Uzbekistan, 1997

Allow me to congratulate you, Sir, on your

election to your high office, and to express our

confidence in the success of the work of the current

session. I also wish to thank sincerely Ambassador Razali

Ismail for his enormous contribution to the work of the

sessions of the General Assembly over which he presided.

The changes which have been taking place in our

world in recent years and the formation of a qualitatively

new geopolitical system of international relations require

the adaptation of the United Nations to new realities, with

the creation of a flexible and efficient international

mechanism which can take effective measures to address

the new challenges of our time.

In Uzbekistan we have a positive assessment of

Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s plan for reforming the

United Nations. Although a number of these proposals

require careful study and additional elaboration, we can

already highlight concrete aspects which deserve support.

I refer primarily to the decision on the enlargement of the

permanent membership of the Security Council through

the inclusion of Germany and Japan, countries which

today are playing a significant role in world economic and

political affairs.

We also support the enlargement of the non-permanent

membership of the Security Council, which, in our view,

would provide for a more democratic representation of

other States in this body.

To promote efficiency in implementing the resolutions

of the United Nations, there is a need to reinforce and

broaden the authority of the Secretary-General. In our view,

we should also support the proposal to establish the post of

a Deputy Secretary-General.

The idea of merging all the United Nations entities in

different countries under one flag in the so-called United

Nations Houses seems to us quite rational.

The reform of the United Nations administration

structure will allow for reallocation of the funds saved to

enhance development programmes.

The creation of a single agency to combat crime,

terrorism, drug-trafficking and money-laundering is also a

timely proposal.

The proposals on consolidating the economic and

social departments, cutting down on United Nations

administrative staff, replacing the Department of

Humanitarian Affairs and establishing a streamlined

Emergency Relief Coordination Office to coordinate

activities of all the United Nations agencies in

implementing assistance projects, also merit our attention.

Maintaining security and stability in Central Asia and

providing conditions for the sustainable development of the

States of the region are among the crucial guidelines for the

foreign policy of Uzbekistan. To achieve these goals,

Uzbekistan has put forward concrete initiatives, particularly

within the rostrum of the United Nations.

I should like to take this opportunity to draw attention

again to a number of problems which require an immediate

solution, both at the regional level and at the broader

international level.

I refer first to the continuing conflict in Afghanistan,

which has recently become particularly brutal, and to the

continuing instability in Tajikistan.

Our position of principle regarding the Afghan

settlement remains unchanged. Its major aspects include

such points as the maintenance of the territorial integrity

of Afghanistan; the rejection of force as a means of

settling the conflict; the cessation of external interference;

the imposition of an arms embargo; the participation in a

phased peace process of all the major forces involved in

the conflict; the implementation of the peace process

under the aegis of the United Nations, and with the

participation of the Organization of the Islamic

Conference (OIC); and the creation of a broad-based

coalition Government including all the various opposition

parties.

We share the view of the Secretary-General that if

the meaningless civil war in Afghanistan is to be halted,

regional and international participants must shoulder

additional obligations. Despite all the complications of the

situation around Afghanistan, trends have recently been

observed which can, and indeed must, be used to begin

the peace process.

The proposal on imposing an arms embargo deserves

special attention. Such an embargo, which has already

been proposed by Uzbekistan on many occasions, must be

considered the principal condition for halting external

interference in Afghanistan’s affairs. We are well aware

of the technical difficulties related to the implementation

of this initiative in the conditions prevailing in

Afghanistan. However, we do not think that they are

insurmountable. In our view, the process of imposing an

arms embargo should be divided into two stages: first, the

adoption by the Security Council of a resolution on the

embargo, which would be political in nature; secondly,

the drawing up of United Nations control machinery for

compliance.

We welcome the stepping up of United Nations

efforts to resolve the Afghan problem, in particular, the

appointment of Mr. Brahimi as the Special Envoy of the

Secretary-General. We hope that the United Nations will

also support our initiative for the creation of a contact

group from among the countries neighbouring

Afghanistan, as well as the United States, Russia and

other interested States, together with, of course,

representatives of inter-Afghan forces.

