Lithuania, 1997

Allow me to begin by

congratulating you, Sir, on your election to your

honourable post. You may count on our full support and

dedication to your goals.

You, Sir, have inherited the legacy of the outgoing

President, Ambassador Razali Ismail, which we can build

on: friendly atmosphere, lively debates, productive spirit,

strong desire for change and reform, and, last but not

least, brilliant management of the Assembly’s work. My

Government congratulates Ambassador Razali on his

outstanding performance.

I come from a country that is in the midst of

comprehensive reforms. Top-to-bottom institutional

changes have reshaped our society from its very roots,

establishing a commonly accepted democratic way of life.

Radical changes involved in introducing a market

economy have borne fruit. Today, our democracy and

market economy are inextricably linked with the new

security and economic framework of a united Europe.

Our reform experience demonstrates that the courage

to grasp the moment — to respond rapidly if and when

the changing situation requires — a key for success. We

have this key in our hands, and we need the determination

to use it. With the end of the cold war, the fall of the

bipolar system and the failure of power politics have

given us a new chance to look deeper into the core of the

United Nations and to reshape it in line with the needs

and expectations of its Member States and for the benefit

of all. The picture of the road ahead is visible.

We want this session of the General Assembly to be

dominated by the programme of reforms. Lithuania’s

Government supports the Secretary-General’s reform

initiative, which is expected to spur most fundamental

changes. We are confident that the Secretary-General will

successfully implement that part of his programme which

falls within his own responsibility.

It is unlikely that everyone will be happy about

every part of the proposed reforms. We, the Member

States, have to see the Secretary-General’s proposals in

their entirety, and, rising above narrow national interests,

find a compromise on every step that brings us closer to

a more focused, more efficient, more transparent and

more democratic United Nations. Lithuania is ready to

play an active part in achieving agreement on a United

Nations structure that will reflect the nature of the United

Nations mandate and its core functions: maintenance of

peace and security, sustainable development and

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promotion of human rights, humanitarian assistance, and

social and economic progress. They should be placed within

a strict time-frame. Otherwise, lack of dynamics in the

negotiation process will cause a loss of direction.

What is of special concern to us is that the financial

difficulties of the Organization are affecting its performance

and endanger the progress of reforms. Lithuania will fulfil

its financial obligations to the United Nations and urges

other States to do so. At the same time, United Nations

financing must reflect a State’s capacity to pay. The scheme

of limits has to be removed from the new scale of

assessments that is to be negotiated this autumn. Lithuania

continues to support the package of comprehensive

proposals put forward by the European Union designed to

put the Organization on a sound and predictable financial

footing.

Although the reform of the Security Council started as

a separate process, it is now part of the entire package of

United Nations reform. It was inspired by the general

acknowledgement that the time had come for the Council

to reflect new realities in world politics. Today we have

more nations able and willing to serve permanently on the

Security Council than in the days of its inception. Two such

States are Germany and Japan. Asia, Africa and Latin

America, too, legitimately aspire to have new permanent

seats. And there are more States whose contributions to the

goals of the United Nations point to the need for greater

appreciation and better accommodation of their interests.

We want a comprehensive reform of the Council

whereby the number of non-permanent seats increases as

well. The Group of Eastern European States, whose number

has more than doubled over the past few years, deserves at

least one additional seat. Our position on this is very firm.

We also need a more transparent and democratic

Security Council. But, most important, the reform should

continue to progress. This year’s discussions have been

productive, thanks to the efforts of the former President of

the General Assembly, Ambassador Razali. I hope the

process will retain its vigour.

In the post-confrontation era, there are far too many

weapons around the world. Fortunately, today there are

more tools to control the spread of the most deadly

weapons. Last year we adopted the Comprehensive

Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty — a major breakthrough in

nuclear disarmament, which is feasible when pursued in

consecutive steps. The next step should be to ban the

spread of fissile material for nuclear warheads.

The world’s attention has been captured by the

negotiations in Oslo on the agreement to ban one of the

most inhumane weapons: anti-personnel landmines. We

support these efforts, which require profound rethinking

of national defence strategies in many countries, including

Lithuania. Confidence-building measures and security

cooperation will help humanitarian concerns reign over

military purposes.

We have faith in regional and bilateral efforts to

disarm. Europe has set out on the path of toughening the

requirements for the stationing of conventional forces,

through the adaptation of the Treaty on Conventional

Armed Forces in Europe. We support this process and

believe that it can be a model for other regions.

Even though the total number of peacekeeping

operations and their average size have been reduced in

recent years, peacekeeping is still the key instrument

available to the United Nations in discharging its primary

responsibility for the maintenance of international peace

and security. Together with Estonia and Latvia, and with

Poland, Lithuania is developing joint peacekeeping units.

