Moldova, 2005

At the

outset, I should like to congratulate you, Sir, on your

election as President of the sixtieth session of the

General Assembly. My delegation is confident that

your knowledge and vast professional experience will

ensure strong and competent leadership of the

Assembly.

Let me also pay well-deserved tribute to your

predecessor, Mr. Jean Ping, whose tireless efforts

guided Member States through the difficult

negotiations that resulted in the adoption of the

outcome document of the High-level Plenary Meeting.

A few days ago, speaking from this rostrum,

President Vladimir Voronin of the Republic of

Moldova reaffirmed my country’s unwavering support

for the United Nations and its commitment to work

together with other Member States to renew and

strengthen the United Nations system. We need an

effective United Nations, a richly diverse organization

that is united in its resolve and able to address the

challenges and threats confronting the contemporary

world.

The 2005 World Summit Outcome provides a fair

assessment of the threats and challenges facing us in

the areas of peace, security, development and human

rights and rightly emphasizes their interconnected

nature. World leaders agreed on a number of concrete

actions and steps that need to be undertaken in all those

areas. Those measures might not meet everyone’s

expectations, but they reflect a degree of consensus

that is both challenging and inspiring.

Since one of the world summit’s aims was to

assess implementation of the Millennium Declaration,

it is heartening to see the strong and unambiguous

commitment of donor and developing countries to

achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

The measures outlined in the areas of financing

for development, debt cancellation, trade promotion,

investment and other specific areas of development

need to be fully implemented. Developed and

developing countries must build their declared global

partnership for development on the basis of mutual

trust and respect, while the effectiveness and quality of

aid can be ensured through a balance of appropriate

financing, good governance and sound policies.

In the area of peace and security, the Republic of

Moldova welcomes the unequivocal condemnation of

terrorism and supports the call to conclude and agree

on, during the current session of the General Assembly,

a comprehensive convention on international terrorism

containing a legal definition of terrorism. During the

2005 summit, the Republic of Moldova signed the

International Convention for the Suppression of Acts

of Nuclear Terrorism, which is further proof of our

ongoing commitment to multilateral efforts aimed at

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strengthening the United Nations counter-terrorism

legal framework.

My country welcomes the decision to create a

Peacebuilding Commission, which it considers to be

one of the main achievements of the summit. As

envisioned, that body has the potential to bring much-

needed coherence to our strategies for post-conflict

peacebuilding and recovery, provided that we succeed

in making it operational by the end of this year.

Unfortunately, the outcome document pays far

less attention to conflict prevention and conflict

resolution, especially with regard to internal conflicts.

Many regional organizations have been entrusted,

under the provisions of Chapter VIII of the Charter,

with dealing with a number of conflicts that are at the

centre of the Security Council’s attention. But, as the

report of the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges

and Change (A/59/565) rightly pointed out, the efforts

of regional organizations do not absolve the United

Nations of its primary responsibilities for peace and

security. The United Nations needs to reach out more

systematically to those regional organizations, and

steps should be taken to increase their accountability,

particularly in the case of protracted or frozen

conflicts, where a situation does not improve or even

worsens over the years.

We would also like to recall the High-level

Panel’s proposals aimed at enhancing the capabilities

and the role of the United Nations in conflict

mediation, which were set aside in the discussions.

One of those proposals was to give the Department of

Political Affairs additional resources and to restructure

it in order to provide more consistent and professional

mediation support. No conflict in the world should be

left without the attention of the United Nations,

regardless of whether it is on the Security Council’s

agenda or not.

Like many Member States, we regret the failure

to reach agreement on a section on non-proliferation

and disarmament in the summit outcome document.

But that must not preclude further common efforts to

build consensus around the global nuclear non-

proliferation regime and the pursuit of nuclear

disarmament.

We appreciate the outcome document’s support

for the implementation of the Programme of Action to

Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in

Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects. But

to make a real difference, Member States should

expedite and conclude negotiations on legally binding

agreements on the marking and tracing of small arms

and light weapons, as well as their brokering and

transfer.

The Republic of Moldova fully endorses the

commitment to create a Human Rights Council. We

look forward to speedy and productive negotiations on

the Council’s mandate, size, membership and working

procedures. We have high expectations of that standing

body’s ability to protect and even enforce respect for

fundamental human rights, especially in cases of

humanitarian crimes and violations in conflict zones

outside the control of sovereign States. My country

also supports the decision to strengthen the Office of

the High Commissioner for Human Rights and its field

offices.

As a country that has placed the concepts of

democracy and rule of law at its core since gaining

independence, the Republic of Moldova welcomes the

reaffirmation of democracy as a universal value in the

outcome document and the creation of the new

Democracy Fund.

The success of United Nations reform depends on

the ability of Member States to implement measures

that revitalize the General Assembly and enhance the

effectiveness of the Economic and Social Council and

the Secretariat. Although the issue of the enlargement

of the Security Council proved to be highly divisive, an

enormous amount of work has been done to explore

different options. We all agree that the expanded

Council should be representative, efficient and

transparent. We should continue to seek consensus

based on those principles.

The triangle of development, peace and freedom

is of direct relevance to the Republic of Moldova. Our

young democracy is struggling with the difficulties of

transition and suffers — as it has for more than 13

years — from a protracted, unsolved conflict inspired

and supported from abroad. It sees the fundamental

freedoms of a significant number of its citizens

violated by an aggressive separatist regime.

