Statement of the Sultanate of Oman
Before
The Fifty-Fourth Regular Session of the United Nations General Assembly

Delivered by
H.E. Yousef bin Alawi Abdullah
Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs

Mr. President, it gives me great pleasure at the outset to offer you my warmest congratulations on your election as President of the General Assembly at its fifty-fourth session. Your election to this high post reflects the value the international community attaches to the role played by your friendly country. We are confident of the friendly relations between our two countries. We also know that your expertise and commitment to international issues will enrich the discussions of this session of the General Assembly. My delegation pledges its full cooperation and support to you to make your presidency a success.

I also take this opportunity to express my warmest thanks and appreciation to our colleague Mr. Didier Opertti, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Uruguay, for his great efforts as President at the previous session. I would also like to salute Secretary-General Kofi Annan for his great efforts in enhancing the administration and performance of the United Nations and its mission to serve international peace and security.

The Sultanate of Oman welcomes the admission at this session of the Republic of Kiribati, the Republic of Nauru and the Kingdom of Tonga to the membership of the United Nations. We are confident that their membership will reflect positively on the United Nations and will help us further consolidate our efforts as an international community to achieve the progress and prosperity we all aspire to, in a way that promotes the noble goals for which this important international forum was created.

The unanimous decision to hold the millennium summit during the fifty-fifth session of the General Assembly is clear proof of the importance of that last summit of this century. This is an essential and important step that will enable our leaders to issue a declaration that may be considered a plan of action. That declaration could reformulate a new concept for economic success and development for all peoples.

As we approach the next century with confidence, we must focus our attention on restructuring the work of international organizations in order to enrich and develop the work of the United Nations and its relevant agencies, such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other international and regional institutions, so that they are able to function effectively for the future welfare and prosperity of humanity.

We recognize the importance of the effective management of these international institutions through the generous and special financial and technical contributions of developed nations and institutions. These contributions must always meet the needs and priorities of reforming the economies of developing nations, which form the largest part of the global market and which provide a large part of the world's natural resources and raw materials. The development of these economies will undoubtedly bring about a more stable world economy.

We call for the establishment of balanced rules and regulations between the developed nations of the North and the developing nations of the South in order to effect a qualitative change in their relations. While bold change and real sacrifices are needed to restructure the economies of the developing world so that they can meet the requirements of the global free market, there is a greater need for the economically developed nations to take bold and decisive steps in cancelling more debts, restructuring the costs of manufactured goods and establishing a new economic mechanism to provide loans and to re-regulate the size of industries and lower global rates of inflation. We also call for the establishment of an international reporting system that will draw up periodic regional plans to enable all regions to achieve the economic advances necessary to overcome their economic difficulties.

We look with admiration and great interest to the European Union's experience of economic integration as a pilot project that aims at serving the economic prosperity of the peoples of the European continent, the integration of their cultural heritage and the elimination of their social and political differences. Indeed, such a qualitative leap in European society would undoubtedly contribute to a more stable and balanced world, especially if it were based on moral norms of international transparency. It would surely be an excellent model, which could be emulated in other parts of the world in keeping with the specific requirements of these regions and in a way that responds to their traditions, their heritage and the particularities of their culture. We believe that economic development and trade are a bridge for communication between civilizations.

Therefore, negotiations leading to the admission of the rest of the developing countries to the World Trade Organization (WTO) must be fair and just. Such negotiations must recognize the importance of giving developing nations an opportunity to see their trade and their infant industries grow and an opportunity also to consolidate their competitive edge, in the context of a general commitment to the free market principles of supply and demand.

Our world needs to rid the large markets of the developed nations of dumping policies, market constraints and other obstacles to free trade: free trade should not be a way to destroy the economies of the developing countries. A realistic balance between the interests of the developed and the developing nations should be the aim of the forthcoming WTO Ministerial-level conference in Seattle. Such a balance should draw on the world's experience since the end of the cold war and the emergence of the new world order.

In the present international climate, the United Nations bears the huge responsibility of creating the right social and economic circumstances for better, more harmonious coexistence and for peace and stability. That responsibility creates an urgent need for more consultation and dialogue between Member States, especially at the regional level, towards restructuring United Nations bodies and expanding the membership of the Security Council.

We must encourage serious, realistic and flexible thinking about the Council's role, responsibilities and mandates in the service of international peace and security to enable the Council to be more receptive and realistically responsive to cultural and educational pluralism and to the various political schools of thought in human society. Expanded membership would also enhance the role of the new forces that are currently becoming more important through their influence on international events.

