Equatorial Guinea, 2001

Allow me at the outset to express our deep

satisfaction at seeing Mr. Han Seung-soo presiding

over the work of the General Assembly at its fifty-sixth

session. For my delegation, the peaceable nature and

spirit of dialogue that identify and distinguish his

country, the Republic of Korea, together with his

outstanding qualities as a diplomat and tireless

negotiator — all of which he has demonstrated since

the beginning of this session — are guarantees for the

success of our work. He can rely on the support and

cooperation of Equatorial Guinea.

To the Secretary-General, His Excellency

Mr. Kofi Annan, we wish to express our sincere

congratulations on his re-election for a second term to

lead the United Nations and the distinction conferred

on him and the United Nations as recipients of the

Nobel Peace Prize. We also commend the clear-

sightedness and resolve that he has shown in exercising

his responsibilities to revitalize this Organization and

confirm its role at a time in which peace, security,

stability, development and understanding are

increasingly precarious. We wish the Secretary-General

every success in his endeavours to carry out the

purposes enshrined in the Charter. To this end, he may

rely on our full trust and support.

I would not wish to proceed any further with my

statement without first expressing our most sincere and

profound condolences to the Government and fraternal

people of the Dominican Republic and to all the

families that have been affected by the tragic and

appalling plane crash that occurred on 12 November

2001. May God receive all the victims into his

kingdom.

This regular session of the General Assembly has

been one of mourning, because it is taking place at a

time when the international community, without

exception, feels that it is being dragged back towards a

past that it thought had receded into oblivion. Now,

more than ever, since 11 September 2001, the need for

security, stability, justice, equity and balance has

become a vital imperative and the highest of priorities.

The General Assembly is faced with a dilemma:

to evaluate the level of implementation of the

commitments undertaken in the framework of the

Declaration of the Millennium Summit and at the

special sessions of the General Assembly, before and

after the Summit, and other international conferences,

with a view to adopting the new strategies required, in

the light of the failures that have been registered in

various fields of activity, while at the same time, tuning

up and activating all the mechanisms required for the

struggle against and eradication of terrorism, since this

is a common enemy, with no identifiable face or

location.

Peoples and their Governments constantly face

the arduous, complex and inescapable obligation and

duty to adapt to new realities and demands that loom

ahead in the immediate or remote future. For this

reason, Equatorial Guinea concurs with and maintains

the opinion that this task cannot and should not rest on

the shoulders of one people or one Government or any

individual country in an isolated fashion. It should be

borne within a collective body such as the United

Nations.

We believe and maintain that the United Nations

continues to be the best option and best centre for

indispensable agreements, with all the wealth that its

diversity brings, for the purposes of conflict

prevention, crisis management, rapprochement among

peoples and enhancement of cooperation among States

on the bilateral, subregional, regional and

intercontinental levels. For this reason, the

Organization must be endowed with the means it

requires to organize international society, working to

combat intolerance, persistent tension and conflict and

the worsening economic situation of poor countries.

In this regard, in the light of recent positive

experiences, we advocate greater, closer and more

effective cooperation between the United Nations and

regional integration groupings, in general, and with the

Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the

Economic Community of Central African States

(ECCAS), in particular.

Together with the need to give the United Nations

the means to enhance its capacity, we believe that the

time is likewise ripe for both States and international

organizations, including the financial agencies, to take

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specific and positive steps, without delay, aimed at

democratizing international relations, promoting and

reaffirming respect for human rights and consolidating

the disarmament regime and directing the investment

of military expenditures to international action to

promote development. Equatorial Guinea is continuing

to work towards these objectives through an

institutionalized national dialogue involving the

political forces of the country.

Equatorial Guinea shares in and insists on the

vital need to democratize the Security Council, setting

up the greatest possible interlocking and coordination

between the work and tasks of that body and the

responsibilities of the General Assembly.

In spite of the success that has been achieved in

some countries and regions in the area of peacekeeping

and peace-building, it is still disquieting to note that

these successes have served as culture media that have

encouraged areas of tension to persist indefinitely or

allowed other threats to peace to erupt. In fact, as the

United Nations is redoubling and improving the efforts

of peacekeeping and peace-building missions, the

Secretary-General has noted in his report on the work

of the Organization: “Global military expenditures

have continued to rise … Although official

development assistance levels have continued to fall …

military budgets have risen persistently.” (A/56/1,

para. 76)

The same concern about the absence of peace

applies to the sorry and disheartening aspect of

cooperation to eradicate poverty. For the United

Nations and its Development Group and certain non-

governmental organizations are striving to translate

into reality the decision taken at the Millennium

Summit to combat poverty and make globalization an

inclusive and not exclusive phenomenon.

