Vietnam, 2001

I am

again the last speaker of the day, but I am happy

because it gives me a little extra time to congratulate

the President on the effective manner in which he is

conducting the work of the session, which gives us

every reason to believe that it will be steered to a

fruitful conclusion.

I wish also to extend our heartfelt condolences

and sympathy to the families of the plane crash victims

of yesterday. Let us pray that it had nothing to do with

terrorist acts, as the tragic events of 11 September

alone were more than enough to bring to the fore the

fight against terrorism as one of the top priorities of the

United Nations and the international community.

Cognizant of the distinction between terrorism and the

struggle to exercise a people’s right to self-

determination, Viet Nam persistently condemns

terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, which

takes a heavy toll of innocent lives. We fully support

the international endeavour and cooperation to ensure

world peace, stability and security in full conformity

with the United Nations Charter and with fundamental

principles of international law, particularly those

respecting national independence and sovereignty. No

individual country can go solo or have double

standards in this fight. While members of the

international community must act in a responsible

manner by not tolerating, nurturing and/or supporting

terrorists on their soil, they should also bring the

terrorists to justice or extradite them to the country

where their crimes were committed, so that they can be

duly punished.

Though combating international terrorism has

become the pressing task of the day, it must not

overshadow the challenges of the twenty-first century.

Poverty, the widened development gap, the HIV/AIDS

epidemic, the deteriorating environment, regional

tensions and conflicts, all point to the potential

instability of the world today, as mentioned by our

leaders a year ago. The Summit Declaration, in

reflecting the genuine wishes and resolve of the

world’s peoples, vigorously reconfirmed the values and

principles of the Charter, defining the priority

objectives of the United Nations and the international

community for the years to come, thus becoming our

platform, our programme of action for the new

millennium. To implement the Declaration at the global

level, the United Nations last year conducted numerous

activities, including the organization of a series of

special sessions in the economic, social and security

fields. The international organizations in the United

Nations system — such as the United Nations

Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations

Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations

Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations

International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) —

are actively coordinating with nations to incorporate in

their national programmes the specific objectives set

forth in the Summit Declaration. This is a significant

start which should be further promoted, as the most

pressing challenge to us all is how to eradicate poverty

on a global scale. In this spirit we wish to congratulate

the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, who started his

second term in office with the Nobel Peace Prize. We

are fully convinced that the Secretary-General will

continue to contribute to the cause of all nations and

peoples.

Against the backdrop of globalization

spearheaded by the information technology revolution,

the other side of international political and economic

life has been further exposed. The gap between rich

and poor has widened further, and adverse

circumstances in international relations have emerged,

further underscoring the disadvantage and vulnerability

of the developing countries. The Secretary-General

once said words to the effect that poverty and the gap

between rich and poor are the seeds of instability and

precarious development, and that today’s main

challenge is how to ensure that globalization becomes

the driving force of development instead of leaving a

billion people in abject poverty. A common concern at

present, however, is the tendency towards decreasing

official development assistance (ODA), particularly the

decrease in contributions to the development

organizations in the United Nations system, which will

surely hamper their activities. More than ever before,

the United Nations, the international community, the

developed countries in particular, should further assist

the developing countries in the eradication of poverty,

disease and illiteracy, and facilitate their fuller and

equitable participation in international economic life.

Development requires an environment of peace

and stability. But complex implications arising from

the conflicts in some parts of the world and the

possible intensification of an arms race, are not

conducive to development at all. Of particular concern

is the escalation of violence in the Middle East. We

join the community of world peoples calling for an

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early end to violence, the resumption of peaceful

negotiations for a just, long-lasting solution in which

the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and the

legitimate rights of all parties concerned, would be

guaranteed. By the same token, the embargoes imposed

upon Cuba, Iraq and Libya, which cause untold

suffering to these peoples, should be lifted so as to

enable them to concentrate their energy and efforts on

national reconstruction and development.

This year, South-East Asia has witnessed certain

complex developments, but peace, stability and

cooperation remain the burning aspiration of our

peoples and continue to be the main tendency. The

Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN)

countries are determined to build a zone of peace,

development and prosperity and to coordinate efforts to

effectively cope with regional and global challenges. In

that context, the success of the 34th Ministerial

Meeting, the eighth ASEAN Regional Forum held in

Hanoi last August and the ASEAN Summit held in

Brunei Darussalam in early November, all contributed

to establishing priorities and effective measures for the

future of this region. These meetings reaffirmed

ASEAN’s determination to further promote solidarity,

cooperation, dialogue and mutual understanding within

ASEAN, and between ASEAN countries and their

dialogue partners, especially China, Japan and the

Republic of Korea, for the peaceful settlement of their

differences on the basis of respect for fundamental

principles and norms of international law, particularly

those regarding consensus and non-interference in the

internal affairs of others. The Hanoi Declaration on

Narrowing the Development Gap for Closer ASEAN

Integration and other important documents were

adopted on confidence-building and the promotion of

mutual understanding for peace and stability in South-

East Asia, as well as in Asia and the Pacific. They

welcomed the promising progress in the ASEAN-China

consultation regarding a code of conduct in the Eastern

Sea, reaffirming those principles of the 1992 ASEAN

Manila Declaration on the settlement of conflicting

claims of territorial sovereignty in the Eastern Sea. We

sincerely hope that the United Nations and the

international community, in line with the Millennium

Declaration, will deliver active support and assistance

to the implementation of our regional cooperation for

peace, stability and development in the region and

throughout the world.

In the course of 15 years of rebuilding, Viet Nam

has recorded great achievements in all fields. The ninth

Party Congress has drawn necessary lessons from our

own experiences, reaffirmed our resolve to continue the

course, stepping up industrialization and modernization

programmes, and mapping out the socio-economic

development strategy for the years 2001 to 2010. While

trying to bring into full play our inner strength, we will

create more favourable conditions to attract investment

and expand further effective cooperation with foreign

partners and countries. We will continue to pursue our

foreign policy of independence, openness, international

economic integration, friendship and trusted

partnership with all countries in the international

community in the endeavour for peace, independence

and development.

The Millennium Summit and its Declaration

provided us with a momentum in the new millennium,

which should be maintained through the active

implementation of the guidelines unanimously

endorsed by our leaders. The United Nations and each

Member State should make efforts to achieve those

objectives.

In order to contribute effectively to the common

cause, the United Nations should speed up the process

of reform, renovation and democratization. Viet Nam

fully supports the central role of the General Assembly,

the highest representative body of the whole

membership, and the reform and expansion of the

Security Council in both the non-permanent and

permanent categories. The developing countries should

have fuller representation and participation in the

Council’s decision-making. But it is of the utmost

importance that the United Nations should design

measures to concentrate resources for development and

the eradication of poverty and for the other major

objectives included in the Millennium Declaration. It is

the expectation of the whole membership that the

United Nations should become a worthy world body,

operating in a more effective manner in the interests of

all countries and for a just, humanistic and better world

in the new millennium. We believe that the United

Nations will surely live up to this expectation and Viet

Nam pledges to contribute actively to this common

endeavour.