Since the end of the cold war, we have heard the calls for democracy, free trade and the free market economy as ways of establishing greater harmony among humankind. We believe that the road towards this objective must begin with dialogue between civilizations on an international platform of cultural norms, and based on the sound principles of balanced political relations, interests and mutual benefit in keeping with the needs of every culture and civilization. The new ideas emanating from this dialogue could be used as a new moral gateway to relations between people in the new millennium and as a bond of trust and fruitful cooperation between all cultures and civilizations. It would certainly create a new and common harmony in all patterns of life.

We support this human endeavour in the context of General Assembly resolution 53/22 proclaiming the year 2001 as the United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations. We support any regional or multilateral action that seeks to solve the political disputes still outstanding between States, especially between neighbouring States, which share common interests along with a common border.

The Sultanate of Oman believes deeply in the importance of quiet and meaningful dialogue between all States and between all parties. Oman works alongside its brothers in the Gulf Cooperation Council to consolidate a positive climate and extend our common ground with neighbouring countries. We do so in order to ensure that common principles and rules are adopted and accepted to form the basis for bilateral or collective dialogue on outstanding problems.

Iraq is still subject to the sanctions regime imposed by the Security Council in the aftermath of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. Although the Security Council, through the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), has tried to enforce its resolutions on the destruction of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction over the last eight years, it has not yet been able to agree on a unanimous policy towards Iraq. Consequently, the Iraqi people are suffering greatly from the continuing sanctions. Although the oil-for-food programme has been implemented, it cannot satisfactorily meet the basic humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people. In this context, many international organizations and agencies working in the field of health and other humanitarian services have expressed their fears about the dire effects that threaten the future of the Iraqi people.

The Council of the League of Arab States, in its consultative session of 24 January 1999, adopted a call for the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq to be lifted. The Council appealed to all Arab Governments to make every possible effort towards this end through cooperation with the United Nations.

The Sultanate of Oman emphasizes the importance of lifting the economic sanctions in order to end the suffering of the Iraqi people. We call on the Security Council to put its differences aside and adopt a positive and unanimous policy towards Iraq. We also call on the Iraqi Government to cooperate positively and fully with the United Nations in implementing the remaining resolutions, especially those relating to Kuwaiti prisoners of war and missing persons.

The early signs of the long-awaited peace in the Middle East, to which its people have long aspired, fortunately coincide with the end of the century and the beginning of the third millennium. All parties, especially the Israeli Government, must take this opportunity to write a new history based on coexistence and cooperation among the peoples of the region, a region that so urgently needs to enjoy the fruits of stability and development.

The establishment of an independent Palestinian State will undoubtedly be an important pillar for the conclusion of a comprehensive and just peace in the Middle East. It will also serve as a real tool for the development of cooperation and coexistence between the Arab States and Israel.

We call on the Israeli Government to respond quickly and implement the various obligations and agreements concluded since Madrid. We also call upon the Israeli Government to implement Security Council resolutions on Lebanon: resolutions 425 (1978) and 426 (1978). We call upon Israel to resume negotiations on the Syrian track at the point where they left off and to make every effort to withdraw from occupied Syrian territory to the established border of 4 June 1967.

Mutual security requirements between the Arabs and Israelis on both sides of the border are of prime importance. The legitimacy of such requirements justifies negotiations on the basis of the principle of land for peace. Israel must feel secure and comfortable about the general Arab attitude towards peace.

Peace agreements signed with Egypt and Jordan have offered the clearest proof of the Arabs' commitment to peace and their absolute willingness to participate, along with Israel, in the establishment of a secure, peaceful and developed Middle East. Arab positions across a range of international activities and forums have demonstrated the seriousness of their desire to live in peace and security with Israel.

We are about to enter a new century. We feel hopeful and ambitious for a future in which the security and stability of human life will improve. However, a number of conflicts and hotbeds of tension continue to cause concern for the international community.

In Africa, conflicts and confrontations among countries remain the biggest source of suffering for the African people. Therefore, the United Nations is required to exert greater efforts in support of the Organization of African Unity in its endeavour to mediate in the various conflicts, including those between Ethiopia and Eritrea, in the Great Lakes region, in West Africa and in Somalia. We hope that Africa will thus be able to free itself from the vestiges of the past and enter a new era of freedom, economic development and security for its people and for the world at large.

The giant continent, Asia, continues to offer the most dynamic current force for human development. Despite the successes achieved by the Asian people in various spheres of life, unrest, civil wars and sources of instability are still abundant.

The Muslim Asian country of Afghanistan still suffers from deep and complex internal conflicts. Therefore we sincerely hope that all the Afghan leaders will take advantage of past lessons and use the world community's desire to help them to end their crisis and to give the Afghan people the opportunity to heal their painful wounds.

