Belarus, 2000

Let me first welcome

Tuvalu as a new Member of the United Nations.

The current session of the General Assembly is

an important landmark for the international community.

We are still feeling the beat of the Millennium Summit.

Our crucial task now is to seek specific ways to

implement the provisions of its final Declaration.

In his address to the Summit, President

Alyaksandr Lukashenka of Belarus clearly defined an

ultimate objective, as we see it, for shaping the image

of the United Nations in the twenty-first century, which

is to meet the needs and aspirations of our respective

nations and seek practical opportunities for real

improvement of the quality of life of every single

individual. This is the imperative that reality has been

dictating to us. It is also the main thrust of the

Secretary-General's report (A/54/2000) “We, the

peoples: the role of the United Nations in the twenty-

first century”.

Belarus holds in high respect the unique historic

role played by the United Nations in international

developments of the second half of the twentieth

century. As can be seen from all the Organization's

previous experience, a stable, just and prosperous

world can only be attained on the basis of the sovereign

equality of States, their territorial integrity and political

independence, non-interference in their internal affairs

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and respect for national traditions. Humanity has had to

confront conflict and humanitarian stress every time

those principles were disregarded. We believe that they

will continue to be of similar importance in the next

century.

Just as was the case 55 years ago, there is hardly

a more pressing task for the United Nations than the

maintenance of international peace. All Member States

have equal rights to peaceful and sustainable

development. Thus the security of no State, whether

small island country or super-Power, can be achieved

through disrespect for the interests of others.

The Republic of Belarus is committed to its

choice of a nuclear-weapon-free world. We believe in

the generosity and great meaning of the initiative by

the head of our State to establish a nuclear-weapon-free

space in Central and Eastern Europe. We are confident

that in due time this idea will receive a sufficient

number of proponents.

During this session Belarus has deposited its

instruments for ratification of the Comprehensive

Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and the additional Protocol to

the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, the

Protocol on Blinding Laser Weapons. At the same time,

a continuing absence of visible consensus within the

United Nations on the key issues of the international

disarmament process is becoming a dismaying reality.

To exit this dead end would essentially require setting

priorities and embarking upon an active dialogue aimed

at achieving progress in both nuclear and conventional

disarmament. Five million victims over the past

decade — is this not serious enough to make real

action imperative?

It is crucial to maintain and consolidate the

strategic global parity built under the complex

conditions of the twentieth century. In this regard,

preservation of and respect for the Anti-Ballistic

Missile (ABM) Treaty is a logical basis for the

maintenance of international stability. Its violation

could result in an extremely dangerous disruption of

the established set of interdependent agreements in this

area. The Republic of Belarus will again sponsor the

resolution on the ABM Treaty during this session.

The time-span between the two most recent

sessions of the General Assembly has been marked by

the United Nations active involvement in the peaceful

settlement of disputes, post-conflict peace-building and

rehabilitation. We observe with satisfaction the actions

taken by the Security Council, more resolutely and

consistently than in the past, with respect to such

complex situations as conflicts in Sierra Leone, the

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia and

Eritrea, Angola and East Timor. My country has been

following with hope the developments in the Middle

East. We believe that the withdrawal of Israeli troops

from Southern Lebanon and the Palestinian-Israeli

peace talks will favour the resolution of the crisis in the

region.

For over a quarter of a century attempts have

been made to break a stalemate in the settlement of the

Cyprus problem. It is crucial that the United Nations

continue its work to resolve this crisis on the basis of

the appropriate resolutions of the Security Council and

the General Assembly.

The development of specific preventive measures

for the elimination of root causes of potential conflicts

should be the focus of United Nations attention in the

near future. It is important to make irreversible the

growing trend in international efforts to define

universal mechanisms and specify practical measures

of conflict prevention and crisis management. The

activities of the Panel of experts headed by

Ambassador Brahimi, in addition to the upcoming

Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and

Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, are an important

contribution thereto.

