Events

MINSK, 22 September (BelTA) – There is a need to create conditions necessary to utilize the United Nations as a practical tool in search for ways to resolve contradictions and disputes among Member States without violence or war, Belarus’ Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei told the United Nations General Assembly on 21 September, BelTA has learned.

“How often during our official meetings and informal consultations inconsistent arguments and unanswered questions hang in the air without reaction, or frequently simply pass on without being heard. That is why we are deeply convinced that the key UN reform will happen only when together we decide to create the conditions – both organizational and in terms of our goal-setting – necessary to utilize the United Nations as a practical tool in search for ways to resolve contradictions and disputes among Member States without violence or war,” the minister said.

Talking about how the UN can help in solving the problems of political fragmentation and uneven economic globalization, Vladimir Makei noted that one of the primary tasks for the United Nations in the century past was to keep great powers from waging major internecine wars. The UN proved to be good at that test. It furnished a convening space wherein the opposite parties could work with something positive in their minds. “As a result, World War III was avoided. Nowadays, the realities are different, which require us to reconsider both the role and the place of the Organization in the world. What is specifically at stake is how the UN fits into a world that is being increasingly dominated by various closed clubs and informal entities,” he said.

Belarus is convinced that, as ever before, the United Nations must aim to strengthen the inter-state system. It is at the UN where its Members should successfully resolve their differences and forge acceptable solutions. Moreover, it is at the United Nations, where they can successfully tackle trasboundary threats.

“What is more, the UN should serve as a uniting force for the system of international relations as a whole. In other words, the entire complex set of new dimensions in these relations, like closed clubs, informal entities, alliances and others, should be anchored to the United Nations. If done so, the system will operate in a coherent, concerted and effective manner,” the minister believes.

Vladimir Makei noted that the new Secretary General has launched a comprehensive process of UN reform. Belarus generally welcomes this undertaking. “We would like to particularly highlight the relevance and importance of the Secretary Generals’ initiatives related to the maintenance of international peace and security and to combating terrorism. We understand that success in the UN’s transformation will determine to a large extent the role and place of the United Nations in the world for many years to come,” Vladimir Makei said.

At the same time he expressed the conviction that such success will be possible if all hold fast to the following three principled guidances. First, the reform must be transparent, logical and result-oriented. Second, the reform should lead neither to more red tape nor to higher burden on Member States. Third, the reform needs to be inclusive, that is, each and every Member State’s voice must he heard.

“But the key reform of the UN system is not about revising its patterns of interaction or streamlining its individual elements. Reform is not about the optimization of human resources and funding either. The most serious, that is, the far-reaching reform should occur in our attitudes towards the Organization,” Vladimir Makei said.

He said that the UN General Assembly constitutes a unique deliberative forum. This forum is essential to grasping both the fragility and the diversity of the world. “We, Member States need to regain the sense of owning our Organization, which somewhat has been lost. Indeed, the United Nations is not only about its secretariat, field missions, programmes and funds. The United Nations, first and foremost, is about its Member States, about their will or lack of it, about dialogue and cooperation or alienation. No ideal composition of the UN Security Council or a perfectly optimized General

Assembly’s agenda will matter for a world beyond the East River unless Member States demonstrate a willingness to look for ways to better understand each and come more often to agreement,” the minister stressed.

“History shows that a world order or a system of international relations has always been born in insufferable pain, resulting from either major wars or other epochal events. Do we need just another major war or another global calamity for the current “rudderless” world to acquire the outlines of an order? I am convinced that no one wants to contemplate such a scenario,” vladimir Makei noted.

“Belarus has proposed ways to address the major global challenges. We fully realize how daring and unrealistic the idea of forging a renewed architecture for Eurasian-Atlantic cooperation and security may appear to many people at this stage. Likewise, we can admit that our initial ideas about the outlines and, perhaps, a substantive content of this process may be far from perfect. Furthermore, not everyone is ready to embrace Belarus’ idea about the importance of tighter cooperation among regional integration processes. What, however, we are firmly convinced of is that it is high time for all of us to demonstrate urgency in action and cooperation for the sake of peace and prosperity,” he resumed.