Greece, 2011

I

should like to thank the outgoing President of the

sixty-fifth session of the General Assembly, Mr. Joseph

Deiss of Switzerland, and congratulate Mr. Nassir

Abdulaziz Al-Nasser of Qatar on his election as

President of the sixty-sixth session of the General

Assembly. May I also express my gratitude for the

efforts and leadership of the Secretary-General,

Mr. Ban Ki-moon, who has skilfully guided our

Organization in these difficult and demanding times.

Two world wars taught humanity the necessity to

infuse national relations with respect for a few simple

yet powerful ideals. That is what the United Nations is

all about — respect for peace and good-neighbourly

relations; respect for the rule of law and the

international justice system; and respect for the

fundamental right of every person on this planet to

have a chance for a better life. The United Nations is

what we, its Member States, make of it. We are the

driving force behind its accomplishments. We are the

reason behind any of its failures. The United Nations is

where we meet and agree or disagree on global

cooperation, and when we agree, humanity becomes

stronger.

Today the United Nations is leading vital

international cooperation in tackling climate change

and desertification. There is also the challenge of

non-communicable diseases, which hinder

macroeconomic development and keep the bottom

billions of people locked in chronic poverty.

Unregulated migration is putting huge pressure on

some countries, including Greece, as a result of —

even to the further detriment of — the low level of

development in the countries of origin, poverty and

wars. There is the crucial contribution of the United

Nations and its Human Rights Council on human rights

issues, a contribution that can grow with a stronger

mandate for the Human Rights Council. Greece is

standing for election to the Council for the 2012 term

and deeply values the support of every single one of its

partners in that effort.

Perhaps the most overarching responsibilities of

the United Nations lie in the area of peace and security,

for without peace and security it is much more

difficult, if not impossible, to pursue the myriad other

goals of the Organization. Those goals include

ensuring nuclear security, combating terrorism and

combating piracy. They also include managing crises

as they arise, as in the recent case of Libya, and

working together with our partners in the international

community to establish and keep peace. This also

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means, as I said earlier, fostering good-neighbourly

relations the world over.

Just as we need to work together as global

partners to face the challenges of our time and the

challenges of the future, each of us also has a role to

play in a given region. Greece’s immediate region is

South-East Europe, the Balkans. Greece has a vision

for peace, stability and cooperation in our region. Its

key component is the European perspective of our

region as a whole and of our individual neighbours. To

this end, two years ago Greece launched Agenda 2014,

which is aimed at revitalizing our neighbours’ efforts

to realize European aspirations, on the one hand, while

also re-igniting the European Union’s vision of

welcoming the countries of the Balkans into the

European family. Indeed, creating a European

neighbourhood of peace and cooperation in south-

eastern Europe should be our collective goal, and that

is because peace and cooperation are anything but a

foregone conclusion in the Balkans. Recent history,

often bloody history, makes that abundantly clear.

There are still pending issues that need to be

resolved. One serious obstacle to the consolidation of

peace and security in our neighbourhood is the Kosovo

issue. Recent progress in the European Union-brokered

talks between Belgrade and Pristina gives some cause

for optimism in the wake of the tensions we saw in the

region over the summer. Those tensions remain. They

still need to be dealt with and defused. Greece wishes

to facilitate the process of reconciliation and

compromise. It wishes to foster the kind of

understanding that our neighbourhood needs on the

path to its common future in the European family. That

is a policy that works. Regional cooperation platforms,

the South-East European Cooperation Process, the

Black Sea Economic Coordination Organization, the

regional Cooperation Council and others are bringing

us closer together as partners. Serbia has made

impressive progress on its path to the European Union,

progress that must be recognized without question

marks. So has Montenegro. Bosnia and Herzegovina

must be supported in its efforts towards reconciliation,

unity and progress. Albania is in the process of

overcoming internal divisions and returning to the path

of reforms under specific European Union criteria.

Croatia’s success story gives impetus to the entire

enlargement process for the Balkans.

Another issue that needs our attention is that of

the name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of

Macedonia, which is not really and has never been a

name issue per se, but instead a sincere effort to ensure

that in our volatile region we put behind us, once and

for all, notions of irredentism, of attempting to rewrite

history and borders, so that our children can be raised

not with suspicions and bitterness towards each other

but with friendship and hope for living next to each

other. Greece believes, and has repeatedly stated, that

the solution lies in a fair compromise, in a name with a

geographical qualifier since Macedonia is a geographic

region that overlaps the territory of more than one

country, and that this name must be used in relation to

everyone, erga omnes. We want to resolve this issue so

that we can finally realize the huge potential of our

relationship on the basis of openness, honesty and

trust. It is high time to reach a successful and mutually

beneficial conclusion. As I have often said, this should

be a time to write history, not to keep trying to rewrite

it.

