Thailand, 2006

At the outset, allow

me to congratulate you, Madam President, and the

Kingdom of Bahrain on your assumption of the

presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-first

session. As a woman, I welcome your election with

great pride and wish to assure you of my delegation’s

full support in every possible way.

I also wish to express my delegation’s profound

appreciation to President Jan Eliasson, your

predecessor, for his hard work and dedication in

advancing the United Nations reform agenda over the

past year.

Also, I take this opportunity to welcome the

Republic of Montenegro as a new member of the

United Nations.

As I speak, Thailand is going through a critical

period — a transition, following the military

intervention, to a needed reform process that will

strengthen our democracy in both its form and content.

As a peace-loving country, we are grateful that the

political change in Thailand has taken place peacefully.

The situation in the country returned to normal within

hours. On behalf of the Thai people, I wish to thank

our friends for their understanding and support.

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With the resilience of Thai society, the General

Assembly can be assured that Thailand will emerge as

a stronger and more vibrant democracy. We will ensure

a swift return to democracy within a definite timeline.

An interim constitution will be promulgated in the

coming days, with the military once again being placed

under the constitution. This interim constitution will

provide full guarantees for civil liberties and rights

under the supervision of our National Human Rights

Commission. Under the interim constitution, a new

civilian Government will again be put in place within

the coming days, and we can well expect that one of

the first tasks of the new Government will be to abolish

martial law.

Constitutional reform will lead to a new

constitution and general elections within one year, if

not sooner. It is the hope of the Thai people that, as a

result of this reform, independent organizations to be

re-established under the new constitution will become

more effective in carrying out their tasks to check and

monitor the work of the executive branch of

Government. This is the challenge and the promise.

I wish to assure the General Assembly that

Thailand’s foreign policy will remain unchanged. The

conduct of our foreign policy will continue to be

guided by the spirit and principles enshrined in the

United Nations Charter, and we remain firm in our

commitment to our obligations under international

treaties and agreements to which we are party.

Our thriving partnership with other countries

shall continue to be fostered and enhanced. Thailand’s

international economic policy, including multilateral

trade negotiations and free trade agreements, will be

continued. We will monitor our active role in the

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and

in the Asia Cooperation Dialogue. We will also

continue to promote the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-

Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy, a subregional

and self-reliant collective effort aimed at speeding up

regional integration, and BIMSTEC (Bangladesh-India-

Myanmar-Sri Lanka-Thailand Economic Cooperation), an

organization devoted to economic and social cooperation,

bridging the two sub-continents of South Asia and

South-East Asia. Members of the General Assembly

can, therefore, be assured of continuity in our foreign

policy at all levels — bilateral, regional and

multilateral.

The world today is weakened by

misunderstanding and fear. We judge one another based

on our perceptions, which often times are not accurate.

Out of fear, we go to war to seek peace.

Instead of waging war, we should cultivate peace.

We should learn to respect one another, starting from

within one’s own family, community and workplace,

and extending it to other societies, peoples of different

races, religions and beliefs. Starting with ourselves, we

should expand our circle of friendship and peace and

do everything possible to spread the message of peace

within our nations and around the world.

In this regard, Thailand commends various

initiatives to bridge differences among peoples across

cultures and civilizations. We welcome and support the

Alliance of Civilizations and the Interfaith Dialogue

and Cooperation towards Peace in the Twenty-First

Century. We encourage the strengthening and

promotion of such initiatives in order to foster peace

and lessen the possibility of armed conflict.

Each year, the United Nations spends more than

70 per cent of its $10 billion annual budget on

peacekeeping and other field operations. This trend can

be reversed only if the United Nations works harder to

create a culture of prevention. Prevention is, in the

long run, less costly than peacekeeping operations. In

this regard, it is particularly encouraging that two

important new bodies have been established to

contribute to strengthening the United Nations role in

conflict prevention.

The Peacebuilding Commission is expected to

enable countries to recover after emerging from

conflict and to sustain durable peace. The Human

Rights Council holds out the hope of promoting a

culture of human rights for all. It should play a role in

helping to prevent situations of human rights violations

from deteriorating and developing into armed conflicts.

The Council’s success will be measured not by the

number of resolutions it adopts, but by its real impact

on the ground.

One of the most effective measures for

prevention of armed conflict is development. Thailand

is encouraged that the theme of the general debate this

year, “Implementing a global partnership for

development”, responds to the immediate need to

ensure that development goals are achieved on the firm

basis of a global partnership. Developed countries need

to honour their commitments, particularly in their

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official development assistance to developing countries

and least developed countries.

