Italy, 2005

Allow me at

the outset to express my heartfelt congratulations to

you, Sir, on your election as President of the General

Assembly at its sixtieth session. Your vast experience

in the international arena is the best guarantee of

success for your mandate. My sincere thanks go also to

your predecessor, Jean Ping, who presided over the

fifty-ninth session with particular effectiveness and

skill.

The deliberations of the High-level Plenary

Meeting represent an important and significant step in

the process of adapting the United Nations to the

global challenges that it must address. The results

achieved in the process of reforming the United

Nations, its basic principles and its bodies reflect the

broadest consensus that could be mustered within the

international community. Any attempt to reach for

more would in all probability have meant jeopardizing

its unity, which is an absolute and essential value. We

should therefore rate those results highly and consider

them to be a call to action.

Indeed, the heads of State or Government have

shown us the path to follow. It is now up to the General

Assembly and the Secretariat to set about

implementing the initiatives agreed upon in the

outcome document, improving and developing them

where necessary.

Recent events remind us, sometimes tragically, of

the need for a multilateral system that has a solid

structure and can respond swiftly and effectively to the

many challenges that individual members of the

international community would never be able to

address by themselves. Italy is convinced of this, and

commitment to multilateralism is a basic characteristic

of our foreign policy.

Of course, Italian support for the action of

international organizations is not based solely on

abstract ideals. We support the principle, and especially

the practice, of multilateralism because we are

convinced that common principles and, above all,

common interests justify the sharing of resources,

tools, responsibilities and benefits. Joint action is

inconceivable without a shared perception of interests,

objectives and their priorities.

Among the positive results of the High-level

Plenary Meeting is that it encouraged consensus on an

innovative and comprehensive vision of collective

security and highlighted the main phenomena

threatening that security. Terrorism, underdevelopment

and fundamentalism are the primary threats, and our

response must be equal to the challenge; it can come

only from a strong and credible multilateral system.

In the light of the emergence of fundamentalist

terrorism, the use of force by itself, although

sometimes inevitable, is not enough. It is not through

weapons, but through political means, that we can

create the conditions for a fruitful dialogue among

cultures, civilizations and religions and thereby

develop the social and international solidarity that can

prevent terrorism from continuing its criminal

proselytizing.

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Global solidarity is also the most appropriate

response to the scandal of global poverty, which results

from the persistence of profound inequities in the

distribution of wealth — inequities that violate not

only every standard of fairness, but also the most

fundamental criteria of logic and effectiveness. To

eradicate underdevelopment, we must promote a

tangible solidarity that provides real and lasting

benefits by combining political and economic action on

the part of donor countries with the heightened sense of

responsibility and autonomy that is developing in

emerging countries as they yearn to shake off the

culture of dependency.

Underdevelopment and terrorism often find

unifying elements — which increases the potential for

instability — in fundamentalism and ideological

fanaticism, sworn enemies of universal values such as

freedom, peace and equality: values seen as a grave

threat by those who seek to control and delegitimize

our social systems.

We firmly believe that the international

community must unite in the fight against terrorism,

underdevelopment and fundamentalism. This session

of the General Assembly will have the task of

identifying concrete initiatives and actions to that end.

Italy’s steadfast commitment — even at the cost

of significant sacrifices — to promoting peace in key

areas of crisis such as the Middle East, the Balkans and

Darfur; our assistance to countries, such as

Afghanistan and Iraq, that are seeking to recover after

decades of obscurantist oppression; our commitment to

spreading a culture of freedom and dialogue among

cultures; and our front-line commitment to fighting the

scourge of underdevelopment, including through

innovative methods such as debt cancellation and

participation in the Global Fund against the major

epidemics, are eloquent and material testimony to the

seriousness of our intentions. In that regard, I wish to

mention in particular our activities to promote the

development of the African continent — activities

carried out not only by way of anti-poverty initiatives,

but also by strengthening African capacities in the

areas of conflict prevention, management and

settlement.

We are prepared to meet the challenges before us,

which will entail the significant contribution of

material and human resources that Italy is providing

for the functioning of the United Nations. It would not

be consistent with Italy’s attachment to multilateralism

if I did not add that our efforts would be bound to fail

if they were carried out individually and not within a

multilateral framework — hence our resolve to

strengthen multilateralism.

The reform proposals introduced over the past

year and submitted for the consideration of heads of

State or Government provide us with new and

potentially valuable tools that we must put to good use.

I am thinking, for example, of the possibility of

significantly developing the international community’s

capacity to prevent crisis situations, manage conflicts

and modernize the modalities and contents of

traditional development assistance programmes in

order to promote lasting stability.

That is why Italy cannot but favour the prospect

of developing or inventing tools for communal action

in those areas by creating new bodies such as the

Peacebuilding Commission and the Human Rights

Council. Their creation will make it possible to

operationalize the desired integrated approach to crisis

management and management of peacekeeping

operations — an approach that promises to reduce the

recurrence of conflicts, consolidate peace processes in

crisis regions and promote the restoration of rule-of-

law infrastructures.

The reform process under way can and must

invest in United Nations institutions in their entirety,

with regard to both their composition and working

methods, in order to strengthen effectiveness, while at

the same time ensuring the coherence and balance of

the Organization’s general framework. Italy is fully

aware and convinced of this. We are also convinced of

the need — especially in this area — to proceed with

due attention to individual sensitivities, within the

framework of a process that ensures transparency and

inclusiveness.

At the summit, it was not possible to reach an

agreement on the rather controversial subject of

Security Council reform, whose various aspects,

already widely debated in the preparatory phase, are

well known. Also well known is the position of Italy

and of countries that, like us, belong to the “Uniting

for consensus” group. We presented a proposal aimed

at greater inclusion, greater effectiveness and increased

democratic participation, having broad geographic and

regional representation and elaborated in a constructive

and flexible spirit.

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We are well aware that the priorities of other

countries are different, and we obviously respect their

positions, although we do not share them. It is our

fervent hope that everyone will be convinced that

Security Council reform cannot be the result of shows

of force, unacceptable conditions or artificial

accelerations aimed at creating new positions of

privilege. Awareness of the need to reform the Council

is the common heritage of all Members. Such reform

certainly cannot be considered the exclusive

prerogative of those who advocate one reform option

as opposed to another. Recent events have

demonstrated that none of the proposals currently on

the table has the votes needed for adoption.

Undoubtedly, none of them enjoys the broad consensus

essential to ensure that the future shape of the Security

Council will help unite, and not divide, the

international community. This is why we firmly believe

that it is necessary to turn the page in order to unite

efforts to seek new consensus formulas, both in terms

of substance and in terms of method.

It is clear that this quest cannot go on forever.

Travelling this road together with trust and

perseverance is the only way to ensure effective and

lasting outcomes. Italy is prepared to consider, in a

constructive spirit, any potential solution that will

garner the broadest consensus possible, but will

continue to oppose — in accordance with the principles

shared by a growing number of Member States — any

formulas that could create new divisions and

marginalization. Given the challenges it must face, the

international community needs to be united in its

intentions.

I know quite well that in these statements, the

adjective “historic” is used so often that it loses much

of its meaning. Nevertheless, when we think about the

timetables and the risks or opportunities that are

emerging, describing the moment of this General

Assembly as historic does not seem an exaggeration. A

well-known aphorism reminds us that those who do not

remember history are condemned to repeat it. History

teaches us that a united international community based

on the recognition of shared principles and basic

interests is the necessary condition for ensuring peace,

development and progress for our peoples.