YouSaid · the spoken record

Prince MOHAMED BOLKIAH

lines on the record

106

first

1985-09-24

most recent

2010-09-24

sittings or episodes

12

sources

un-general-debate

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1. “It is the agencies that help us turn ideas into real substance and to change words into actions that our people understand, respect and welcome. In fact, I would like to end by saying that they are much more than agencies. For countries such as ours, they can help us to become far more than small developing nations. I think this can be summed up simply: they make us part of a United Nations that is truly united.”

   2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)

2. “I think this was very largely due to one fact: our people knew that they were not alone. They had the guidelines given to us by the World Health Organization and this gave them the confidence they needed during that extremely worrying time; we could not have made it without them. Returning to our theme this year: it invites us to reaffirm and, as I have said, I am happy to do this and I do it without reservation. I reaffirm our respect and deep appreciation for the work of all United Nations agencies. We are delighted to be working with them and we warmly congratulate the Secretary-General on their work. In the words of our theme, the United Nations does indeed play a central role. In my view, without its agencies the concept of global governance can only be, at best, an idea and, most of the time, only words.”

   2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)

3. “In my own country it is taking place right now as we speak, through the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Environment Programme, UNESCO, UNICEF and the World Health Organization and we are most grateful for their help. They work in vital areas of national development, education, health, agriculture, communications and infrastructure. They meet with people directly, they listen, they discuss, and they teach, train and encourage. They work closely with our local authorities and sometimes they do even more than that. I think that we learned this during last year’s influenza A (H1N1) health crisis. As the Assembly can imagine, for a small nation like ours this was very serious indeed. It could have almost closed us down and could have certainly caused widespread panic. But it did not.”

   2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)

4. “By this I mean the work of our United Nations agencies, their experts, 10-55128 48 their advisers and above all their volunteers in the field. I think the theme for this year’s debate underlines the importance of their work. It asks us to recognize the central role of the United Nations in global governance and I have no difficulty in doing this. Achieving security, progress and development is, of course, our own individual responsibility. But as last week’s high-level discussions on the Millennium Development Goals made extremely clear, many of the challenges we face reach beyond single nations and even single regions. They are international in the full sense of the word. So we need help, experience and expertise and for me, this is what the United Nations agencies offer. As we all know, their support continues all year, every year.”

   2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)

5. “I would like to congratulate you, Mr. President, on your election. I also thank Mr. Treki, the outgoing President, for his strong leadership in support of United Nations reform. I would also like to express our great sympathy to the Government and people of Pakistan and to our fellow United Nations Members whose people have suffered the terrible effects of natural disasters over the past year. I also thank the Secretary-General and his staff for coordinating international relief efforts. We have had a long week of formal meetings and sideline discussions, and there is still much more to be done before we all go home. So, at this time, I would like to be brief and offer a statement of support for what our people regard as the most important aspect of the work of the United Nations.”

   2010-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 65 (2010)

6. “There are other very important ones. They are coming from the environment, the climate, the global economy and energy and food supplies, and they all add up to a serious warning. They are telling us that very soon the choice will not be ours to make. Any changes will be made by forces that we cannot control. That means any response may be largely ineffective. When the next generation looks back at us, they may not just be judging us. They could even be condemning us.”

   2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)

7. “It seemed to give us a real choice — either to keep on doing things the way we have always done since 1946 or to change directions and all work together, big and small, regardless of background, culture or faith, and find a new way into the twenty-first century. This week’s G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh sent out the same message, and it was good to hear. It is only a soft message and a small change. The big decisions are still being made for us, and not with us. But at least it is a start. It is the kind of change we want to see, and 09-52592 44 there is nothing to stop us from taking it a long way further. After all, it is not like 25 years ago. We have a real choice and no one is forcing us to take sides. So for the moment it is up to us. The key words, however, are “for the moment”. The G-20 are not the only ones sending us messages.”

