Georgia, 2000

At the outset,

allow me to extend my warmest congratulations to you,

Sir, on your election as President of the General

Assembly at its fifty-fifth session. It is without doubt a

fitting recognition of your rich personal experience as

well as Finland's role in world affairs.

The Millennium Summit has made it clear that, in

the words of the Secretary-General,

“the United Nations remains as much in demand

as in need of change.” (Global Governance 4

(1998), p. 123)

This is a formidable challenge, but also an opportunity,

and the cost of not rising to the new calls of the next

millennium can be dangerous.

I cannot but recall that many ideas on

globalization and governance generated and debated at

the current session echo the concept of “management

of interdependencies”, put forward by our President,

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Mr. Eduard Shevardnadze, at the forty-seventh session

in 1992. With this in mind, let me address some of

those important issues from our standpoint.

The end of totalitarian regimes set in motion a

whole host of progressive changes within and among

countries. However, we are still struggling with the

adverse legacies of totalitarianism. The experience of

the post-cold-war era clearly demonstrates that intra-

State conflicts have become a major threat to

international peace and security. The Secretary-

General's report to the Millennium Summit called for

reshaping of the United Nations approach to

peacekeeping to meet the challenges of this new global

threat. This very idea is particularly topical for the

region I represent. As my colleague, the Foreign

Minister of Germany, said: “the triangle between

Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Middle East” being

“full of destabilizing factors … is threatening to

become the crisis region of the century ahead.”

() Therefore, this region merits closer

attention by the international community.

In this context, I also endorse the appeal by the

Austrian Foreign Minister, in her capacity as

Chairperson-in-Office of the Organization for Security

and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), for enhanced

political awareness by the world community of these

unresolved or potential conflicts and security risks,

which she said

“are often outside the spotlight of broader public

attention, but nevertheless have a highly

destabilizing impact on the region and

beyond.”()

Periodic failures of United Nations peace efforts,

manifested, for instance, in the “ethnic cleansing” of

the predominantly Georgian population during the

tragic developments in Abkhazia, Georgia, highlighted

all the flaws of selective peacekeeping. Well-

intentioned United Nations efforts have sometimes

been delayed and ineffective in conflicts which the

world community regards as peripheral. I believe that

we should make every effort to prevent conflicts

becoming “frozen”.

Consequently, we support the Secretary-General's

proposal aimed at implementing necessary changes to

increase the effectiveness of United Nations peace

efforts in general. I cannot help but call for the more

frequent and firm application of the United Nations

peace-enforcement mechanisms envisioned in Chapter

VII of the Charter, in particular those for coping with

protracted conflicts.

The Charter calls for the consent of the parties

involved when launching peacekeeping operations or

renewing their mandate. However, peacekeeping

practices often play into the hands of separatists trying

to maintain the status quo. We believe that the United

Nations should intensify its efforts to balance the

interests of all sides with the dynamics of the peace

process and the comprehensive resolution of conflicts.

Moreover, we welcome the further enhancement of the

United Nations standby arrangement system and the

improvement of the Organization's rapid-deployment

capabilities.

Georgia also expresses its agreement with the

United States initiative to reconsider the scale of

assessments and the reallocation of the cost of United

Nations peacekeeping. In the context of increasing the

effectiveness of United Nations peace operations, this

initiative is of great significance.

In addition, complex conflicts, such as that in

Abkhazia, Georgia, which has left hundreds of

thousands of internally displaced persons deprived of

the right to return to their permanent places of

residence, must be addressed within a multifaceted

framework, which entails social and economic

approaches, along with political ones.

We are grateful to the United Nations for the

invaluable assistance it provides to the refugees and

internally displaced persons in Georgia. I also express

our special appreciation for the United Nations

Development Programme assistance programmes in

Georgia, particularly those aimed at improving the

living conditions of the internally displaced persons

and increasing their self-reliance.

I am stressing the issue of peacekeeping as it is

directly related to the most sensitive problem for my

country in the past seven years, since it fell victim to

aggressive separatism in Abkhazia, Georgia. I reiterate

that a peaceful resolution of this conflict is the only

acceptable option for the Georgian Government. In this

respect, I extend our gratitude to the United Nations

and to the Group of Friends of the Secretary-General

for their efforts in support of the peace process. But we

should also admit that so far we have failed to achieve

any tangible results here.

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Recently, within the United Nations framework

and in accordance with the relevant Security Council

resolution, a document on the distribution of

constitutional competences between Tbilisi and

Sokhumi has been drafted. We support this initiative

and find it difficult to understand what stands in the

way of its timely endorsement. We are convinced that

submission of the document for consideration by the

Security Council should not be delayed; its

endorsement by the Security Council as a basis for

political negotiations will create a sound ground for

advancing the peace process in Abkhazia, Georgia.

