50 years of Italy at the United Nations
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Gianfranco Fini Deputy Prime Minister and Minister
of Foreign Affairs of Italy
Statement to the60th General
Assembly of the United Nations
September 18, 2005
Mr. President,
Allow me to express first of all my
warm congratulations on your election as President of this General
Assembly. Your considerable experience in international affairs is the
best guarantee of the success of your mandate. My sincere thanks also
to your predecessor, Mr. Jean Ping, who presided over the 59th session
so ably and effectively.
The deliberations of the High-Level
Plenary Meeting mark a significant step toward making the United
Nations better equipped to address the global challenges before it.
The results achieved in the effort to update the UN, its principles,
and its organs are the highest common denominator on which the
international community could reach a consensus. To reach any higher
would in all probability have jeopardized unity, which is an absolute,
indispensable value. These results should thus be saluted with great
appreciation and considered a call to action.
The Heads of State and Government
have, in fact, indicated the road to follow. It is now up to the
General Assembly, the UN’s other bodies and specialized agencies, and
the Secretariat to work—wherever possible—toward fully implementing,
and—wherever opportune—toward studying and developing the initiatives
agreed upon in the final declaration.
Mr. President,
Recent events have reminded us, at
times dramatically, of our need for a solid multilateral system that
can respond quickly and effectively to a variety of challenges:
challenges that single members of the international community, acting
individually, would be hard put to overcome. Of this Italy is
convinced; indeed, the vocation for multilateralism is a fundamental
feature of our foreign policy.
Italy’s support for the action of
international organizations does not derive solely from abstract
ideals. We support the principle but especially the practice of
multilateralism because we are convinced that the pooling of
resources, instruments, responsibilities, and benefits is justified by
shared principles as well as shared interests. Common action is
inconceivable unless it is linked to a shared perception of interests,
goals, and their order of priority.
Therefore, one of the most
significant achievements of the High-Level Plenary Meeting is the
fostering of consensus on a comprehensive, innovative vision of
collective security, and its emphasis on the main phenomena that
threaten this security. Terrorism, the lack of development and
fundamentalism are priority threats; they require a response that is
equal to the challenge, a response that can only come from a strong,
credible multilateral system.
To address the emergence of
fundamentalist terrorism, recourse to force alone—though sometimes
inevitable—is not enough. It is through political means—not
weapons—that we create the conditions for a fruitful dialogue among
cultures, civilizations, and religions; it through political means
that we develop the solidarity within society and among nations that
prevents terrorism from executing its criminal proselytism.
International solidarity is also the
most appropriate response to the scandal of global poverty, the fruit
of persistent, massive inequities in the distribution of wealth that
violate not only every standard of equity, but also the most
elementary criteria of logic and efficiency. To defeat poverty, we
need to promote an energetic solidarity that generates effective,
lasting benefits by combining the political and economic action of
donor countries with the enhanced sense of responsibility and autonomy
gaining ground in emerging countries that yearn to shake free of a
culture of dependency.
The link between poverty and
terrorism—which multiplies their destabilizing potential—is
fundamentalism, ideological fanaticism, the sworn enemy of the
universal values of peace, freedom, and equality: values considered a
grave threat by those who seek to dominate and delegitimize our social
systems.
Mr. President,
We firmly believe in the need for the
international community to unite in the fight against terrorism,
poverty, and fundamentalism. The task of this General Assembly will be
to identify concrete initiatives and actions for this fight.
Italy has made an unwavering
commitment to peace, also at the cost of significant sacrifices, in
key crisis areas such as the Middle East, the Balkans, and more
recently Darfur. We have come to the aid of countries that for decades
have sought to rid themselves of obscurantist oppression, such as
Afghanistan and Iraq. We have dedicated our efforts to spreading a
culture of freedom and dialogue among cultures, and made a front-line
commitment to fighting the scourge of poverty, also through innovative
methods such as debt cancellation and participation in the Global Fund
against major epidemics. These actions are eloquent and I believe
sufficient testimony to the seriousness of our intent. In this regard,
I wish to make specific mention of our action to promote the
development of the African continent: an action carried out not only
through concrete initiatives in the fight against poverty, but also by
strengthening Africa’s capacity in the prevention, management, and
resolution of conflicts.
