Argentina, 2004

I should

like at the outset to congratulate you, Sir, on your

election as President of the General Assembly at its

fifty-ninth session and to commend the outgoing

President, Mr. Julian Hunte, for his work. I should also

like to express once again our appreciation for the

efforts of the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, to

promote peace and multilateralism.

We have come from the South to renew our

resolve to participate actively in United Nations efforts

to promote peace, economic development and the

eradication of hunger and poverty. My country is

grateful for the endorsement of the Group of Latin

American and Caribbean States to occupy a seat on the

Security Council for that regional Group as a non-

permanent member during the period 2005-2006.

There, the Republic of Argentina will reaffirm its

willingness to promote consensus aimed at

strengthening international law and international peace

and security. Those are values that we associate with

representative democracy, respect for human rights, a

fair global trade system, a better distribution of the

benefits of globalization and the democratization of

decision-making in international organizations.

The United Nations must strengthen itself and

move forward in the establishment of valid rules and

procedures to guarantee international peace and

security.

The report of the High-Level Panel on Threats,

Challenges and Change could play a key role in this

area. Its proposals should be properly discussed and

agreed upon in order to implement concrete decisions

that reflect and meet the different perspectives and

interests of all Member States.

We are convinced that there is no acceptable

alternative to multilateral action. Only through

collective debate and consensus could a majority of

countries ensure genuine action. The only legitimacy

for the use of force must come from the decisions of

the Security Council. Because of this, we support

efforts to provide the Council with greater

transparency, and with the participation of the

international community in its decisions, without this

meaning increasing the existing privileges or

establishing new categories.

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The Council's action should be innovative and

express the political will of the international

community, all the while recognizing the fact that the

primary responsibility in avoiding conflicts will always

rest with the parties involved.

We firmly condemn the acts of international

terrorism and related crimes that have so deeply

marked the memory of the people of Argentina and of

other nations of the world, making it the maximum

priority. In this war against terrorism, we require the

active participation and cooperation of the entire

international community, based on respect for

international law.

There is a necessary link between respect for

human rights and the fight against terrorism. And we

must preserve the balance between necessary defence

and respect for human rights. In order to successfully

tackle terrorism, we must ensure legitimacy by having

the support of international public opinion. According

to this logic, the fight transcends the purely military

and predominantly unilateral reaction.

In our view, modern threats to peace come from

both the criminal action of terrorism and the

proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, from

massive human rights violations and the absence of

democratic political participation. But stability and

security are also affected by hunger and extreme

poverty, by social exclusion, by ignorance and

illiteracy, by the spread of disease and epidemics and

by irreversible damage to the environment.

As a result, understanding that peace and

development mutually reinforce each other, we must

work in a multilateral framework that promotes

national and international economic systems based on

the principles of justice, equity, democracy,

participation, transparency, responsibility and social

inclusion. Our commitment to peace and to the

strengthening of democracy in the world requires

decisive action, which makes it possible to combat

hunger, illiteracy and disease. These phenomena

weaken peopleís autonomy and dignity and make it

difficult for them to exercise their full rights as

citizens.

In June 2005, the Third Inter-American Meeting

of Ministers of Health and the Environment, which we

are preparing, will work on the assessment of our

compliance with the Millennium Development Goals in

the region and will submit its conclusions to the

Summit of Heads of State of the Americas, which will

take place in Argentina in November 2005.

We know that the problems that are linked to

inequality and poverty cannot be resolved with social

policies that are based purely on assistance. Even when

plans and programmes providing assistance are a

necessary resource, we should avoid the growth of

societies that are divided between those who work and

those who receive assistance. In this framework, it is

important for work to feature prominently on the

international agenda, linked to freedom, justice,

security and protection, taking into account the fact

that it is the principal means of social integration.