Uzbekistan fully supports the principle of the

indivisibility of security — internal, regional and global.

Our country was among the first of the newly

independent States to accede to the Treaty on the Non-

Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. At the forty-eighth

session of the General Assembly, in 1993, Uzbekistan

called upon the international community to declare

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Central Asia a nuclear-weapon-free zone, and we have been

consistently moving towards the implementation of this

initiative.

Concrete confirmation of this policy was the holding

of the international conference “Central Asia — Nuclear-

Weapon-Free Zone” in Tashkent on 14 to 16 September,

under United Nations auspices and with the participation of

high-level representatives of more than 60 international

organizations and countries. This forum was a major

international event in the history of the region. However,

we are well aware that the process of establishing a

nuclear-weapon-free zone in Central Asia is not a one-time

political action. It must be carried out within the framework

of existing agreements and in accordance with international

experience, in particular within the framework of the Treaty

on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and

the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

In this regard, on the regional level a reliable system

of collective efforts by States participating in this initiative

should be developed. Those efforts must ensure the non-

proliferation regime, the ecological safety of hazardous

industries that involve nuclear raw materials and the

prevention of leakage of nuclear technologies and materials.

On the international level it is necessary to give

priority attention to the settlement of regional problems.

The phased advancement towards global security is possible

only after we create secure and stable regions. In other

words, when dealing with global problems, it is essential to

follow the principle of moving from regionalism to

globalism.

It is also necessary to fundamentally reconsider the

security guarantees provided to the non-nuclear States, first

and foremost to those participating in nuclear-weapon-free

zones. We need to organically combine the efforts for

promoting non-proliferation and ensuring global nuclear

security with the resolution of regional problems. The

problem of non-proliferation must be considered in close

linkage with significant reductions of other types of

weapons of mass destruction.

Uzbekistan highly appreciates the efforts of

international organizations — first of all the United

Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in

Europe (OSCE) and the International Atomic Energy

Agency (IAEA) — for their support of the Central Asian

initiative. We would like to request the General Assembly,

its President and the Secretary-General to assist in the

passage of a special resolution in support of the initiative

declaring Central Asia a nuclear-weapon-free zone and in

the establishment of a United Nations expert group to

study the forms and elements of the regional agreement

on this issue.

Our cooperation within the framework of the OSCE

is making a significant contribution to enhancing regional

security in Central Asia. We consider the OSCE

Parliamentary Assembly Expanded Bureau Meeting

Seminar, held in September 1997 in the capital of

Uzbekistan, as the world community’s recognition of

Central Asia’s importance in issues related to

strengthening peace and stability on the regional and

global levels.

The creation of the Central Asian collective

peacekeeping battalion by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and

Uzbekistan was an important step towards safeguarding

peace and stability in the region. For the first time on the

territory of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan broad-scale

exercises of the Central Asian collective peacekeeping

battalion, Centrazbat 97, were held, with the participation

of multinational forces. These exercises constituted a

serious test, the successful completion of which confirmed

this battalion as a fully fledged unit in the United Nations

reserve peacekeeping forces.

Once again we should like to take advantage of this

United Nations forum to call upon the international

community to pool its efforts to tackle the serious threat

to the security of the Central Asian region that may also

have consequences on the global level. I am referring to

the ecological situation in the Aral Sea basin.

The current session of the General Assembly — the

Reform Assembly, as it was called by Secretary-General

Kofi Annan — must give a fresh impetus to the joint

efforts of the international community in combating

organized crime, drug dealing and terrorism. We need to

develop transnational programmes to confront these

challenges and threats.

We may confidently say that if favourable conditions

and trends are maintained, in the twenty-first century

Central Asia, given its geostrategic significance and its

vast natural, energy and human resources, will become a

promising and dynamic regional market of a global

importance.

The interdependence of the situation emerging in

Central Asia, the common European security system

taking shape and the outlook for developing situations

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within the vast Asian continent means there is an urgent

need for the international community to take measures to

ensure durable peace and stability in this region along with

its sustainable development.