Furthermore, I reiterate that about 300,000

predominantly Georgian refugees and internally

displaced persons from that conflict zone are still being

subjected to the continuous violation of their rights and

difficult living conditions. The return of the internally

displaced persons to their rightful places of residence is

continuously hampered by the Abkhaz side, with

blatant disregard for internationally recognized norms,

as well as for a number of Security Council resolutions.

We strongly believe that there is an urgent need for the

Security Council to address those issues in a timely

manner.

It has become apparent that at times the United

Nations is not capable of handling conflicts on its own.

I strongly believe that the key to more effective United

Nations peace policies in our region lies in closer

collaboration and synchronized action with such

regional organizations as the OSCE and other European

structures. Regrettably, the reality remains different.

Having established that “ethnic cleansing” was

taking place in Abkhazia, Georgia, the OSCE called for

the dispatch of a fact-finding mission to push forward

the peace process. However, the United Nations

remains reluctant to accept the OSCE findings. While it

is struggling with a variety of approaches, the “ethnic

cleansing” of the Georgian population in Abkhazia

continues. There is therefore a great need to ensure

concerted action by the United Nations and regional

organizations in the process of conflict management

and resolution.

The dilemma of humanitarian intervention could

be described as being inherent to the transition from an

international to a global — and, hence, more human-

centred — world. It has put in a new light the

correlation between human rights and security. We are

strong proponents of a value-based, universal global

order. Therefore, we are confident that the international

community should focus on establishing within this

Organization strong and efficient preventive

mechanisms, mechanisms to prevent gross and

systematic violations of human rights, in order to

reduce the likelihood of “humanitarian intervention”,

an extreme measure. We believe that the International

Criminal Court will play an indispensable role in this

respect as a deterrent and as a preventive mechanism.

The dilemma of “humanitarian intervention” is also

directly related to United Nations reform, in regard to

adapting the existing decision-making mechanism to

the timely and effective use of force.

I believe that the primary purpose of the United

Nations as a guarantor of international peace cannot be

sustained without also securing democracy on the

global level. To set the developing world on the path to

prosperity, United Nations activities should encompass

purposeful financial, economic and political measures

aimed at encouraging the democratic development of

the newly independent States, which would secure

good governance, the rule of law, the protection of

human rights and predictable administration. Secure

democratic development, not merely security of

democracies, is the main challenge to be addressed in

the course of shaping the global world.

With regard to our region, in the context of

support to the new and restored democracies, we

consider the initiative of Azerbaijan, Georgia,

Moldova, Ukraine and Uzbekistan to establish an open

grouping, known as GUUAM, to be of particular

importance. Additional impetus to the manifold

cooperation within the grouping was given by the

meeting of the heads of the GUUAM States during the

Millennium Summit here in New York.

Sometimes in newly established democracies a

protracted process towards material welfare calls

democratic values into question. One of the most

burdensome problems in this respect is debt

accommodation. I am confident that it is imperative to

release poor and developing countries from this

constraint. Writing off the debts will generate a

stronger impetus, and create the opportunity for these

States to firmly remain on the chosen course of

democracy.

We also believe that the all-encompassing process

of globalization urgently calls for a dialogue of

civilizations as a means of addressing the challenges of

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the new millennium, as reaffirmed by the United

Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural

Organization (UNESCO) round table that preceded the

Millennium Summit. I confirm Georgia's readiness,

expressed by President Eduard Shevardnadze, to play

an active role in facilitating such a dialogue.

Much has changed in the 55-year history of the

Organization, and today the world community is faced

with a new type of challenge requiring novel

approaches. In the past decade, there have been

repeated calls for Security Council expansion. We

support the principle of expanding both permanent and

non-permanent membership in the Council by

developed as well as developing countries to ensure

adequate regional representation. We believe that the

seat of a non-permanent member should be allocated

for the Group of Eastern European States, the number

of which has considerably increased. We are firm

supporters of permanent membership for Germany and

Japan and hope this issue will find its resolution before

long.

Georgia welcomes the increased transparency in

the Security Council deliberations. We think that each

Member State should be permitted to participate in the

informal meetings of the Council, when the issues

discussed are of concern to them.

Time and again United Nations actions have been

ineffective due to protracted decision-making and lack

of consensus in the Security Council. Therefore, the

reform of the Security Council should encompass its

decision-making procedure, including the veto rights as

well.

Finally, I would reiterate that the challenges of

the next millennium are myriad and complex. And it is

crystal-clear that only united can we address the

difficulties of the future and overcome the dividing

barriers in shaping a new, global world order. I wish to

all of us success in this endeavour.