We are ready to shoulder the
responsibilities that are incumbent upon us and that are commensurate
to Italy’s contribution of human and material resources to the
functioning of the United Nations.
It would be inconsistent with Italy’s
multilateralist vocation if I did not add that our efforts would be
doomed to failure if they were conducted in isolation. Instead they
have a much more effective probability of success as part and parcel
of a multilateral framework. This is another reason why we are
determined to strengthen it.
The reform proposals that have
emerged during the past year and been submitted to the consideration
of the Heads of State and Government provide us with new potentially
valuable instruments that we must utilize thoroughly. I am thinking,
for example, of the possibility of increasing significantly the
international community’s capacity to prevent crisis situations,
manage conflicts, and modernize the modalities and contents of the
traditional development aid programmes so that they can promote
lasting stability.
This is why Italy can only look with
great favor on the prospect of increasing and innovating the
Organization’s instruments for action in this area through the
establishment of new bodies such as the Commission for Peace
Consolidation and the Human Rights Council. These new bodies will make
it possible to give operative, concrete substance to the much augured
integrated approach to crisis- and peacekeeping operation- management,
which can better prevent the recurrence of conflicts, consolidate
peace processes, and foster the restoration of the rule of law.
Mr. President,
The reform process underway can and
must invest both the composition and the working methods of the United
Nations institutions, in order to strengthen their effectiveness and
efficiency. At the same time, it must assure the coherence of the
Organization as a whole and the relative balances within it. Italy is
fully cognizant and persuaded of this, and of the need, especially in
this area, to proceed with due attention to the sensitivities of each,
in the framework of a process that assures full transparency and
inclusiveness.
At the Summit it was not possible to
reach an agreement on the controversial issue of Security Council
reform. The terms of the matter, which were widely debated in the
preparatory phase, are well known. Equally known is the position of
Italy and of countries that, like Italy, belong to the “Uniting for
Consensus” movement: We have presented a proposal that seeks to
prioritize the maximum inclusiveness, greater effectiveness and
democratic participation, as well as broad geographic and regional
representation, but it has been drafted in a constructive and flexible
spirit.
We are well aware of the differing
priorities of other countries, whose positions we obviously respect,
although we do not necessarily share them. It is our fervent hope that
everyone will be instilled with the conviction that Security Council
reform cannot be the result of shows of force, unacceptable
conditions, or artificial accelerations aimed at creating new
positions of privilege. The awareness of the need to reform the
Council is a heritage shared by the full membership. It can hardly be
considered the exclusive prerogative of those who espouse one reform
option rather than another. Recent events have shown that no one
proposal currently on the table has the votes required for approval.
Clearly, none of them has the broad consensus that is indispensable to
assuring that the future shape of the Security Council will contribute
to uniting rather than dividing the international community. This is
why we are convinced that the time has come to open a new page and to
unite our efforts in the search for new formulas that are consensual
in both substance and method.
Needless to say, this search cannot
be protracted indefinitely: to travel this road together with trust
and perseverance is the only guarantee of effective and lasting
results. Italy is ready to study, with a constructive spirit, every
possible solution on which the maximum consensus can be formed, but it
will continue to oppose—in line with the principles shared by a
growing number of Member States—any formula that might lead to new
divisions and marginalization.
Mr. President,
To face the challenges before it, the
international community must have unity of intent.
I realize that in statements of this
type, the adjective “historic” is evoked with a frequency that strips
it of much of its meaning. Nevertheless, when I think of the
deadlines, risks, and opportunities on the horizon, it does not seem
exaggerated to call this juncture of the General Assembly historic. As
we all know, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to
repeat it.” History teaches us that a united international community,
grounded in the recognition of shared principles and fundamental
interests, is the absolute prerequisite to guarantee the peace,
development, and progress of our peoples.
Thank you, Mr. President.
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