In East Asia, we call on all parties in the Korean peninsula to work towards ending the conflict and the achievement of peace. Then the Korean people in North and South Korea can express their desire for a secure and peaceful future.

We have a deep sense of pain for the human tragedy in the Balkans. Reckless policies led to instability, a huge waste of resources, the flight of defenceless people and loss of life and destruction of property. We are thankful for the timely intervention by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Kosovo, especially after the failure to carry out the Rambouillet Agreement, to put an end to the pain and suffering of the provinces' inhabitants.

As we praise the human role assumed by the world community in helping the displaced and the refugees in the Balkans, we hope that those great efforts will continue and thus conclude this noble task. We also appreciate the efforts of the Secretary-General to restore peace and stability to the region.

The world still faces the nuclear threat as a result of the proliferation of nuclear weapons technology and the efforts of many States outside what is known as the nuclear club to acquire the technology for this dreadful weapon. The States seeking these weapons still feel threatened politically and militarily and are worried about their security, sovereignty and future capabilities.

Making a realistic and careful assessment of this situation would definitely lead us to conclude that there must have been fundamental and legitimate reasons why such countries would choose to spend large amounts of money to secure such weapons at a time when these assets could have been spent on the economic and social development of their people. Among the principal and legitimate reasons for this choice is that the major states, which already possess nuclear weapons, and technology did not do enough to guarantee the non-proliferation of this technology.

The phenomenon that the major Powers alone can shape choices about peace and war in areas of the developing world may be one of the strongest reasons for the sudden eruption of conflagrations in such areas. Therefore nuclear States, especially the permanent members of the Security Council, should undertake the necessary measures that will guarantee the security of non-nuclear States and deter the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons. The United Nations, through the Security Council, must adopt binding resolutions in accordance with the Charter to protect the world from the threat of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. The arms control conference, which is still debating secondary issues of technical dimensions, must therefore seek to reach positive conclusions as soon as possible.

At the last session we expressed our concern over what had befallen the economies of the Asian countries. We also expressed our faith in the ability of these countries to overcome the economic crisis and the crash that hit the financial markets.

Today we witness an encouraging recovery in the Asian economies - a result of the determination of these countries, especially the States of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), to protect their economies through exemplary solidarity.

We would like to applaud the important role played by those states, which provided financial assistance. We pay tribute to the role played by the world financial institutions, especially the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. They halted the danger of deterioration in the world economy and restored confidence in Asian markets. However, these two institutions should review their conditions for providing loans to developing nations to help their economies. In most cases, these conditions fail to achieve their planned and targeted goals primarily because of the enormous social and political problems, which they create.

The Earth Summit for the environment and development, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992, set an agenda for the twenty-first century that is now viewed as the basis upon which international partnership and collective responsibility can work to put an end to poverty, hunger, ill health and the deterioration of ecosystems, and to achieve sustainable development the only way for humanity to ensure progress and prosperity for present and future generations.

My country takes a comprehensive view of environmental issues. We believe that the protection of the environment is a responsibility for everyone to share. In this context, my country devotes a great segment of its resources to continuing to implement the Rio agenda and effective and objective participation in environmental and development forums on many international, regional and national levels. We also continue to enact and update environmental laws in order to assure adaptation to the best standards of environmental protection against the dangers of pollution and to guarantee the implementation of the international and regional environmental agreements that my country has signed.

My country looks forward to joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) soon. We hope to participate in the work of the Organization as a fully-fledged member and to play our role effectively. We thank all our trade partners, which have expressed encouragement and understanding for our application for membership. We are determined to work hand-in-hand with all members to consolidate the multilateral trade system and help it flourish.

Next November the American city of Seattle will host the third ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization. The Sultanate of Oman attaches special importance to this conference because it will be a prelude to the new phase of multilateral trade negotiations, the Millennium Round, which should contribute to opening the way for free and prosperous global trade.

Probably one of the most important issues facing developing countries is the issue of the liberalization of the service sector. Although its liberalization may have some benefits for developing countries in terms of the flow of foreign capital, technology and modern administrative and technical expertise, it will inevitably be accompanied by huge challenges. This is particularly true in the light of open competition from the service sector in developed nations. Oman expects the world community to take measures that would help developing nations develop their service sectors in order to guarantee them a comparable and viable share in the global services market.

We appreciate the admirable international efforts and good intentions to establish an original global legislative structure as a basis for international relations in different areas. However, we always return to the clear truth that in the Charter of the United Nations are enshrined the purposes and principles that we must all work to preserve in the interest of the future security and well-being of all humanity.