Tajikistan, 2002

It is

a great pleasure to join in the heartfelt congratulations

addressed to Mr. Jan Kavan on his election to the high

post of President of the fifty-seventh session of the

General Assembly. Undoubtedly, he will apply his

extensive professional and life experience to benefit

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this General Assembly session, so that it will give fresh

impetus to the efforts of our universal Organization.

East Timor and Switzerland are new Members

this year. The international community welcomes them

with joy. We congratulate the Governments and peoples

of those two friendly nations.

Every year the issues the United Nations must

address become more challenging. The need for a

universal organization has become especially urgent

over the past decade. It is understandable. The cold war

has ended and humanity has entered a new stage of

development.

Addressing global issues and challenges through

common efforts has become a basic dimension of that

new stage. Another distinctive feature is the

constructive nature of such efforts. A third dimension

is common understanding that all those efforts, coupled

with democratization of internal societies and

international relations, should bring about improved

living standards for Member States. The United

Nations can and must play a significant role in

coordinating national, regional and international efforts

in the age of globalization.

Tajikistan has been a Member State for the 10

years of its new history. As the Tajik State was being

established, a fratricidal conflict was sweeping the

country. However, over the past five years, peace and

stability have prevailed in Tajikistan. Respect for Tajik

history and traditions, human rights, an atmosphere of

tolerance for diverse opinions and views and focus on

major concerns of the nation are all fundamental

components of the peace process in Tajikistan, whose

lessons could be applied in resolving conflicts in other

hotspots of the world.

Tajikistan, which suffered to achieve its

democracy, is creating today a secular society, has a

substantial foundation for its development and looks to

the future with optimism. That optimistic outlook is

determined by President Emomali Rakhmonov's

rational and carefully considered policy of establishing

good relations with Tajikistan's neighbours and by the

assistance and support received from the international

community.

The Tajik people extend special appreciation to

the United Nations, which, during the time of our

difficult trials, demonstrated in the most effective

manner its peacemaking and humanitarian capacities.

The United Nations, working in close cooperation with

the Tajik Government, is showing in Tajikistan its

capacity to strengthen peace and stability. We are

satisfied with the performance of the United Nations

Tajikistan Office of Peace-building in our country and

believe that the experience it gained in Tajikistan can

be used for the benefit of other States.

The rehabilitation of the economy, the eradication

of poverty, increasing the living standard and job

creation are the issues that are still referred to as our

country's most pressing problems. Tajikistan is a State

whose social and economic development depends, to a

great extent, on the international community's common

and comprehensive approach to the issues of

combating poverty, financing development, ensuring an

equitable international trade system, eliminating

ecological threats and resolving demographic

problems. In that context, we invariably favour further

enhancement of the role of the United Nations as the

core international forum for developing such a

common approach.

Over the past few months, the Member States

have achieved some progress in that area. Overall, we

believe the outcome of the International Conference on

Financing for Development in Monterrey was positive,

and we are looking forward to the implementation of

its resolutions.

Environmental issues and issues of sustainable

development are among the top-ranking items of the

United Nations agenda and, appropriately, are

becoming a significant component of multilateral

diplomacy. The World Summit on Sustainable

Development, recently held in Johannesburg was one

of the major events in that area. At the Summit, the

world's top policy makers analysed the progress made

in the implementation of Agenda 21 over the past 10

years. The concept of sustainable development that

emerged from the United Nations Conference on

Environment and Development, in Rio de Janeiro in

1992, was further elaborated and acquired new

meaningful content. The international community faces

the task of meeting the challenges established at the

forum in Johannesburg. Accomplishing that task could

give us hope that problems such as poverty eradication,

environmental protection and ensuring social equity

can be resolved in a comprehensive manner.

It is our intention to make a viable contribution to

implementing the World Summit resolutions. We hope

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that international cooperation in that area will fully

account for the specific conditions and economic

capacities of the countries from different groups,

particularly, the developing countries and countries

with economies in transition.

Over recent years we have witnessed a dynamic

process in connection with the United Nations

Framework Convention on Climate Change, the United

Nations Convention on Biological Diversity and the

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

The number of Member States that ratified the Kyoto

Protocol and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is

increasing. Interaction between countries in addressing

desertification and land degradation issues is gaining

momentum.

Tajikistan has been an active participant in those

important processes. We believe it is essential to

consistently continue coordination of the

implementation of the Conventions in order to avoid

duplication and ensure effective allocation of limited

international resources.

Among the most valuable assets of our planet are

water resources. They are at the core of both ecological

balance and economic prosperity. They are an

indispensable prerequisite for food production,

improvement of social welfare and economic growth.

However, even today many regions of the world face a

shortage of fresh water. According to the Secretary-

General, if current practices of water usage persist, by

2025 two thirds of the world's population will be living

in a country experiencing so-called water stress.

The urgency of the problem encouraged

Tajikistan to propose the initiative of proclaiming the

year 2003 the International Year of Freshwater. We

believe that the preparation for that year and the

various events planned within its framework, in

particular, the Third World Water Forum, to be held in

Japan in March 2003, will give Member States a good

opportunity to exchange their expertise gained in

applying successful patterns of water-resource

management and in searching for needed finances and

resources.

In putting forward the initiative for the

International Year of Freshwater, we expected that the

major focus of the events to be held in 2003 would be

on universal access to freshwater and diminishing the

possibility of conflicts related to water shortage. That

would make a specific and substantial contribution to

achieving the goals of sustainable development.