   2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)

8. “Getting back to where we are now, I think we have opportunities to make a great response. The Secretary-General and his staff have important proposals for reform, change and development. If we accept them and do something about them, we can take the biggest opportunity of all: we can change the whole direction of world affairs. What is more, I think that this is exactly what people want us to do. There is a lot of support for change outside this building. No one really wants to carry on being split up into developed or developing nations any more, or as first, second or third worlds. They want us to be in one world, in one situation, sharing its problems and being part of any solution. That is the message many of us got after the first Group of 20 (G-20) meeting, back in April of this year.”

   2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)

9. “That did not help us very much at all. Looking at the United Nations today, I would judge its response to the past 25 years as very effective. Things are much better than they were back then. Certainly, many of the old problems may still be with us, such as terrorism, poverty, disease, war and the 60-year struggle by the Palestinian people for justice, hope and dignity. But we also have a lot of good things going for us nowadays. We have much more knowledge. Communication is better than ever before. The best thing of all is that we are not divided into two camps. As a result, we have far more opportunities. When our next generation looks back at us and judges us, I think that the question they will be asking will be: What did we do with those opportunities? In other words, were our responses effective ones?”

   2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)

10. “It is not up to us to judge whether our work is successful or not. That is up to the next generation. In other words, it is our children and grandchildren who are going to look back at the past and see whether we did a good job. That is the way it has always been. That is what many of us in Brunei Darussalam have been doing recently, because this year is an important anniversary for us. It is now 25 years since we joined the Organization. Those of us who were here at that time remember it very well. We remember exactly why we joined. It was a dangerous period, and a small country like ours did not want to be left on its own. We wanted to be part of a larger community, a world community. But there was a real problem. The cold war was on and nearly everyone was divided into two camps. That meant that we had to choose sides.”

    2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)

11. “I would like to congratulate the President on his election, as well as to express my appreciation to the outgoing President for his contributions over the past year. I would also like to thank the Secretary-General, his staff and the agencies of the United Nations for doing such a fine job all over the world in very difficult situations. It is very much appreciated. I like the theme for this year’s debate, but it is a very long one. So I would like to say a few things about the first two words, namely, effective responses. I think that they are the most important ones. There is no problem with the second word. We all know what responses are, because we make them every day. But “effective” is a far more difficult word, and that is because none of us here actually decides what it means.”

    2009-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 64 (2009)

12. “In other words, are we certain that we are not trying to solve twenty-first-century problems with the mechanisms, priorities and procedures of the twentieth century and sometimes even of the nineteenth century? We look forward to continuing our discussions with colleagues in the coming year on this critical matter of effective and lasting reform. We are starting to see what the twenty-first century is presenting, both the good and the disturbing. We are also seeing the demands it is making on the United Nations. They are considerable. We believe, however, that the considerations I have mentioned are the essential basis for reforming the United Nations in a manner that will ensure that our world body is well capable of meeting the twenty-first century on twenty-first century terms.”

    2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)

13. “Hence, the second consideration we give to proposals for reform is a human one. We ask a simple question: Is the proposal relevant to ordinary peoples’ personal lives and problems? Those lives are increasingly dominated by the extremely complex challenges of our new century. Those challenges are global. They are scientific, technological, economic, environmental and political. They now involve over six and a half billion people. Those people are becoming more and more dependent on each other for survival. That means, I believe, that we must continue to stress the need for more than just administrative reform. So our third consideration regarding reform is practical. Does the proposed reform reflect the current century, its priorities, its special challenges and its changing character?”

    2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)

14. “It is reaching into the lives of every individual, every family and every community in every country we represent. Many people are feeling so insecure that they are engaged in finding any way they can to salvage some hope for themselves. In Asia, Africa and the Americas, they are doing so in their hundreds of thousands. They are leaving their families and homelands to emigrate. They often put their lives at enormous personal risk in the search for somewhere where they hope to find hope. That presents a bleak vision of the future for millions of our people. It would be even bleaker without the United Nations. Sometimes, in the refugee camps, in the disaster areas and in all the other arenas 06-53323 42 of destruction, the United Nations offers all they have by way of hope.”