Economic growth is a necessary prerequisite, but

it alone is not enough to remedy the high rates of

unemployment, lack of job security and work in the

informal sector besetting our societies. In the recent

past, many of our countries we have experienced

periods of high growth with low rates of job creation,

high concentrations of income and a significant

increase in poverty. It is clear evidence of the

erroneous nature of the myth that economic growth has

trickle-down effects. Accordingly, it is important for us

to pursue active policies that stimulate business and

productive investment and give priority to the

generation of decent jobs, within a new model that

endows economic change with a strong ethical

component. Decent jobs are a more effective

instrument for ensuring material and human progress

and should become a goal during the international

community during the next decade.

Institutional conditions that would generate jobs

are of a varied nature and depend on the specific

context of every country. However, in developing

countries, the ability of democratic governments to

meet the legitimate demands of job creation from their

societies are impaired by the protectionist measures

that limit trade, especially in the agricultural sector.

The developed world spends more than $300 billion a

year on production subsidies, a figure six times higher

than that of the direct aid given to poor countries. The

poorest countries lose almost $40 billion a year

through loss of exports due to the agricultural

protectionism of industrialized countries.

The world and the attitude of the developed

countries must change if we are to turn things around.

No political system or economic plan can be

sustainable while we have the current critical levels of

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poverty and inequality. This is not something that will

favour a particular group of countries; it will promote

peace and security throughout the world.

In addition, there is the problem of excessive

external indebtedness, the current design of the

international financial machinery and the role played

by multilateral funding organizations. The 1990s, with

its financial excesses at the global level, saw the

expansion of already oversized debts for a large

number of countries. For the sake of the development

of these countries and the international financial

system itself, it is important to emphasize the idea that

economic growth is the central and decisive variable

when it comes to capacity to pay and debt

sustainability.

During the recent international financial crises,

multilateral funding agencies made a series of mistakes

in trying to resolve these problems. The solutions

proposed spread to other countries, and this greatly

magnified the problem of hunger and poverty.

Argentinaís case is an example. After having

applied throughout the 1990s the formulas proposed by

the multilateral financial agencies, the country

experienced a financial crisis that is still not entirely

resolved. In 2002, the International Monetary Fund

(IMF) made a serious mistake in diagnosing the

problem that led to major prognostic errors and poor

policy recommendations.

On the basis of our more recent experience, and

because of the debt experience, we conclude that we

have to provide greater leeway to national authorities.

We need a different relationship with the IMF, one

favouring a solution consistent with the countryís

capacity to pay, sustainable over the medium and long

term and supportive of the principles of equality, social

justice, the fight against poverty, hunger and

unemployment.

We must promote the reformulation of fiscal

accounting methods in the majority of countries, and in

particular in the international financial organizations,

with the aim of excluding investment in infrastructure,

from current spending in the calculation of surpluses.

We know that fiscal surpluses are necessary in

order to stabilize economies and respect obligations to

the international financial community, but it must be

understood that no surplus is defensible. When

surpluses are achieved, thanks to the elimination of

investment in physical and social infrastructure, this

affects the possibility of political stability and growth,

which turns something that was positive for countries

into an imbalance and a negative for the overall

functioning of the economy.

From the tragedy of excessively indebted

countries, we conclude that simple formulas which

claim to be universal and applicable under any

circumstance, at any time and in any place are only

ideological approaches to concrete issues that must be

resolved with realism, flexibility and proactive

attitudes.

We take responsibility for the adoption of alien

policies that led us to the worst of all worlds. But it is

not enough for the multilateral lending agencies simply

to acknowledge their mistake in recommending,

requiring and supporting such policies. What we need

is an urgent and drastic structural reform of the IMF

that will enable it to prevent crises and help to resolve

them. From a lender of development funds it has

become a creditor demanding concessions. This trend

has to change. Otherwise, we will be confined to

structural reforms of a theoretical nature the results of

which will guarantee nothing to anyone, and then a

series of self-critical reviews.