Sustainable development is, however, not about

aid, it is about trade and opportunity. Developing

countries must not be denied the opportunity to trade

themselves out of poverty. The suspension of the Doha

Round dealt a serious setback to hopes for a true

partnership between the developed and developing

worlds. A global partnership for development must

ensure win-win conditions for rich and poor alike. We

must redouble our efforts to ensure that development

does not become a casualty of domestic interests.

Global partnership is also not limited to

relationships among States. The work of the United

Nations can never be at its best if it does not reflect the

voices of peoples at the grass-roots level. The

Organization must ensure a global partnership for

development and engage partners at all levels. In this

regard, Thailand commends the work of the United

Nations Fund for International Partnerships and

encourages it to carry out additional good work to

assist developing countries, especially those in Africa,

in attaining sustainable development. We also thank

Secretary-General Kofi Annan for having explored the

possibility of engaging civil society and the private

sector in the work of the United Nations. My

delegation looks forward to more work being

undertaken in this regard during the current session of

the General Assembly.

As the Secretary-General pointed out in his report

to the General Assembly this year, the United Nations

is a network of capacities and a source of operational

capacity. In order to maximize this potential, there is

an urgent need to reform the United Nations

Secretariat. Discussion on Secretariat and management

reform has been occupying a large part of our time

since the World Summit. I encourage Member States to

cooperate closely to achieve the common goal of

ensuring that this Organization works to serve peoples

in all corners of the world, in a transparent and most

effective manner.

To enable the United Nations to deliver its best

potential as a network of capacities, we also need to

ensure that the work of the United Nations at

Headquarters and in the field is coherent and well

coordinated. In this regard, Thailand looks forward

enthusiastically to studying the report and

recommendations of the High-Level Panel on UN

System-wide Coherence. We need to ensure that efforts

at the national, regional and international levels are

coordinated and that they respond to needs on the

ground. The work of regional commissions and

organizations should feed into the work of the United

Nations at Headquarters in such a way as to maximize

their synergies.

The year 2005 was one of vision and

commitments. Our leaders met at the World Summit

and laid out their visions for a better world,

underpinned by effective multilateralism and a more

effective United Nations. We have spent most of 2006

mapping out details of the commitments laid out by our

leaders. In addition to the Peacebuilding Commission

and the Human Rights Council, another welcome effort

undertaken by the General Assembly this year was the

recent adoption of the United Nations Global Counter-

Terrorism Strategy (resolution 60/288), which provides

a good example of political will at work. Thailand

wishes to encourage Member States to exert even

greater political will in order to permit the speedy

conclusion of a comprehensive anti-terrorism

convention.

Moreover, the importance of prevention in the

fight against terrorism can never be overstressed. The

causes of marginalization and extremism — including,

in particular, a lack of development — definitely

require the world’s priority attention and must be

properly addressed.

In June, the General Assembly adopted a strong

Political Declaration (resolution 60/262) — as a

follow-up to the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on

HIV/AIDS — aimed at significantly scaling up our

efforts to achieve universal access to comprehensive

prevention programmes, care, treatment and support

for all those who need them by the year 2010. Because

AIDS has killed more than 25 million people and

orphaned 15 million children since the first cases of

AIDS were reported 25 years ago, and because close to

40 million people worldwide are living with

HIV/AIDS, Member States must take those

commitments seriously and translate them into

concrete actions at the national level.

Although much has been accomplished since the

World Summit, that is only the beginning; much more

needs to be done. The year 2007 must be a year for

action and implementation. When the United Nations

was founded 60 years ago, it was our forefathers’

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aspiration that the peoples of the world would live free

from want and fear and in dignity. Today, the United

Nations continues to strive to achieve that noble goal.

Maintaining peace and security, promoting

development and promoting and protecting the human

rights of peoples throughout the world are not the

responsibility of any single nation; they are our shared

responsibility. Each and every one of us must serve as

an agent for change. We must serve as instruments for

peace.

Finally, I would be remiss to end this statement

without paying tribute to Secretary-General Kofi

Annan for his decade of hard work and dedication

serving in the most impossible job in the world, and for

his entire career in the service of humanity. The

Secretary-General’s shoes will be extremely hard to

fill. Anyone who is elected to serve in that post will

have a full agenda on his hands: ensuring that

multilateralism works effectively and that the United

Nations remains relevant.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations,

comprising Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia,

the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia,

Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and

Viet Nam, has endorsed and supported the candidature

of Mr. Surakiart Sathirathai of Thailand to carry on the

work of Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Mr. Surakiart’s

vast background in Government, business and the

academic world would enrich the work of the

Organization. As someone from a developing country,

Mr. Surakiart could serve as a bridge-builder, linking

the North with the South, and could be a voice of

moderation for the world community. In addition to the

fact that he is an Asian candidate, Mr. Surakiart

possesses outstanding personal qualifications. If he is

elected, his experiences could be of great use to the

work of the United Nations in the challenging times

ahead.