    2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)

15. “The past year, like every year of this new century, has presented problems that are typical of those the United Nations is increasingly going to face and expected to solve. They are, sadly, all the stuff of regular breaking news: natural and environmental disasters, health, economic and security disasters, countless political failures and the enormous human suffering that follows. The immediate impression is a dramatic one. Our new century seems to be defining itself in images of disaster — landslides, earthquakes, tsunamis and terrorist bombings. The most lasting images are human ones. Those are the countless victims of events over which they had no control and of which they had no knowledge or warning. The long-term result is a deep sense of insecurity.”

    2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)

16. “Those agencies can truly be called our body’s life blood, and at times literally so. Every day of every year, they attempt to bring hope, confidence and meaning to the lives of ordinary people. They provide people with the simplest and most basic definition of security. By that, I mean that they give people a feeling that even the most severe problems can be faced and solved. I thank them with great respect for their dedication and their professionalism. They represent the United Nations at its best. Consequently, I believe that any reform of our Organization should be considered with one crucial primary question in mind: Does it directly strengthen the work of our agencies and people in the field? That is becoming more and more important to the ordinary people we represent. The new century has brought a host of new challenges.”

    2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)

17. “During the past few years, we have regularly discussed United Nations reform, and I am sure that discussions will continue in the coming years. Therefore, at the opening of the sixty-first session of the General Assembly, I would like to take this opportunity to mention a few of our own feelings in Brunei Darussalam about the question of United Nations reform. I would like to start by acknowledging the fine work done for so many years by our United Nations agencies in the field, particularly by the World Health Organization, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and by United Nations volunteers all over the world.”

    2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)

18. “I extend my congratulations on your election, Madam, and my respects to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa and to the Government and people of the Kingdom of Bahrain. I assure you of Brunei Darussalam’s full support in the coming year and wish you great success during your term of office. I would also like to thank your predecessor, Mr. Jan Eliasson, for his excellent leadership of the Assembly over the past year. Finally, may I express my special appreciation to our Secretary-General. For many years, he has been the United Nations most public figure. That has never been easy, but he has served us with great distinction. His programmes of action have strengthened our voice. His personal leadership has inspired us, and I thank him most warmly for that.”

    2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)

19. “To do this, the United Nations as a whole must be a genuine partnership between nations. It must stand for shared idealism and a shared sense of human justice. That is what no other body can do. That is what the work of Sergio Vieira de Mello and his colleagues was dedicated to. In their memory, and in that of all who have given their lives to this Organization, we all need to do a lot better at working together than we have over the past year.”

    2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)

20. “There are more and more proposals and basic approaches continually diverge. Even though we largely share the same objectives, we remain divided on the means to achieve them. The divisions we have seen this year, however, suggest that we cannot keep postponing change. They offer a test of whether the United Nations is indeed capable of evolving. That test must be passed, so we continue to support work on Security Council reform and offer our strong encouragement to the Secretary- General in the proposals he outlined last week. In the face of today’s problems, the United Nations must continue to offer powerful reasons for optimism about the future. We believe that this calls for a determined and united effort to address the root causes of the anger of all who feel unjustly treated.”

    2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)

21. “This basic division, we hope, can be brought to an end. That is why we were so pleased to hear our Secretary-General emphasize the need for reform in his address last week. We congratulate the Secretary- General on the structural reforms he has overseen. We also thank him for the many times he has kept us in touch with his thinking and that of his staff and we thank him for the hopes he has continued to express about the future of our world Organization. We still share his optimism. Nevertheless, that feeling can be maintained only if agreement on reform of the whole United Nations system is a real possibility. We accept that the task of bringing about this kind of overall change is extremely hard. The reports of your own Working Group, Mr. President, show a difficult pattern emerging over the past 10 years.”

