Germany, 2007

Please accept my congratulations, Mr. President, on your election as

President of the General Assembly at its sixty-second

session. I wish you every success.

We are currently experiencing a period of

dramatic changes. Great opportunities are accompanied

by considerable risks. Global structures are changing.

States, economies and societies are becoming

networked as never before. That is what we call

globalization.

The good thing about that development is that

prosperity is increasing, and more and more people are

escaping from poverty. The challenge that that

development poses is that not everyone has their fair

share of this prosperity. There are considerable

imbalances. We thus need a global awareness, beyond

national boundaries, of our joint responsibility in order

to master the major challenges facing our world.

Climate change is undoubtedly one of the central

challenges facing humanity today. I therefore very

much welcome your decision, Mr. President, to make

climate change the focus of this year’s session of the

General Assembly. Never before have the facts been so

clear, the consensus among scientists so great or the

need for action so indisputable. Each and every country

is affected by the impact of climate change. No one

country can tackle it alone. Not to take action would

incur immense costs and cause new global conflicts.

What does that mean for the way ahead? In quite

concrete terms, it means that any contribution from

individual States or groups of States is welcome.

However, I would like to add most emphatically that

such contributions can only complement a post-Kyoto

agreement under the auspices of the United Nations.

They can never replace it.

This session of the General Assembly therefore

has to set the course for the next vital step: the climate

conference in Bali. Environment ministers will have to

agree in Bali on a clear road map so that negotiations

can be successfully concluded by 2009. There are three

key elements: a common understanding on the scale of

emissions reduction, a common understanding on fair

national contributions and a common understanding on

the instruments we should use both to protect the

climate and to foster economic growth.

The scope of the need for action is becoming

increasingly clear. We must at least halve global

emissions by the middle of the century. For this we

have a clear guiding principle: the principle of

common but differentiated responsibility.

Industrialized countries must embrace ambitious

absolute reduction targets. During the German

presidency the European Union adopted bold targets

for 2020. All industrialized countries will have to

drastically reduce their per capita emissions.

Emerging economies will first of all have to

decouple their economic growth from emissions. In the

long term, per capita emissions in both industrialized

countries and emerging economies will have to

converge at a level compatible with our global climate

protection target.

Such a process of long-term convergence offers

all countries scope to develop. It does not demand too

much of anyone. There is no doubt in my mind that

only a United Nations agreement can provide the

dependability this will require.

Climate protection will therefore be a litmus test

of the international community’s ability to act

effectively in the twenty-first century. For, on our own

continent, we Europeans know from our daily

experience that although any individual country is

too small to make a real difference together we can

achieve much.

In the light of our experience, I believe three

principles are of crucial importance to our common

future. First, economic strength and social

responsibility belong together. This principle applies

both to how States treat their citizens and to how States

treat each other. It emphasizes the right and freedom of

each individual to achieve their full potential. At the

same time, it upholds cohesion and solidarity, while

categorically rejecting isolationism and protectionism.

That is why we are seeking a balanced and

comprehensive agreement on multilateral trade. In

concrete terms, this means that we have to bring the

Doha Round to an early and successful conclusion. Too

much time has been wasted. We have to seize the last

chance for negotiations this autumn. Our aim must be

transparent financial markets and effective protection

of intellectual property, as well as minimum legal and

social standards. For I am convinced that there can be

no fair competition without common ground rules.

We can only achieve cohesion and solidarity in a

global development partnership. With the Millennium

Development Goals, the international community has

laid down binding quantifiable targets and deadlines

for the first time. Together with its EU partners,

Germany has undertaken to reach the United Nations

0.7 per cent target no later than 2015. We stand by

these pledges.

There can be no doubt that genuine partnership

places all sides under an obligation an obligation to

step up the fight against corruption, to aim for better

governance and to better protect human rights. We

want to support Africa in particular. There have been

encouraging developments on the continent but

unfortunately, also, serious setbacks, for example in

Zimbabwe.

“Growth and responsibility in the world

economy” is, therefore, also the motto guiding this

year’s German presidency of the Group of Eight (G-8).

The second principle is that we have to

strengthen the effectiveness of the United Nations. In

my view, there is absolutely no doubt the United

Nations is the place where binding joint responses can

be found to global challenges. But the United Nations

is in need of reform. This is true, above all, of the

Security Council. In many crisis situations it needs to

be able to come up quickly with universally binding

proposals. To do this, it must have international

legitimacy. However, the present composition of the

Security Council no longer reflects the world today.