As the Secretary-General has rightly observed,

the very credibility of the Organization as regards

playing a decisive role in the war and peace process is

at stake. In this respect, the Republic of Belarus has

been and remains firmly committed to the preservation

of the primary role played by the Security Council in

decision-making on actions to avert threats to peace

and security. Viewed from that perspective, further

improvement in the working methods of the Council

and reform of its membership on the basis of equitable

geographic representation are not merely an important

task, but a pressing imperative.

Belarus reconfirms its determination to

constructively contribute to the activities of the

Council should my country be elected as a non-

permanent member for the period 2002-2003.

The tremendous benefits of globalization will be

reduced to nothing unless there is a clear understanding

of the dire need for the international community to

learn a common language — that is, the language of

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law. In recent years we have witnessed practical

demonstrations of situations in which even the slightest

deviation from internationally accepted norms would

inevitably present an extreme danger not only for the

violators themselves, but also for the entire

international community. It is an encouraging fact that

since its outset the United Nations has gained

significant potential by accumulating all the far-

reaching ideas, hopes and aspirations of humankind for

building a better world.

Implementing the norms of international law at

the national level should become a priority for the

United Nations and its partners. Today my country is a

party to the United Nations most important conventions

and treaties. The establishment of a legislative model

based on the United Nations Charter and international

treaties and conventions, complemented by national

legislation, is the objective we must all strive for.

The stability of the interdependent world is

hardly attainable when the system of international

politics is perceived solely as the domination of one

State or interaction among separate groups of States.

Differences in social and economic advancement will

persist for a long time. Therefore, in a globalizing

world the United Nations should play a more active

role in promoting the economic development and social

progress of all countries.

Belarus supports a sharper focus in international

efforts on the problems of the developing countries,

particularly in Africa. We also deem it expedient to

take into account the needs of countries with

economies in transition, which would by no means

soften the focus on the problems of the developing

world. We see no contradiction in such an interlinkage,

as appropriate goals and objectives to this end could

only be formulated jointly with the United Nations.

The Republic of Belarus shares the apprehensions

expressed by many States over the environmental

future of our planet. In this regard, we perceive as

highly indicative the debates at the Millennium Summit

and at the Summit meeting of the Security Council.

Belarus has signed and ratified a number of important

international agreements in the area of environmental

protection, including the United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on

Biological Diversity.

Against this background, we continue to be

acutely sensitive to the ever-diminishing interest by the

international community in the Chernobyl disaster, the

world's largest technological catastrophe of the past

century, to which Belarus fell a major victim. In this

regard, I should like to quote once more from the

address by the President of our country at the

Millennium Summit:

“Without awareness of our joint responsibility for

preserving the common human environment, all

discussions of a fair distribution of the benefits

and disadvantages of globalization will remain

just shallow talk.” (A/55/PV.4)

We are confident that the United Nations, which has so

far contributed significantly to assisting our people in

the relevant area, will be in a position to find new

sources and mechanisms to help Belarus overcome the

Chernobyl tragedy.

The ideas of democracy and respect for human

rights can certainly play a key role in continuous

human development in the twenty-first century. Yet to

make this goal attainable, it is essential to relinquish

attempts to use those principles to discriminate among

peoples and “punish” unwelcome States and

Governments. Regrettably, we must note a certain

involvement by the United Nations in efforts to

establish a “club of countries of advanced democracy”

on the basis of some random criteria. It is inadmissible

that the idea of the forum of new and restored

democracies approved within our Organization should

lead to the separation of peoples into teachers and

pupils.

The principle standpoint of Belarus on this issue

is the following: a truly democratic world can only be

based on an equal dialogue among different

civilizations.

This year is of special significance to the

development of democracy in my country.

Parliamentary elections due in October will be held in

full conformity with democratic standards. We have

invited international observers to monitor the elections

and look forward to seeing them carried out and

contributing in real terms to democratic development in

Belarus.

Each session of the United Nations General

Assembly is a milestone in the evolution of the United

Nations itself and the development of the system of

international politics as a whole. In that sense, the

current session has been endowed with very special

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powers. It is up to us all to determine how much the

United Nations will be able to show that the hopes and

aspirations of our nations at the dawn of the new

century were justified. In the discharge of these noble

duties, the international community can invariably

count on a due contribution by the Republic of Belarus.