    2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)

22. “The reply from too many of our people today would be, we fear: not much. This presents a powerful case for reform. I therefore feel that we must frankly acknowledge our part in the feelings of hopelessness and frustration that are being voiced by ordinary people and indeed by many Governments. At present, restoring belief in the United Nations ability to act on their behalf may be our most important immediate task. On the one hand, the great world institutions are technically multilateral. They are run by the Governments of the world. Yet, in 21 fact, many of these Governments feel excluded from the most important decisions. Many interested parties feel that they are also on the outside. Multilateralism, in other words, appears to have its limits. Beyond them, it seems, the stronger nations take over.”

    2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)

23. “They wish to feel truly part of the decisions it makes. As it operates now, however, many observers feel that the actual Members of this Organization are too weak to act effectively in solving the great affairs of the day. It is claimed that international affairs are now beyond the control of individual nations. They are global — global finance; global economics; global development; global poverty; global crime; and, of course, global terrorism. Consequently, some voices declare that an Assembly of individual nations, many of them small and still developing, has no power to address such matters. That is a depressing scenario and, of course, none of us here really wants to believe it, but it does have one merit. It forces us to examine what the United Nations can actually do most effectively and what it can realistically achieve.”

    2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)

24. “It has the support of a large majority here, including all members of the Non-Aligned Movement. The results of our failure to build on this support can now be clearly seen. Our Security Council has been gravely divided and the past year has left a legacy of bitterness. The consequences for the ordinary people we represent — the people of developing nations year after year, the people of Iraq for the past 10 years or more, and the citizens of Palestine for over half a century — have been ever more disastrous. In all this time, Members have been well aware that decision-making at the United Nations needs to be more inclusive and genuinely multilateral. On many occasions, they have expressed the desire that the Organization reflect today’s world rather than the world of half a century ago.”

    2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)

25. “We continue to maintain our belief in these principles in spite of many disappointments in the past year, both here in the United Nations and earlier this month at the World Trade Organization. We feel that they are the only basis upon which international affairs can be conducted fairly. They apply to all the great political and economic organizations of which we are members and we especially look to the United Nations to uphold them. By this token, the United Nations is whatever we ourselves make it. We form the largest coalition in history and we share responsibility for its successes and its failures. Among those is our failure to bring in the changes that are necessary if we are to evolve with the times in which we live. Since 1992, this Assembly has been debating reform.”

    2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)

26. “His Excellency and his staff were our public servants, our representatives and our people. The attack on them was an attack on us all. As such, we condemn it and all other acts of terrorism. When Brunei Darussalam had the honour of becoming a Member of this Organization, we committed ourselves to two principles. The first was nationhood and all that this implies in terms of the rule of international law and the procedures that govern the affairs of this Assembly. The second was multilateral decision-making and, in turn, all that this also implies — respect for fellow members, sensitivity to their deep concerns and the need for dialogue and consultation as equal partners in the conduct of international affairs, no matter how long and how frustrating the process involved may be.”

    2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)

27. “My congratulations go to you, Sir, and to the people of Saint Lucia on your election, together with my thanks to your predecessor, Mr. Kavan, for his work over the past year. You have our full support and best wishes in all your efforts to promote the interests of the members of this Assembly. May I couple these greetings with my great appreciation to our Secretary-General and his staff. We are very grateful indeed for their dedication and service during one of the most difficult years in United Nations history. In particular, I wish to add once more the deepest sympathy of the Government and people of Brunei Darussalam to the families of Sergio Vieira de Mello and of all who lost loved ones, colleagues and friends in the attack on the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad.”

    2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)

28. “We do not feel, however, that the events of the past year mean that it has to be abandoned and redesigned. In saying this, I believe we share the deepest hopes of all developing nations.”