South-East Europe is only one side of Greece’s

neighbourhood. In our southern neighbourhood, the

eastern Mediterranean, we have witnessed the

awakening of people’s desire for democracy, the hope

for a better future. We have witnessed the Arab Spring.

Our proximity to the region and to the countries there

that have been swept by calls for change is reflected in

our active presence in the region. Add to that a long-

standing tradition of relations of trust and friendship

with the Arab world and Members can see why Greece

has embraced a vital role in these developments.

In Libya we conducted unprecedented

evacuations for tens of thousands of non-Libyans,

provided ground support for the implementation of the

Libya no-fly zone, mediated the release of European

military personnel early in the crisis and established a

diplomatic presence early on in Benghazi to liaise with

the National Transitional Council. We are now offering

infrastructure on Crete as a staging area for the efforts

to deal with the humanitarian situation in Libya. The

importance we attach to developments in Libya, Egypt,

Tunisia and throughout the region derives from the

point I made earlier. Without peace and security one

does not have cooperation, the cooperation needed for

development and for improving the day-to-day lives of

the people.

We, as the international community, have an

obligation to help our southern neighbours achieve

their goal of democracy, of having a voice in their

affairs and of hope and future prosperity. I am talking

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about the same rights that the Syrian people have also

been demanding for months, the rights that their own

leadership is at present violently denying them. The

Arab world does not need new hegemons who see the

present turmoil as an opportunity to promote self-

serving agendas or for establishing new spheres of

geostrategic influence or economic power. It needs

genuine friends who see Arabs as equals and who are

willing selflessly to assist the Arab world in its

transition to democracy and true self-determination.

Greece and the European Union, under the guidance of

the United Nations, can and must play that role.

Nowhere is the lack of peace and security more

pronounced and more chronic than with regard to the

Palestinian question. Greece supports unequivocally

Palestine’s right to statehood. It is now our

responsibility, the responsibility of every Member State

of the United Nations, to respect the Palestinian

decision to request membership and, more importantly,

to turn this into an opportunity that will jump-start

new, direct negotiations. Palestine has a right to exist

finally as an independent State, just as Israel — let us

not forget — has an equal right to exist in full and

uncompromised security. The European Union, on its

own account and within the Quartet, has a crucial role

to play in this effort. Greece will continue to engage in

dialogue with both sides and support Catherine Ashton

and the European Union’s efforts within the Quartet

and with the parties.

Within this context of regional tension and

volatility but also great potential hope, it should be

self-evident that we need to avoid adding still greater

tensions in the eastern Mediterranean region, which is

why we are deeply concerned by the recent threats and

hostile actions against the Republic of Cyprus by our

neighbour Turkey, in violation of international law. As

the European Union, the United States, Russia and

others have already stated, Turkey’s threats and actions

over the past few days and weeks are contrary to

international law and they must cease. We believe that

the path of tension is a wrong and dangerous path.

Instead of threats our region needs strong countries that

can work together to promote stability, cooperation and

good-neighbourly relations among all, and always

within the confines of international law.

That is the hope and example that we can give to

a region and that a region expects of us, which is why

Greece is committed to the peaceful path of

exploratory talks with Turkey for the delimitation of a

continental shelf, failing which we believe we should

submit the issue to the International Court of Justice

for resolution. We expect Turkey to refrain from

actions that undermine that spirit of cooperation. That

is why we strongly support the United Nations sanction

talks currently under way between President

Christofias of Cyprus and Mr. Eroglu, talks aimed at

the reunification of Cyprus as a bizonal, bicommunal

federation and the ending of Turkey’s illegal

occupation in accordance, with United Nations

resolutions and European Union law.

Finally, economic development and fair

distribution of wealth are key prerequisites for long-

term stability and security. My country, in the midst of

its own worst financial and economic crisis in recent

history, has not only not shut itself in its shell but

remains a leading investor in a region, especially in the

western Balkans, contributing to the creation of tens of

thousands of jobs. Internally we are overhauling our

economy by investing in sustainable growth and in

Greece’s competitive advantage sectors, including

green energy, shipping, tourism, sustainable agriculture

and high-tech infrastructure. Externally, our businesses

are becoming even more outward-looking. The

economic integration of our region along the growth

axes I have described, and other complementary ones,

is certain to multiply its economic potential. It is thus

certain further to enhance the peaceful integration and

cooperation of all of its people.

It has often been said that every crisis is also an

opportunity. If that is true, then our region, riddled as it

has been for decades with big and small crises, is

arguably today the region in the world that harbours

the greatest opportunities for peace, growth and

stability. It is in our hands to make this happen. Let us

begin.