Apart from its genuine objective of contributing to United

Nations goals, this exercise is, in itself, a testimony to full

understanding and cooperation among the neighbouring

countries of our region.

In recent years we have witnessed an increase in the

role and functions of international civilian police in

peacekeeping operations. The civilian police forces can

play a major role, through assistance to local police

forces, in rebuilding national police and judicial systems,

in restoring civil order, in supporting the rule of law and

in facilitating national reconciliation. The need for

assistance from international civilian police is likely to

increase. It can be met by properly functioning United

Nations standby arrangements, which are designed to

expand the rapid-deployment capacity of the Organization.

Lithuania has decided to join the United Nations system

of standby arrangements for peacekeeping operations.

Later today, I shall submit to the Secretary-General a

detailed description of our permanently available

contribution, including well-trained police officers.

Nations around the world are being challenged by

certain phenomena which know no boundaries and which

can be tackled only by joint action. Fighting international

crime, drug trafficking and terrorism and ensuring

environmental protection and humanitarian aid are among

such challenges.

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Lithuania wholeheartedly supports the Secretary-

General’s reform effort to strengthen, through the United

Nations entities in Vienna, the Organization’s capacity

coherently and systematically to address threats to the

stability and development of society created by

transnational crime in all its manifestations. For its part, the

Government of Lithuania is determined to enhance regional

structures combating transnational organized crime as well

as fully to implement bilateral, regional and multilateral

agreements in this area.

We also look forward to the special session of the

General Assembly in 1998, which should enable the

international community to develop new and improved

strategies to address the problem of illicit narcotic drugs.

Although the nineteenth special session of the General

Assembly was not a milestone of success and ended with

few commitments, we strongly believe that the political will

demonstrated by the presence of so many Heads of State

and Government will be translated into action. The next

occasion to demonstrate the seriousness of our intentions to

protect the environment and to agree on specific targets for

reducing the emission of greenhouse gases, which were not

realized at the special session, will be the third session of

the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations

Framework Convention on Climate Change, to be held in

Kyoto, Japan, this December.

The fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration

of Human Rights will afford a great occasion to see what

has been done and what can be done about the protection

of and respect for basic international human rights.

We welcome the appointment of Mrs. Mary Robinson

as the High Commissioner for Human Rights and express

our support for the structural reforms of the Office of the

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and

the Centre for Human Rights. Internal restructuring of the

United Nations human rights organs should go hand in hand

with close cooperation in human rights issues between the

United Nations and such regional arrangements as the

Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and

Cooperation in Europe and others.

Illegal migration and trafficking in migrants threaten

stability in Central and Eastern Europe. We believe that

treaties on readmission between the States of the region

could be a key instrument against these threats. Lithuania

urges the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent

States that have not yet done so to accede to the 1951

Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967

Protocol and to further strengthen national institutions

responsible for the management of migration flows.

We believe in a regional approach to regional issues.

We praise the United Nations reliance on regional

organizations. The Organization for Cooperation and

Security in Europe is a good example of what a regional

institution with a limited budget can do rather than

placing the burden on the United Nations. The North

Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is another good

example. The record of the two organizations in the

former Yugoslavia is much better than what could have

been achieved had the United Nations alone dealt with the

war.

Along with other measures towards a more

consolidated peace, good-neighbourly relations have

become vital for regional security and stability. We have

done our utmost to establish and maintain friendly

relations with our neighbours, while simultaneously taking

practical steps towards integration into the European

Union and NATO. The accession of Lithuania to

European and transatlantic institutions will have a

significant impact on lasting security and stability.

Yesterday the Russian Foreign Minister, Mr. Primakov,

proposed a different security model of our region.

However, creating a substitute for transatlantic integration

is not in line with our vision. The international Vilnius

conference entitled, “Coexistence of Nations and Good

Neighbourhood Relations — A Guarantee of Security and

Stability in Europe”, for which Lithuanian and Polish

Presidents Algirdas Brazauskas and Aleksander

Kwasniewski acted as hosts in September of this year and

which was attended by 12 Heads of State and

Government, received joint greetings from the Presidents

of Germany and France, Roman Herzog and Jacques

Chirac. They wrote:

"It is time to foster a culture of cooperation and

dialogue all over Europe and to harness the political

energies of our peoples to bring about reconciliation

and understanding ... Only in a spirit of unity,

community, friendship and good- neighbourly

relations, as well as mutual understanding, will we

be able to build the future of our continent."

Here at the United Nations, I am tempted to quote this

sentence, but with the last word, "continent," in the plural.