    2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)

29. “Whenever there are grave threats to international peace, we are confident that the members of the Security Council will guide us well. We acknowledge the vital role they have in ensuring that international principles are upheld by every Member. In this, they have our full support, and we will contribute to their work in whatever way we can. But the Council is still only one part of the work of the United Nations. There are many other tasks: above all, the peaceful work that binds all our layers of cooperation together. We do not wish to see the Organization's attention directed solely towards the dark side of international life. Building a secure framework for international cooperation involves a long, consistent and comprehensive process. Like any process, it has to be constantly refined. We accept this.”

    2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)

30. “That is why we strongly support the efforts being made by the Secretary-General to express our purpose in that way, not in the language of confrontation that was heard throughout the last century or in the appalling vocabulary of terrorism, but in the human terms offered at the Millennium Summit. In short, our hopes include an end to historical injustices, especially those which our brothers in Palestine continue to suffer, and a determined effort to help communities earn a good living in a responsible manner. Those were the basic hopes I believe we all had at the turn of the century. We do not wish to see them set aside. So we appeal to all our fellow Members to make sure they are not forgotten. We urge everyone to use the mechanisms we have here to that end.”

    2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)

31. “It offers them a totally different side of world affairs: one that rejoices in the diversity of peoples, cultures and beliefs; one that at all times seeks the consensus that comes out of dialogue and negotiation; and one where informed direction is given to the great changes that are sweeping through all societies — in other words, the bright side of international affairs lit by a beacon of hope. That is how we see this Organization. We want our regional efforts to help fuel this beacon. We want them to complement the work of the United Nations. So, put simply, we see only one permanent agenda item here: How can the world body give hope and purpose to the lives of every family in every community in each of its 190 Member nations?”

    2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)

32. “By this, I mean any group that tries to drag our affairs across to their dark side: not just extremists, no matter what cause they claim to represent, but also those who seek to corrupt international systems of trade, commerce, and banking or who wilfully destroy our environment or who trade in human misery. They stand in the way of the deepest interests of the people we represent here, the people for whom the United Nations is the direct opposite of the dark vision of the terrorist.”

    2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)

33. “We have deeply mourned the innocent victims of terrorism in America, Africa, Europe and Asia. We have condemned all who took those lives. We are, however, trying to move beyond condemnation. We have taken many immediate and practical short-term measures. We have committed ourselves to long-term action. We have had to do this. Without security and stability, there is little chance for us to implement the far-reaching programme of development we have set for ourselves. So, in no way can we permit those who engage in any form of terrorism to succeed.”

    2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)

34. “I make this point for reasons that deeply concern every one of our colleagues here. In the past year we have been made brutally aware of one terrible fact. The whole process of consultation and cooperation is now threatened. The opportunities it presents to our people are profoundly at risk. Like our fellow Members of this Organization, we have had to accept a grim reality. There is a dark side to the international life we share today: to globalization, to development, to progress, to knowledge and even to the beliefs we cherish, whether they be religious, political or social. We have been taken to this dark side. It is a pitiless, bleak and miserable landscape. There is no path through it along which nation-States can safely proceed. It is, in that sense, a terrifying vision. In South-East Asia we have responded to it as such.”

    2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)

35. “The process I refer to has been at the heart of the work of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) since its founding well over 30 years ago. It is not confined to our neighbours in South-East Asia. It also involves dialogue partners from all over the world as well as all the permanent members of the Security Council. It now covers the whole spectrum of cooperation: political, economic, functional and, since the end of the cold war, all aspects of security cooperation. In other words, it is a comprehensive approach to modern regional and international affairs. It comprises many layers of cooperation bound together by one institution, the United Nations. An enormous amount of work has gone into it. That is why we place equally enormous value on it. We believe it offers a secure way forward for every citizen we represent.”

    2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)

36. “In doing so I would like to thank all the members of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor. We are very grateful for their fine work there. I assure you that we will be doing our best to consolidate those United Nations efforts for peace in our region. It has been a pleasure working with President Gusmão and his new Government. As they plan their future development, we look forward to continuing this work, not only bilaterally as friends and neighbours, but also through the long-standing process of consultation and cooperation we have established within our regional association. I mention this aspect of our regional work for a specific reason. It is the main point I wish to make at this time.”

