Chile, 1994

May I first congratulate you, Sir, on your election to

preside over our work.

I wish you every success in your presidency, and

assure you that you may rely on the full cooperation of

the delegation of Chile.

I wish also to greet the Secretary-General and to

assure him once again of our support in the performance

of his difficult task. When he visited Chile a few days

after the inauguration of President Eduardo Frei, the

Secretary-General had an opportunity to appreciate our

readiness to cooperate in the activities of the United

Nations system, in the conviction that multilateral action

was essential to the strengthening of international peace

and security and to the improvement of the living

conditions of men and women the world over.

36

The fall of the ideological barriers imposed by the

cold war gave rise to expectations of an era of peace and

global security. These expectations are strengthened by the

spread of democracy and the emergence of a new

awareness of the importance of human rights throughout the

world. At the same time, the processes of globalization and

economic interdependence are creating new opportunities

for progress and making the dissemination of technology

and knowledge more feasible.

Nevertheless, five years after the end of the cold war

we must acknowledge that the reality has fallen far short of

our dreams. The last decade of this century is one of

uncertainty and contradictions. Regrettably, along with the

signs of hope there has been a re-emergence of many

economic, political, ethnic, religious and cultural conflicts

and a tendency towards fragmentation and differentiation,

which pose new threats to the peace and new challenges for

the international order.

This process of transition has enhanced the role of the

United Nations as the guarantor of world peace and

security. It has compelled our Organization to assume new

responsibilities, both in negotiations for conflict prevention

and in operations for the maintenance or restoration of

peace.

Nevertheless, the immediate concern to maintain peace

and security should not prevent us from recognizing and

attacking the root causes of these conflicts. Poverty,

inequality between individuals and between nations,

environmental deterioration, unemployment and ignorance,

over-population, disorganized migration, and discrimination

against women and young people are today as important

factors in creating conflict as is military proliferation or

ideological confrontation - if not more so. Tackling these

problems requires using the imagination, creativity and

solidarity of the international community, as well as

resources as large as or even larger than those being spent

today on resolving conflicts that have already begun. The

security of human beings must be an international priority

along with widespread promotion of respect for human

rights.

In March of this year a new phase in the Chilean

democratic process began with the installation of the

Government of President Eduardo Frei. The continuity of

this process has made it possible to strengthen the stability

of democratic institutions and has increased respect for

human rights in the country. Of course, we do not claim

that our democracy is perfect; many aspects of it still

require further attention, and with that in mind draft

legislation on institutional changes is currently being

discussed in the National Congress. Nevertheless, we are

certain that, together with the other countries of Latin

America and the Caribbean, Chile will continue to

advance along the path of political stability, democratic

institutionality and respect for human rights.

Our recent economic experience has been successful.

Since the return of democracy we have had an average

annual growth of more than 6.5 per cent with a very low

unemployment rate and controlled inflation. On the basis

of these facts the Government has formulated an

ambitious modernization strategy focusing on three main

areas: education and training, development of

infrastructure, and modernization of the State. The

reforms in education seek to respond to the need for

effective and creative integration of young people into

society, and to meet the challenge of competitiveness.

The changes in the functioning of the State entail a

special concern for ethics and probity in the exercise of

power.

Attainment of these priorities should enable us to

raise our productivity and increase our capacity to

compete in international markets in the context of a

growing open economy. We are concerned at the

difficulty the major countries are nevertheless

experiencing in opening up their economies in sectors that

are vital to the equitable functioning of world trade. We

reject an international trade system based on

protectionism by the powerful directed against those who

are prepared to accept competition.

Nevertheless, economic advances would lack

meaning if they did not lead to a substantial improvement

in the living conditions of the majority of Chileans. The

Government recognizes this and has made the elimination

of extreme poverty an essential priority of its programme.

Without equity, growth would lose its raison d’être and

stability would be threatened by the tensions arising out

of the privations experienced by large sectors of the

population. Economic growth and social justice constitute

two terms of a single equation.

Latin America and the Caribbean are our natural

frame of reference and external action as a region that

shares both political and security interests and major

economic interests. The region has overcome the

political, institutional and economic crisis which afflicted

it in earlier decades. Most countries of the continent have

recently held elections, or will do so in the coming

months. The tranquillity, openness and participation that

37

today characterize these processes are convincing proof that

Latin America has embarked on a major process of

modernization and stability.

Along with this has come a major expansion of

cooperation and regional integration. Integration initiatives

and mechanisms of varying geographical coverage and

thematic scope have multiplied. Chile has participated in

these efforts, negotiating economic complementarity and

free-trade agreements with the majority of the countries in

the region. In the immediate future, Chile hopes to be able

to make a new contribution to the creation of a broad Latin

American economic area by achieving closer links with the

Common Market of the Southern Cone and by signing

complementarity agreements with Ecuador and Peru to add

to those already concluded with Mexico, Venezuela,

Argentina, Bolivia and Colombia.

We also view with enthusiasm the strengthening of our

links with the Central American and Caribbean countries

with which we have significantly expanded our political and

economic relations and cooperation.

