the President of Russia

proposed the convening in Moscow of an international

conference on the prevention of the weaponization of

outer space, to take place in the spring of 2001, when

the fortieth anniversary of the first manned flight to

outer space is to be commemorated. We hope that this

proposal will be actively supported.

Strategic stability means reliable safeguarding of

international information security and counteracting

the use of scientific and technological achievements for

purposes incompatible with universal progress and the

maintenance of international peace. Aware of the great

importance of resolving these most urgent issues,

Russia will introduce for consideration by the General

Assembly a draft resolution entitled “Developments in

the field of informatization and telecommunications in

the context of international information security”.

Strategic stability also means enhancing peace

and security on all continents, settling existing regional

conflicts and preventing new ones and cutting off

external support for them. Millions of people must be

spared the death and suffering caused by local crises.

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How can this goal be achieved? It is only through

the joint efforts of all States collectively responsible

for the world's destiny. Experience has shown that

unilateral enforcement actions cannot guarantee a

lasting and fair settlement of crisis situations.

The notions of sovereignty and the territorial

integrity of States are still very much alive. Disregard

for these principles and military intervention

circumventing the Security Council, whatever

humanitarian pretexts may be used, undermine the very

foundations of the world order and pave the way for

arbitrariness in international affairs.

The prevention and settlement of crises should

become a key element of international security in the

twenty-first century. When there is collective

determination and goodwill, even the most complex

and major problems lend themselves to a political

resolution.

All of this calls for improvement of the

peacekeeping potential of our Organization. People in

“hotbeds” of the planet — from Africa and Lebanon to

East Timor — rightly associate with the United Nations

“Blue Helmets” their hopes for an end to bloody

conflicts and for the beginning of complex

reconciliation processes. They expect rapid and

effective steps from us.

We hope that the Millennium Assembly will

provide us with an opportunity to engage in a

comprehensive analysis of the work of United Nations

peacekeeping mechanisms and outline ways to increase

their efficiency. Such is the objective of the report

(A/55/305) prepared under the aegis of the Secretary-

General by the Brahimi Panel. It is important to

considerably enhance the United Nations capacity for

the prompt deployment of peacekeeping operations.

This can be done through the early completion of the

system of standby arrangements. Peacekeeping units of

the United Nations Secretariat need to be strengthened,

with provision for professional planning, control and

command of operations.

Russia consistently advocates the expansion of

cooperation between the United Nations and regional

structures in the field of peacekeeping. Chapter VIII of

the United Nations Charter remains the basis for such

interaction. Any regional or “coalition” operation

should be conducted under conditions of transparency

and of reporting to the United Nations Security

Council, whereas operations with enforcement

elements should be carried out only with the

authorization of the Security Council.

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

is a major regional partner of the United Nations in

peacekeeping. In many respects, it was the close

cooperation between the United Nations and the CIS

that made it possible to successfully resolve the

conflict in Tajikistan. Such interaction will

undoubtedly intensify along with the development of

the CIS anti-crisis potential. At the same time, for a

stable peace to prevail in the conflict-affected regions

in the CIS area the volume of international economic

and humanitarian aid for their rehabilitation should be

increased.

Russia attaches primary importance to the

expansion of cooperation between the United Nations

and regional and subregional mechanisms in Africa to

provide for more effective crisis response on the

continent. This is evidenced by the Russian

participation in peacekeeping operations in a number of

African countries.

The entire experience of United Nations

peacekeeping activities in recent years clearly shows

the priority of political and diplomatic methods of

conflict settlement. It is precisely these methods that

make it possible to minimize the suffering of the

civilian population and to find ways to a stable peace.

Strategic stability means the security and

tranquillity of civil society and of the individual. This

task can be accomplished only through the combined

efforts of the international community to counter

contemporary threats and challenges. These include,

inter alia, aggressive separatism and religious

extremism, illicit arms trafficking and organized crime.

Such an abhorrent manifestation of extremism as

international terrorism poses a direct threat to security

and stability. Today, terrorists of every stripe

sometimes act in a more organized fashion than does

the world community confronting them. We expect that

the United Nations will step up its mobilization of

international capacities to counteract terrorism. Such

cooperation must be based on the clear principles set

forth in the Security Council resolution 1269 (1999):

no support whatsoever, no safe havens for terrorists,

the inevitability of punishment for every terrorist act.