    2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)

37. “Mr. President, I extend my congratulations to you and to the people of the Czech Republic on your election. I offer my very best wishes in all your work during the coming session. I would also like to thank my colleague, His Excellency Mr. Han Seung-soo of the Republic of Korea, our regional neighbour, for his leadership of the General Assembly over the past year. Also, may I congratulate the Government and the people of the Swiss Confederation on their decision to join the United Nations. They have long given very distinguished support to the institutions of world peace, and it will be good to work with them here. At the same time, I would like to welcome the coming membership of our neighbour, the Democratic Republic of East Timor.”

    2002-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 57 (2002)

38. “It needs to proceed urgently and not be held back because essential funds are diverted to solving ancient problems. The vital tasks of the United Nations today should not be held hostage by the twentieth century. It has urgent new work to undertake for developing nations. This work can be simply summed up. It is to ensure that the phrase developing nations actually does mean nations that are developing rather than what they too often tend to be, just a polite expression for the very opposite. The Summit Declaration offers us all the chance to do just this, in friendship and cooperation, and I hope that we will do everything we can to implement its provisions. It would be the best form of appreciation we could offer to the Secretary-General and his staff at the end of a remarkable year's work.”

    2000-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 55 (2000)

39. “We support all that he is trying to do to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the United Nations, because this should enable it to concentrate on what it does best and is best equipped to do. By this I mean the practical, urgent work done by its organs and agencies and its professionals and volunteers, in the field, close to the people. Much of this represents development in areas such as education and training, which are absolutely critical if the people of developing nations are to move beyond a day-to-day struggle for basic food, shelter and medicine and take part successfully in the new global economy. It means that the work of agencies such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) is vital.”

    2000-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 55 (2000)

40. “The Summit Declaration has clearly invited us all, as Members of the United Nations, to accept a joint international responsibility to find solutions. Naturally, we may differ on how to go about it, but what is most important is that we have to recognize and accept the need for new priorities. Consequently, we highly value the assessment made by the Secretary-General of where these lie. For example, we appreciate his timely advice that globalization requires policies and measures that are sensitive to the needs of developing nations. We are pleased that he has upheld the peoples' right to development as fundamental. We join him in recognizing the special concern of our friends and colleagues on the African continent.”

    2000-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 55 (2000)

41. “As the Secretary-General highlighted in his Summit report, they are becoming very serious indeed. We have even had to give them a new name: transnational issues. They each have academic titles: technological problems; demographic problems; socio-economic problems; and environmental problems. But take away the grand language, and they all add up to a simple fact: they are far too big for individual Governments to deal with, or even regional organizations. It is all too clear that they will not be solved in the marketplace, either. The solutions will not trickle down. In fact, the global market economy has lengthened their list and created its own set of special problems. It would all be very depressing indeed but for one thing.”

    2000-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 55 (2000)

42. “In our view, it has given precise targets that can truly help developing nations. For the first time, we can distinguish clearly between immediate issues and long- term ones. This is very important, because many of the things on which we spend so much time and so many resources are not, in fact, today's issues. They are sad legacies passed on by the twentieth century. Obviously, they are important. Each one is tragic in the consequences it has for ordinary peoples' lives. But they are all primarily the responsibility of Governments and regional organizations. The more they dominate the affairs of the United Nations, the more they stop us from concentrating on the deep- seated problems of developing nations. Those problems are the ones that can truly be called today's issues.”

    2000-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 55 (2000)

43. “Mr. President, I should like to offer you my congratulations on your election and my best wishes for the coming year, and also to convey my great appreciation to your predecessor, Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, for his fine work and guidance over the past year. I would like to start by thanking our Secretary- General for his report to the Millennium Summit. It is comprehensive, ethical and most impressive. We have never had anything like it before. One effect it has had is to give deep meaning to the expression the international community. I think that in the past, we have often used this term far too lightly. Now we know what it stands for. It is spelled out in the final Declaration made by our heads of Government, which is now a textbook for the coming year. Its great ideas still echo in this Hall, and its noble aims light up the future.”