Meanwhile, in our countries inequality will

increase because of the implementation of those

reforms. The excluded millions those reforms have

created will weep and poverty will spread. Mea culpas

will be uttered, and we will see the growth in the

number of poor people, if we bother to notice them.

That is why we say that what is most in need of

structural reform are the international lending agencies.

On another subject, we firmly support United

Nations peacekeeping operations set up through the

appropriate organs. This year we have doubled our

military and police staff in peacekeeping operations;

currently Argentina is involved in eight of the present

16 operations.

The recently created United Nations Stabilization

Mission in Haiti is of particular importance. It is the

only mission established by the Security Council today

that is located on American soil. The region has made a

commitment to help the poorest country in the

Americas to return to the path of growth and freedom

and to guarantee democracy as the best way of

ensuring dignity, social and economic development and

full respect for human rights.

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In that regard, Argentina reaffirms its position of

principle based on universal respect for human rights

and for international humanitarian law. The history of

Argentina explains my Governmentís firm position on

an issue that is now part of its identity as a democratic

nation.

International disputes must be settled through

peaceful means. The United Nations has established,

through different resolutions of the General Assembly

and the Special Committee on the Situation with regard

to the Implementation of the Declaration on the

Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and

Peoples, that the question of the Malvinas South

Georgia and the South Sandwich islands is a special

colonial situation, which must be resolved through

bilateral negotiations between my country and the

United Kingdom. The decolonization Committee has

expressed itself repeatedly on this issue, and we greatly

appreciate its work to promote the resolution of this

question. We reaffirm once again the constant

willingness of my country to reach a just, peaceful and

lasting solution to this sovereignty dispute, which is an

issue of great importance for the people of Argentina.

We urge the United Kingdom to comply promptly with

the international communityís appeal and to resume

negotiations.

In the southern framework, we are committed to

protecting the international communityís interests in

Antarctica by ensuring that all activities there are

compatible with the Antarctic Treaty and with its

Madrid Protocol on Environmental Protection. The

establishment of the Antarctic Treaty secretariat in

Buenos Aires is already a reality. We are grateful for

the assistance of those who always supported

Argentina as home of the secretariat, which

undoubtedly will contribute to achieving the main

objectives of the Antarctic Treaty system.

As a peace-loving State committed to

multilateralism, Argentina has always supported the

settlement of disputes through negotiation and

dialogue, in keeping with equity and justice. In that

respect, our country fully supports the achievement of

a stable and lasting peace in the Middle East, based on

the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-

determination and to an independent, viable State,

while at the same time supporting the right of Israel to

live in peace with its neighbours within safe and

internationally recognized borders. We hope that the

parties will resume negotiations with a view to

resolving their differences and will comply with their

respective obligations under the road map ó a plan

which Argentina, along with the rest of the

international community, considers the best way to

achieve a lasting and just peace in the region.

The Argentine Republic supports the attainment

of the objectives of reducing hunger and poverty and

the provision of safe drinking water and sanitation,

which were the main topics of the World Summit on

Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg

10 years after the Rio de Janeiro Conference on

Environment and Development.

The protection of the atmosphere is of special

concern to us, with respect not only to the ozone layer,

but to all the action needed to attenuate climate change

and to help adapt to the changes that are already taking

place ó which are at the root of the severe weather

conditions that affect developing countries in

particular. In view of our concern, and convinced of the

need for the prompt entry into force of the Kyoto

Protocol, we have invited to Buenos Aires the tenth

Conference of the Parties to the United Nations

Framework Convention on Climate Change in order to

help to give greater impetus to our joint effort to adapt.

I hope to be able to welcome and host Government

delegations at the high-level segment that I will have

the honour of opening in Buenos Aires.

For that reason, we are calling upon the

Assembly to show the necessary strength, courage and

resolve to create a world of justice and equity and to

put an end to the unfair rules often imposed by

multilateral financial institutions, which cause very

difficult problems for many countries and which

increase poverty.