We wish to promote a climate of peace, dialogue,

solidarity and mutual trust among the countries of the

region. We are sure that today this is more possible than

before, given the presence in the region of more democratic

regimes than it has ever had in its history.

In this context, the Rio Group has become a

significant regional political cooperation mechanism, and its

activity has recently expanded to cover economic

coordination aspects. The strengthening of the Rio Group,

which emerged from our continent’s re-democratization and

resurgence, is a key to Latin American’s ability to speak

with a unified voice in the new international context. That

is how our main partners in the world, with whom we meet

periodically in discussion forums to which we are attaching

increasing importance, perceive it.

Our policy towards Latin America and the Caribbean

is fully compatible with closer integration into world

markets. Chile today is a country that is open to the world,

dependent for 40 per cent of its gross national product on

external transactions and seeking to strengthen its relations

with the dynamic centres of growth and technological

information. We define our policy as an open regionalism,

one which seeks regional integration not in order to close

its markets but in order to achieve greater integration into

the world economy.

In this connection, our preference for multilateralism

is well known. We support all the phases of the

extensive negotiations under the Uruguay Round of the

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and are

now in the process of ratifying the agreements reached

there.

Our attitude in this respect matches that of our main

partners in Latin America. During the eight years for

which the Uruguay Round lasted the countries of the

region unilaterally reduced their tariffs by an average of

more than 50 per cent and contributed by making

significant concessions, despite the fact that not all the

objectives they were seeking to negotiate were achieved.

Accordingly, we now have the right to call for the

results of the Round to be implemented and, once the

World Trade Organization has been established, for

progress to be made in discussion of the many problems

the Round left pending, especially in relation to

agriculture and services.

Nevertheless, it is obvious that in the current phase

of the world economy multilateralism is being

accompanied by the negotiation of partial or regional

economic agreements which are progressively extending

over a large part of international trading activity. Hence

our interest in the integration progress in North America,

our search for sounder and more imaginative patterns of

economic relations with the European Union, our

imminent entry into the Asia-Pacific Economic

Cooperation Council (APEC) and our constant readiness,

shared with our region, to move ahead with economic

cooperation with all regions of the world.

Current international circumstances have led to

progress in various areas which it is important to

emphasize: the defeat of racism and apartheid, progress

in disarmament, the solution of international conflicts,

cooperation and détente - all issues which have led to the

strengthening of the world Organization.

Chile salutes the people and the Government of the

new South Africa in the person of President Nelson

Mandela and welcomes the success achieved by the

United Nations and by the South African people

themselves in building a democratic and just South Africa

which respects the principles of the Charter of the United

Nations.

We wish also to express our support for the peace

and negotiation process under way in Angola and

38

Mozambique. We urge the rebel forces in both countries

to negotiate seriously and in good faith to end this conflict,

in compliance with United Nations resolutions. In the case

of Angola, the date of 30 September set by the President of

the Security Council for the ending of the negotiations is

approaching, and it is accordingly essential to arrive at a

speedy solution on the basis of the "Acordos de Paz".

Let me also express our satisfaction at the progress

made through the agreements between Israel and the

Palestine Liberation Organization, which are overcoming

obstacles to the attainment of a lasting peace throughout the

Middle East. On behalf of my country, I wish to reiterate

our support for the negotiations under way between Israel

and Jordan, as well as those between Israel and Lebanon

and between Israel and Syria.

In contrast to these positive steps, we view with great

concern the tragedy in Rwanda, horrified at its magnitude

and at the inability of the international community to

contain it. Chile conducted a national campaign of

solidarity with the children of Rwanda which met with an

extremely good response in our country. The risk is that,

if efforts are not made to eliminate the deep-lying causes of

tragedies such as this, other similar sources of tension may

arise in other countries, testing the capacity of our system

to react.

Likewise, we cannot fail to express our most profound

concern at and most energetic rejection of the extremes to

which the fratricidal struggle in the former Yugoslavia has

been taken. We urge the warring parties to abandon the

use of force as a means of solving their disputes and to

submit them to the internationally recognized peaceful

means of settlement.

Chile is also profoundly concerned at the situation in

Haiti resulting from the protracted usurpation of power and

the non-implementation of the Governors Island

agreements. The military occupation of a country is always

a regrettable occurrence that we should all like to avoid.

Nevertheless, it is important to recognize that in this

instance such action was taken on the basis of a Security

Council resolution and in response to repeated failure to

comply with international commitments, failure for which

the Haitian military alone are responsible.

We reiterate in this Assembly our support for the

measures taken by the United Nations and, in particular,

our full acceptance of the resolution adopted by the

Security Council. The Government of Chile will fulfil its

commitments to participate in the reconstruction of Haiti,

in the manner agreed upon with the democratic

Government of that country, as soon as institutional order

has been restored.

Chile has cooperated in peace-keeping operations,

and it has recently expressed its readiness to expand that

cooperation, in the profound conviction that improving the

capacity of the United Nations system in these efforts is

a priority task. The current bureaucratic mechanisms,

which place a very heavy burden on the countries

providing peace-keeping contingents, must be replaced by

others that will make it possible to provide the United

Nations with the best in human resources and equipment.