Equatorial Guinea associates itself with the

principle of shared responsibility, taking the standpoint

that the problems that continue to face the least

developed countries are indeed the cause of the lack of

progress achieved in working towards international

objectives of human and social development. We hope

and trust that the Brussels Declaration and Programme

of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the

Decade 2001-2010 and the outcome of the

International Conference on Financing for

Development, scheduled to be held in Monterrey,

Mexico in May 2002, and other pertinent instruments

will lay the best possible bases for effective

cooperation for development.

As I noted earlier, Equatorial Guinea expresses its

satisfaction at the reduction of tensions in some

countries and regions. At the same time, it calls on and

encourages the parties involved in areas where

conflicts and disputes are born and persist to redouble

their efforts and to use their capabilities and potential

to seek peaceful solutions through peaceful

negotiations.

In this context, Equatorial Guinea reaffirms that

the People’s Republic of China is the sole State entity

that is representative of the Chinese people.

We also welcome the recent initiative to resume

the North-South dialogue for the peaceful reunification

of the Korean peninsula, and we support the principles

endorsed and the responsibilities assumed by the

Governments of the Democratic People’s Republic of

Korea and the Republic of Korea.

At a time when the United Nations is fully

engaged in the search for solutions to alleviate the

many evils besetting peoples in all corners of the

world, through the adoption of strategies and

programmes of action to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic

to mention just one example, the illegal traffic in

weapons and drugs, drug addiction, the mortgaging of

the lives of children through their traffic and easy

recruitment into the armed forces, discrimination

against women, and so forth, the international

community’s attention has been diverted by unusual

events such as the unprecedented terrorist act of 11

September 2001.

The acts carried out against the United States of

America on 11 September were undoubtedly attacks

against the United Nations. The prevailing atmosphere

of the current session of the General Assembly, a year

after the adoption of the Millennium Declaration by an

unprecedented attendance of 147 heads of State and

Government and a total of 189 Member States, and the

temporary postponement until next year of the General

Assembly’s special session on children are eloquent

examples, among others, of the challenge and the

dilemma faced by the United Nations.

In that context, we reiterate the most vigorous

condemnation of terrorism in all its forms and facets,

and we reaffirm the Republic of Equatorial Guinea’s

full support for and solidarity with the people and

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Government of the United States of America at this

painful and worrisome time, which will be difficult to

forget.

The country’s competent constitutional organs are

currently adopting measures for the integration of the

Republic of Equatorial Guinea into existing relevant

international conventions on the prevention and

suppression of international terrorism, as part of its

response to the Joint Declaration on Terrorism, adopted

in Brussels on 11 October, and the Dakar Declaration

against Terrorism, signed on 17 October 2001, as well

as relevant resolutions of the Security Council.

As the Secretary-General’s report forcefully

points out, the Millennium Declaration insists on the

need to promote and intensify institutional cooperation

between the United Nations and regional and

subregional organizations:

“In an increasing globalized world, none of

the critical issues we are dealing with can be

resolved within a solely national framework. All

of them require cooperation, partnership and

burden-sharing among Governments, the United

Nations, regional organizations, non-

governmental organizations, the private sector

and civil society.” (A/56/1, para. 11)

In this context, and on behalf of the member

States of the Economic Community of Central African

States (ECCAS), over which Equatorial Guinea is

presiding, we reiterate our deepest recognition of the

great support offered by United Nations Member States

with respect to resolutions 55/22 and 55/161, on

cooperation between the Organization of the United

Nations and ECCAS and the observer status conferred

on the latter organization.

Given the prevalence of the informed political

will of ECCAS States to put an end to conflicts, the

loss of innocent lives, the destruction of economic and

social infrastructures and extreme poverty in rural

areas, we hope and are convinced that the General

Assembly will once again pronounce itself in favour of

the implementation and improvement of cooperation

between the United Nations and ECCAS in order that

the latter may direct its potential — individual and

collective — towards alleviating the new challenges

stemming from globalization and liberalization, for the

economies of the subregion. This would enhance the

path to democracy, respect for human rights and the

rule of law in the subregion, within the context of the

excellent and tireless work being carried out by the

United Nations Standing Advisory Committee on

Security Questions in Central Africa.

I would be remiss if I did not, on behalf of the

President of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, His

Excellency Mr. Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, convey to

the Assembly his greetings and sincere wishes for

success and prosperity to each and every participant.

His Excellency had expressed his wish to attend, and

regrets not being able to be present at these

deliberations.