There is, therefore, no alternative to adapting it to

political realities.

My country has over the past years been actively

involved in this debate. Germany is prepared to assume

more responsibility, and to take on a permanent seat on

the Security Council. What we need now are tangible

results. We are by no means only at the start of our

endeavours. The United Nations reform process has

already produced some results, such as the report of the

High-level Panel on United Nations system-wide

coherence and the establishment of the Peacebuilding

Commission.

But time is short. There are numerous crises we

have to deal with right now. And notwithstanding the

many differing factors that have led to these crises,

they all have one thing in common: they can only be

solved multilaterally. The key to ending them is unity

of purpose. This is particularly true with respect to

Iran. Iran has continuously worked on its nuclear

programme in clear contradiction of the demands of the

International Atomic Energy Agency and the United

Nations. Nobody should be in the slightest doubt as to

the dangerous nature of this programme. Iran is

ignoring Security Council resolutions. Iran is blatantly

threatening Israel.

Let us not fool ourselves. If Iran were to acquire

the nuclear bomb, the consequences would be

disastrous, first and foremost for the existence of

Israel; secondly, for the entire region; and ultimately

for all of us in Europe and the world who attach any

importance to the values of liberty, democracy and

human dignity. That is why we have to prevent Iran

from acquiring nuclear arms.

The international community must not allow

itself to be divided or have its decisive response to

Iran’s provocations undermined in any way. The world

does not have to prove to Iran that Iran is building a

nuclear bomb. Iran has to convince the world that it is

not striving towards such a bomb.

Each and every German Chancellor before me

has shouldered Germany’s special responsibility for the

existence of Israel. I, too, pledge to live up to this

responsibility that our history has bequeathed us. It is

one of the fundamental principles that guides my

country. In other words, Israel’s security is

non-negotiable for me as German Chancellor. And that

being the case, we have to do more than pay lip-service

to it. Together with its partners, Germany will continue

to seek a diplomatic solution. With this aim in mind,

Germany will if Iran does not come around

firmly advocate additional and harsher sanctions.

Unity of purpose is also the key in the fight

against international terrorism, and especially in our

efforts aimed at security and stability in Afghanistan.

Unity of purpose is also vital for ensuring a peaceful

future in Kosovo, where NATO and the European

Union play a particularly active role. We want a

solution under United Nations auspices. All parties are

now called upon to show a willingness to compromise.

We also strongly support the efforts of the Middle

East Quartet for peace in that region. Germany is a

staunch advocate of the vision of two States, within

secure borders and in peace, for the Jewish people in

Israel and for the Palestinians in Palestine. We

welcome the fact that both parties are continuing their

talks with great vigour, above all with a view to the

Middle East conference scheduled for November.

The third principle is that we have to strengthen

our shared immutable values. In my opinion, one of the

great dangers of the twenty-first century is that crises

and conflicts could give rise to a clash of civilizations.

This must not happen. For this reason, I plead for

tolerance tolerance as properly understood, not

“anything goes” masquerading as tolerance. Everybody

must be able to follow his or her own path, but it must

be a path within the international community, not

outside it.

This path is clearly departed from wherever

massive human rights violations are committed, as in

Darfur. A human tragedy is being played out there. Too

much time has already been squandered. Now is the

time to act. The crimes perpetrated there must not go

unpunished. This path has been departed from in

Myanmar, where human rights have likewise been

disregarded for years. I urge the Government not to use

force against the peaceful demonstrators and finally to

make way for a democratic future for the country. This

path is also departed from when political assassinations

are carried out, as in the case of Rafik Hariri or the

recent cowardly attack just a few days ago in Lebanon.

The Hariri tribunal must commence its work with all

possible speed. I call on Syria to grant Lebanon

diplomatic recognition at long last.

It is my fundamental conviction that we must,

time and again, muster the strength to assert our shared

values of freedom and democracy. In order to do that,

we need an unshakeable foundation.

We have such a foundation: the Charter of the

United Nations. It was written when Europe and wide

swathes of the rest of the world lay in ruins. At the

most basic level, it is a statement that, notwithstanding

all the dark chapters and tortuous turns of our history,

universal human rights do exist. In other words, what it

all comes down to is respecting and protecting the

dignity of each individual person. That is the

underlying reason why we assemble here each year and

work together for the future of our peoples.

Germany will do its utmost to advance that work.

We look forward to fruitful cooperation with all

partners in the United Nations.