It is essential to reach agreement on a statute for

protection of United Nations personnel and to create an

international fund to administer the financing of

peace-keeping operations.

The new impetus in international disarmament

negotiations, particularly with respect to a nuclear-test-ban

treaty, increases the need for a global, democratic and

participatory approach in this area. There is an urgent

need to increase the membership of the Conference on

Disarmament - the only major multilateral negotiating

forum on these topics - to make it sufficiently

representative and enable it to respond appropriately to

the new challenges.

Chile considers that prohibiting the use of fissionable

materials for hostile purposes and universalizing security

guarantees for non-nuclear-weapon States would be

positive steps in the direction of nuclear disarmament.

Nevertheless, their success would depend on full

acceptance of inspection and verification procedures. In

step with progress in the substantive negotiations, a need

is making itself felt to extend and expand safeguards and

control regimes until they become universal, without

thereby impeding the access of developing countries to

sources of science and technology.

The recent ratification of the Treaty of Tlatelolco by

Chile, Argentina and Brazil, as well as Cuba’s decision to

sign it, will enable Latin America to become a genuine

nuclear-weapon-free zone. This, together with the

manifest reduction in tension and armaments in the

region, constitutes an effective contribution by our region

to world peace.

In this context, we have indicated our interest in

becoming a member of the Security Council for the

period beginning 1996. We have done so convinced that

Chile can legitimately and adequately represent the

39

interests of Latin America and the Caribbean in that

important body.

We can and must make substantive progress in

designing better systems for preventing conflicts or taking

immediate action to restore peace. But, unless we

simultaneously attack the enormous inequalities and

privations that lie at the root of many conflicts we shall not

significantly reduce international tensions. The origins of

these tensions lie in the exclusion of major sectors of the

world’s population from the benefits of the new order, an

exclusion aggravated by population growth and by the

characteristics of the new world economy, for when factors

such as knowledge and technology come to outweigh

others, such as the availability of raw materials or low-cost

labour, the hopes of those who possess only an abundance

of the latter are increasingly disappointed, thus widening

and deepening the social gaps within and between

countries.

From a bitter past, Chile has learned the lesson of the

close relationship that exists between peace, democracy,

economic growth and social development. The central

objective of a security policy is the security of individuals

and of the communities in which they live. The

accentuation of inequality or exclusion is not only ethically

unacceptable, but also politically dangerous. No new

international order will be stable or lasting if it is based on

the exclusion of the majority of those who comprise it.

We are convinced that the absence of democracy and

the lack of economic growth centred on the human being

are at the root of the international instability that

characterizes our era. President Frei has spoken of a

"diplomacy for development", referring in these terms to

the necessity to adjust foreign policy to the objectives and

needs of each country and to the link that must necessarily

exist between our international action and our internal

objective of growth with equity. We therefore attach the

greatest importance to the Agenda for Development that is

under discussion in the United Nations.

This was the thinking behind the convening of the

World Summit for Social Development, unanimously

approved by the General Assembly. The analysis by Heads

of State and Government in Copenhagen next March should

lead us to a new policy to combat poverty, promote

employment and accelerate social integration. In particular,

we believe that the social Summit should adopt a common

commitment to eradicate extreme poverty in the world

through a concrete and efficient plan of action. What is

decided there will be intimately linked to the conditions of

security and coexistence in the emerging international

order.

The social Summit, together with the recent

Conference on Population and Development, held in

Cairo, the World Conference on Women, to be held in

Beijing in 1995, and the Secretary-General’s proposed

Agenda for Development, indicates the growing interest

that this Organization is taking in social issues.

Chile intends to comply with the agreements reached

at the Rio de Janeiro Summit and to promote a new

policy on environmental issues. In this context, its

National Congress recently approved the Convention on

Biological Diversity, and our ratification has just been

deposited with the United Nations. In turn, we are

convinced that environmental problems will remain

unresolved, and may even become exacerbated, if the

necessary resources are not available to deal with them

through joint action by developed and developing

countries. This is becoming increasingly apparent in

some developing countries, where poverty is accelerating

environmental deterioration as a result of the excessive

and uncontrolled use of certain resources.

The dual task of maintaining peace and at the same

time creating conditions for the elimination of structural

sources of conflict is an enormous challenge to this

Organization. Nevertheless, we are convinced that if we

do not take up the challenge we shall reach the beginning

of the next millennium without having laid the real

foundations for a new international order that will permit

the peaceful coexistence of mankind.

Taking up this challenge is not a task for the major

Powers alone, although their involvement is essential;

rather, it is a task for all nations capable of making a

contribution - especially the medium-sized countries,

which make up a large part of the international

community.

Chile is prepared to be a part of this effort, as are,

we are sure, all the countries of Latin America. The

central role of this Organization must be strengthened and

supported in the crucial years that lie ahead, for this is the

only way to ensure that the settlement of conflicts does

not alter international legality, that arbitrary intervention

is prevented and that the rights of the weakest are

respected.