As to those who violate these principles the Security

Council must be ready to take measures against them

provided for in the United Nations Charter.

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Russia intends to ratify the Convention for the

Suppression of Terrorist Financing elaborated under

United Nations auspices. There is an urgent need to

complete work on the convention for the suppression of

acts of nuclear terrorism, and that work on a

comprehensive anti-terrorism convention should be

stepped up.

Terrorism is often closely linked with drug

trafficking and organized crime. We welcome the

completion of the development of an international

convention against organized crime. Russia intends to

sign it in the nearest future. We also support the

proposal on drafting an international convention on the

fight against corruption.

Strategic stability means promoting human rights

and freedoms everywhere. This area is an important

component of the United Nations activities aimed at

establishing a new world order based on international

law.

Russia contributes significantly to strengthening

the universal legal regime. Our country has signed the

Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Speaking of pooling the efforts of States to

resolve the twofold task of maintaining international

security and ensuring human security, human rights and

freedoms, we should constantly bear in mind that in the

twentieth century the rule of the ideology of racial

hatred cost mankind scores of millions of human lives.

Unfortunately, today, 55 years after the great victory it

is still premature to speak of total eradication of the

bacillus of national superiority.

We cannot accept a situation in which people do

not have the right to use their mother tongue, are

deprived of their citizenship and jobs on ethnic

grounds, when fighters against fascism are put behind

bars while former fascists find favour with the

authorities. The Organization for Security and

Cooperation in Europe, the Council of Europe and the

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

should firmly respond to all such manifestations.

Strategic stability must be based on a solid

material foundation. The twenty-first century will go

down in history as the century of mankind's

breakthrough to a qualitatively new level of

development only if we manage to preserve peace and

international security and at the same time impart

necessary dynamism and depth to the process of

economic and technological equalization between the

enormous number of developing countries and the

comparatively small group of leading countries. This

goal cannot be achieved overnight. This will require —

under the unifying and guiding hand of the United

Nations — a mechanism for collective democratic

management of the international monetary, trade and

economic systems. They must become more rational

and fair and be targeted against poverty and

underdevelopment.

It is important to make the most of those

opportunities which have been opened up by the new

technological revolution in order to initiate the process

of bridging the gap in the levels of development.

Information and communications technologies whose

potential for speeding up global development is only

comparable to the invention of written language can

serve as a driving force of that process. A chance has

emerged to skip over several traditional stages of

development through the introduction of global

computer literacy and information technologies.

Mankind, equipped with this powerful instrument, will

obtain a real opportunity to begin creating conditions

for a decent life and the all-around development of

human beings everywhere on earth.

Strategic stability means the preservation of a

clean and healthy environment for the present and

future generations. The United Nations has done a

great deal to mobilize international efforts in that

important field. The “Rio+10” Forum, to be held in

2002, will provide an opportunity not only to sum up

the results of those activities but also to outline a

future-oriented follow-up programme.

Russia supports the expansion of international

cooperation within the United Nations framework in

the areas of biodiversity, climate, combating

desertification, as well as of forest preservation.

The recent increase over the last few years in the

number of natural and man-made disasters and the

consequent growth of the scope of human and material

losses have made disaster management one of the most

formidable global challenges facing mankind. While

intensifying the United Nations efforts to promote

international cooperation in this field, special attention

must be paid to the use of state-of-the-art specialized

technologies for disaster management and to the search

for innovative mechanisms for their use in the interests

of the entire international community.

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The United Nations — a unique universal forum

in every respect, which has demonstrated in practice its

central role in managing international affairs — should

become a guarantor of such comprehensive strategic

stability. Russia welcomes the consensus reached at the

Millennium Summit on consolidating the United

Nations as the axis of the present world order. The time

has come for concrete collective measures to transform

the Organization into a sort of operational headquarters

for coordinating activities aimed at ensuring a new

strategic stability based on the principles of

multilateralism, equality and solidarity in resolving

global problems.

In conclusion, I would like to emphasize once

again that the Russian Federation, for its part, is open

to the closest interaction with all members of the

international community in order to make strategic

stability a cornerstone of the world order in the twenty-

first century and the United Nations its reliable

guarantor.