    2000-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 55 (2000)

44. “This, I believe, is the way forward. For this reason, I am particularly encouraged by the Secretary-General's plans for next year's millennium summit. I look forward to hearing him review and maybe more closely define the role of the United Nations. I hope it will be along the lines I have mentioned, addressing today's problems and suggesting tomorrow's solutions. On that note, Mr. President, may I assure you and the Secretary-General of our support in all your efforts on our behalf.”

    1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)

45. “We offer them our full support, whether it be on global matters, as in the recent International Conference on Population and Development; on special concerns, such as this month's special session on sustainable development in small island developing States; on such basic human concerns as the problems faced by older persons, women and children; on such human needs as proper food and shelter; or merely on the chance for our people to lead a peaceful and non- violent life in a decent environment. We are gradually beginning, therefore, to identify the kind of relationship we wish to have with this Organization. It is one in which the world body as a whole assumes the role performed so well by its many workers in the field. It does not try to take on jobs it is not suited for; rather, it advises, it provokes, it stimulates and it helps.”

    1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)

46. “At the same time, we have begun to recognize what we need from this Organization and how important it is for our people. Basically, it is to this body that we look to stimulate our awareness of what will be required if we are to meet the challenges of the new century successfully. That is why we very much appreciate the programmes which have been set up this year and will begin over the next five years to do just this.”

    1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)

47. “What is called for, as always, is enormous political will on all our parts and a determination to work together. We dearly hope that this will be the hallmark of our millennium celebrations. Today's world, of course, tests every concept of international cooperation. In South-East Asia, we have found this out the hard way. In doing so, we have learned many lessons from the economic crisis which struck our region two years ago. Perhaps the most important is a powerful human one. This is the need to work together as neighbours and partners, to appreciate each other's concerns and to do what we can to help each other. In short, we have learned about the vital need for cooperation in the hard, practical terms of today's competitive, globalized world.”

    1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)

48. “I believe that this aspect of our work is the reason why the United Nations has survived and, in fact, grown in membership. It is why our people still look up to this body in their hopes for the future. However, if we are to continue to enjoy such esteem, it is most important for the United Nations to strengthen its role. The way to do this is clear. We must press ahead with plans for reform. With this in mind, I am very pleased that some of the Secretary-General's reform measures have been successfully implemented. Certainly, a few complex issues, such as the reform of the Security Council, remain unresolved, but I hope these matters can be completed quickly. It is a crucial test of our ability to proceed with reform and we very much welcome the efforts of all who have been actively working to achieve progress in this matter.”

    1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)

49. “The United Nations has demonstrated great compassion for the people of the world. Together with various non- governmental bodies, it has resolutely sought to direct Members' attention to the major problems we will face in the next century. This is preventive diplomacy at the highest level. It is what we are trying our best to do in our own region in political and security matters through the Regional Forum of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and, in economic affairs, with our partners in the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (APEC). The Secretary-General and his staff are therefore to be commended for their efforts to conduct it on the wider international stage in spite of all their financial constraints.”

    1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)

50. “But this should not be the prime goal of the General Assembly or of the Security Council, for we have an alternative. This is to give our wholehearted support to the Secretary-General in his efforts to direct us towards the things the United Nations is equipped to do: identifying the causes of future division and possibly inevitable conflict; coordinating world efforts to address them; and devising effective solutions. I hope we can resolve to choose this latter course, as it is what the United Nations does best. It is why, if anyone should ask: “Is the world a better place for its people than it was over 50 years ago?”, we can answer with conviction: “Yes”. And if asked why, we can say, equally surely: “Because this Organization exists”. This has been well illustrated over the last few years.”

    1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)