As representatives of my country have stressed in

the Assembly over the years, settling the internal

conflict in the Transnistrian region of the Republic of

Moldova is our greatest priority. Separatism is not only

the main threat to our country’s peace and security; it

is also the main obstacle to the further consolidation of

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the independence and the statehood of the Republic of

Moldova and a hindrance to its economic development.

The reintegration of the country, with respect for the

principle of territorial integrity and sovereignty, is a

prerequisite for a stable and prosperous Republic of

Moldova able to achieve its internal and external

strategic objectives.

The Republic of Moldova has worked faithfully

and constructively towards that end for many years,

looking for a peaceful, just and lasting solution to

political conflict and fostering dialogue with the self-

appointed Transnistrian leaders, with the help of

mediating countries and the Organization for Security

and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Unfortunately, all

efforts have been in vain and have only demonstrated

the ineffectiveness of the old format. With support and

encouragement from abroad, the separatist leaders have

been using the negotiation process to claim legitimacy

for themselves as the representatives of the will of the

inhabitants of the Transnistrian region of the Republic

of Moldova, and have promoted the idea of a pseudo-

State, for which there are no ethnic, religious or other

plausible grounds. In the meantime, the region has

become a centre of illegal and criminal economic

activity, trafficking, arms production and proliferation

and a threat to the stability and security of that part of

the European continent. The region’s multinational

population lives under constant pressure from the

separatist regime’s propaganda and under the

surveillance of its security structures. The people of the

region are constantly being intimidated and harassed.

That situation cannot go on indefinitely. There is

a growing sense of urgency in Moldovan society,

expressed in the unprecedented consensus and the

resolve of all political parties with respect to the ways

and means of settling the conflict. Political momentum

is growing, as Ukraine has advanced a new plan for a

settlement. Following that development, the Parliament

of the Republic of Moldova passed several laws related

to the Ukrainian plan, including the law on

fundamental regulations of the special legal status of

settlements on the left bank of the Nistru River —

Transnistria — of 22 July, 2005.

The Republic of Moldova has been calling for a

number of concrete actions to create the conditions for

a lasting solution to the conflict, including the

following elements.

First, our Government has called for the

complete, unconditional and transparent withdrawal of

foreign troops and munitions from the territory of

Moldova, in accordance with the relevant decisions of

the OSCE Istanbul Summit. The foreign military

presence is used as external pressure and provides a

political shield for the separatist authorities.

Secondly, it has called for the establishment of

transparent and effective control over the Transnistrian

segment of the Moldovan-Ukrainian border. We highly

appreciate the decision of the European Union to assist

in monitoring that border segment, which should help

curb illegal commercial activities and all trafficking. In

that context, we support the early signing of the

memorandum of understanding on the European

Commission Border Assistance Mission to the

Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, and we express our

satisfaction at the readiness of the Ukrainian

authorities to cooperate in that respect.

Thirdly, the Government has called for the

democratization and demilitarization of the

Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova

through the development of civil society, political

parties and a free press, as well as through respect for

human rights and freedoms, the disarmament and

dismantlement of illegal military units, militias and

security structures. Only after creating a vibrant and

politically open society — a process that should be

carried out under the close monitoring of the

international community — can one envisage the

possibility of free and democratic elections in

Transnistria to establish genuine, responsible

representatives of the population of the region.

The Republic of Moldova has been pleading for a

new negotiating format by connecting the European

Union and the United States. New inputs, ideas and

practical contributions are needed to move the process

forward. The same is true of the current peacekeeping

mechanism, which is far from meeting the recognized

standards of an unbiased attitude and should be

replaced by an international mechanism of military and

civil observers under an OSCE mandate.

The reintegration of the country would give new

impetus to our efforts for sustained economic

development. The country’s strong economic

performance, reflected in its stable and sustained

economic growth over the past four years, as well as

the quality of our country’s poverty reduction and

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economic growth strategy paper and the Government’s

steady commitment to fully implementing it,

demonstrate that the Republic of Moldova is on the

right track to increasing the well-being of our citizens

and improving the country’s socio-economic

indicators, including through achievement of the

Millennium Development Goals.

The Republic of Moldova has irreversibly chosen

the path of European integration as the strategic

objective of its foreign policy. We are aware of the full

extent of changes, reforms and improvements we have

to achieve internally to meet the rigorous European

standards for economic development, good

governance, democracy, political freedom and human

rights. Our optimism with respect to Moldova’s

successful achievement of its aspirations is rooted in

the firm will of the entire society to mobilize our

resources to achieve that objective.

Successful and complete implementation of the

EU-Moldova Action Plan will give us the opportunity

to rise to a new level of contractual relations with the

European Union, as set out in that document. It will

also be decisive for achieving further internal reforms

and general progress in the country. The recent first

evaluation of the implementation of the EU-Moldova

Action Plan showed encouraging results and steady

progress. The Government is committed to the full

implementation of that comprehensive document,

which will open, we hope, a clear European

perspective for our country.

My country is ready to work tirelessly to make

our Organization stronger, more efficient and able to

fulfil the ambitious goals set by our leaders at the 2005

world summit. Only through collective action carried

out in a spirit of global partnership will we be able to

create a better, more secure world for the generations

to come.