Venezuela, 2000

I

again extend our congratulations to the President on his

election.

The Millennium Summit has charted for us a plan

of action for the immediate future. We must

consistently bear that plan of action in mind as our

main priority, and direct all our work towards its

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effective implementation. We cannot view the final

document adopted by the most important gathering of

world leaders ever held as a mere expression of good

intentions and act as though it were a matter of routine

and as if nothing had happened.

First, we must take action to ensure that the vast

majority of the human race living in developing

countries make significant progress towards the

attainment of sustainable development. We must make

special efforts with respect to the millions of men,

women and children who live in poverty. They must be

given means of subsistence, education and medical

care.

Our most important shared instrument, the United

Nations, is currently ill-equipped for that enormous

task. We must therefore focus on giving it the power

and means to play an effective role in that important

effort. We believe that the United Nations must play a

central role in the struggle for development. To that

end, we must consider without delay ways to

strengthen the General Assembly, our most democratic

and open institution. It is equally necessary to

strengthen the Organization's primary instrument in

this field, the Economic and Social Council, which

should become a real council for human development,

with authority and ability to act comparable to the

Security Council's.

The message of the Millennium Summit is very

clear: peace and development are equally important,

and each depends on the other. The most urgent tasks

in the struggle against poverty are also clear: to

alleviate the debt burden of highly indebted poor

countries; to tackle the scourges of AIDS and malaria;

and to provide education for all. In all of those tasks

the United Nations must play a leadership role.

In order to meet the established goals of reducing

world poverty by half by 2015, we must ensure that

national Government's measures adopted in accordance

with the social platform of United Nations conferences,

to benefit their populations in the areas of health, food

and education, are accompanied by international

cooperation based on solidarity, in order that those

tasks are carried out efficiently and promptly.

It is therefore particularly important, in order to

support the objectives of, and strategies for, poverty

eradication, that developed countries meet their

commitment to dedicate 0.7 per cent of gross domestic

product to official development assistance.

It is equally urgent to ensure that the rules

regulating international trade and finance are just and

equitable, not only in theory but also in practice, so

that they lead to development for all, and not merely to

the further enrichment of a privileged minority.

In that regard, the high-level intergovernmental

meeting on financing for development, to be held next

year, should result in effective coordination and

harmonization of all the efforts Governments and

international organizations, so that those efforts may

bear tangible fruits meeting the needs of all countries.

The United Nations must be the coordinating centre for

the World Trade Organization and the Bretton Woods

institutions.

With regard to foreign debt, it is vital that the

international community promote, on the basis of

North-South dialogue, the adoption of concerted

measures for the effective resolution of this problem,

which is seriously weakening the sustained economic

growth of developing countries affected by the

excessive burden of debt servicing. We believe that it

will be necessary to consider the timely rescheduling

on favourable terms of the international financial

commitments of developing countries, including highly

indebted poor countries and medium-income countries.

The freeing of resources currently allocated to

debt payment will make it possible for those countries

more efficiently to meet the real needs of their

populations in the areas of food, health and education.

It will also promote their peoples' participation and full

integration within their respective societies. It is also

necessary to recognize the economic and social costs

incurred by developing countries in meeting foreign

debt payments.

Shared responsibility in dealing with economic

and social issues, as well as with regard to questions of

peace, requires more intensive and effective

participation by developing countries in the world

economy, particularly in decision-making and the

formulation of international and economic norms.

The efforts of the developing countries towards

poverty eradication, economic and social progress,

sustained economic growth and sustainable

development are dependent on a favourable

international economic environment and on

international cooperation for renewed and strengthened

development. The magnitude and urgency of the

challenges facing us in the economic and social sphere

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require the support of all Member States in order to

realize the aspirations of those who cry out for a more

equitable and just world, in which poverty eradication

and the promotion of development are a genuine

expression of international peace and stability.

As for our other main priority, the maintenance of

peace, we must learn from our experience — both from

our mistakes and from our achievements.

The United Nations must be provided with the

means to anticipate and prevent conflicts, not just put

an end to them once they have erupted.

In this respect, disarmament, including nuclear

disarmament, is vital, as is the elimination of the illicit

arms trade. Also key is the struggle against

transnational criminal activities such as terrorism and

the illicit drug trade.

In this context, we welcome the proposal of the

Secretary-General to convene an international

conference on the reduction of the nuclear threat. We

believe that this could help strengthen the commitment

to eliminate nuclear weapons, as recently agreed at the

sixth Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on

the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).

Venezuela supports the convening of the United

Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms

and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, to be held next

year. That Conference will be a perfect opportunity for

us to combine our efforts to adopt measures of

cooperation to eliminate this illicit activity, which has

links to organized transnational crime and is

encouraged by unscrupulous groups or individuals who

act unlawfully.

The role of the United Nations as the only forum

empowered to authorize the use of force must be

reaffirmed, without distinctions or exceptions, apart

from self-defence, which in turn must be in strict

compliance with the provisions of the Charter.

It is urgent to this end to make effective progress

towards reform of the Security Council. This does not

mean mere cosmetic change, but rather real reform,

with a view to ensuring its credibility as a democratic,

transparent and impartial organ in which no country

has the right to block, through the use of the veto,

action agreed by the majority.

If we wish the Millennium Summit to have real

significance, if we want it to be remembered not only

because of the milestone represented by the

participation of an unprecedented number of world

leaders, we must take concrete action at this session of

the General Assembly. Towards that end, Venezuela

fully supports the proposal made recently by the

Minister for Foreign Affairs of Uruguay to create a

working group to ensure implementation of the

Millennium Summit Declaration. We believe that this

group should be open to participation by all Member

States. We believe also that the representatives of the

countries that co-chaired the Summit and those that

presided over the four round tables, as well as the

Chairmen of the regional groups, should participate

actively in this process.