It is impossible to achieve the goals of

sustainable development unless the economic

component of globalization is given due attention and

discrimination in economic relations is eliminated. In

an environment where wealthy countries benefit from

globalization and continue to get richer, while poor

counties get poorer, social tensions increase and cause

political extremism, including the most extreme

form — namely, terrorism. Counteracting the threat of

terror is a long-term endeavour, since it is a

phenomenon that is alien to human civilization, and it

is multidimensional and deep-rooted. In addition to

uniting the will of all its participants, applying military

resources and strengthening the international legal

framework, the anti-terrorist coalition established

following 11 September 2001 must direct its efforts

towards elimination of the primary reasons for

terrorism, which can be traced to unsettled conflicts

and outrageous social and economic inequities.

Tajikistan is actively participating in the common

effort to ensure a unified international legal framework

for combating terrorism. Our country has become a

participant in the most universal anti-terrorist

conventions. We totally support the activities of the

Security Council in this area. We highly appreciate the

role of the Counter-Terrorism Committee that was set

up in compliance with resolution 1373 (2001), under

the leadership of Sir Jeremy Greenstock; this

Committee has assumed a central role in the

unprecedented effort to establish a global system to

counteract international terrorism. Pursuant to the

authority conferred on it by the United Nations Charter,

the Security Council will continue to play an active

role in preventing threats to international peace and

security posed by terrorism.

It is essential to continue using all kinds of

political, economic, financial and humanitarian

measures in order to develop a comprehensive

approach to the eradication of international terrorism.

It is important that the development of fundamental

principles to combat terrorism be enhanced at the

international legal level. In this connection, we expect

the General Assembly shortly to adopt a

comprehensive convention on combating international

terrorism, as well as to complete negotiating and

adopting a comprehensive international convention on

combating acts of nuclear terrorism.

We believe the time has come to convene a

special session of the General Assembly in 2003 to

discuss all aspects of combating terrorism and to adopt

consolidated decisions. At that time, we could also

discuss the progress made over five years on the

implementation of the decisions of the twentieth

special session dedicated to the illicit production, sale

and trafficking of narcotics. In view of the ever-

increasing drug threat, we regard the creation of an

anti-narcotics coalition of States as an issue of critical

importance. The war against the international terrorist

underground will not be effective until the international

community makes substantial progress in its struggle

against drug cartels and narco-barons.

A future global system of counteracting terrorist

and narcotics threats cannot be created without support

from regional and subregional structures and

institutions that have been active in this and other areas

of international cooperation.

An increase in the number of regional

organizations and the strengthening of their

mechanisms not only reflects an objective need for

filling the lacunae in the interaction of neighbouring

States, but also meets the urgent need to establish

additional channels for conducting a dialogue and

exchange of views on the most important issues. The

large-scale operations to liberate the Afghan people

from the repressive Taliban regime and measures aimed

at the restoration of peace and stability in war-ravaged

Afghanistan have demonstrated what can be

accomplished when the United Nations and regional

organizations combine their efforts.

Today, our friendly neighbour, Afghanistan,

continues to go through a complicated process of

achieving national accord and establishing stable

institutions of government and a stable political

regime. The revival of an independent and peaceful

Afghanistan is taking place under difficult conditions.

The urgent problem of providing security still exists.

The humanitarian situation also remains alarming.

However, what has been accomplished by the

Government of Hamid Karzai is very impressive.

It is important that the United Nations continue to

coordinate the international community's common

efforts in strengthening the process of restoring and

rehabilitating post-war Afghanistan and completing the

elimination of hotbeds of international terrorism on its

territory and the eradication of religious extremism and

the narcotics threat. In this context, the United Nations

Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) faces

serious challenges. We believe it is necessary to

continue increasing economic and humanitarian

assistance to Afghanistan and not stop at what has been

accomplished so far.

The Government of Tajikistan will continue to

contribute to the revival of Afghanistan through

building its relations with the friendly Afghan people

on the basis of friendship, mutual respect and

multifaceted cooperation for the benefit of our two

countries and regional security.

With respect to reform of the United Nations, and

regional issues, it is important to realize that neither

global challenges nor most of the urgent regional issues

can be dealt with successfully unless the whole United

Nations system is strengthened and its core role in

international affairs is reinforced. To achieve this in

practice, one has to support the Secretary-General in

his efforts to reform the United Nations internal system

and to recruit personnel with high professional skills.

The Member States should assist the Secretary-General

in his efforts to expand the capacity of the Secretariat

to carry out peacekeeping operations, prevent and

resolve conflicts and contribute to post-conflict peace-

building. Reform also implies further efforts towards

democratization of the United Nations system as a

whole, so that the capacities and contributions of small

countries, no matter how numerous their problems, can

be united with those of large States.

We are firmly convinced that reforms should

focus on improving the efficiency of special United

Nations institutions and on the implementation of

development projects. We deem it important that the

United Nations reconsider the allocation of its

resources, that it stop implementing programmes and

projects of low effectiveness, and instead commit the

freed funds to new priorities.

The year that has passed since the fifty-sixth

Assembly session has convincingly demonstrated that

the United Nations, with its 190 Member States, is

irreplaceable when dealing with international affairs.

As never before, the United Nations has proven its

ability to meet the most complicated challenges faced

by humanity. It is our conviction that, in the twenty-

first century, by cooperating with the United Nations,

we will be able to create a world without destructive

wars, a world that will become secure and prosperous.