General Assembly Session 51 meeting 4

The President

Before calling on the first speaker in the general debate, I should like to remind members of the decision taken by the General Assembly at its 3rd plenary meeting, on 20 September, that congratulations should not be expressed inside the General Assembly Hall after a speech has been delivered.

In this connection, may I also remind members of another decision, taken by the Assembly at the same meeting, that speakers in the general debate, after delivering their statements, would leave the Assembly Hall through room GA-200, located behind the podium, before returning to their seats.

I should also like to remind representatives that, in accordance with the decision taken by the General Assembly at its 3rd plenary meeting, the list of speakers will be closed on Wednesday, 25 September 1996, at 6 p.m. May I request delegations to be good enough to provide estimated speaking times that are as accurate as possible. This may also permit those speakers who are provisionally scheduled for some meetings actually to speak.

I now call on the first speaker in the general debate, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Brazil, His Excellency Mr. Luiz Felipe Palmeira Lampreia.

Mr. Lampreia (Brazil)

Please accept my congratulations, Sir, on your election as President of the General Assembly at its fifty-first session. The Brazilian delegation is confident that, under your leadership, this body will find new strength in the pursuit of the principles and purposes of our Charter.

I also wish to pay tribute to my dear friend, Mr. Diogo Freitas do Amaral, for the dedication with which he conducted the historic fiftieth session. We are grateful for his steadfast commitment to ensuring that our work was consistent with the high expectations of the fiftieth anniversary celebrations.

My delegation extends a word of gratitude and recognition to the Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros-Ghali, for the perseverance he has shown in carrying out his tasks.

For the first time, Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and Sao Tome and Principe come to the General Assembly as members of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries, a body dedicated to cooperation and political coordination. The member States of the Community intend to consult and to work closely together at the United Nations with a view to better promoting their common interests and fostering their linguistic, cultural and historical identity.

The countries of the Southern Cone Common Market (MERCOSUR) -- Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay -- have also come to the General Assembly with an enhanced sense of unity. MERCOSUR gives living and concrete expression to economic integration and open regionalism and represents one of the creative forces at work in the Americas. It is a new and striking feature of our continent's identity and a reflection of democracy and the commitment to economic reform in our region.

With the customs union firmly in place, Chile has now joined MERCOSUR as an associated State by means of a free-trade agreement with far-reaching political and diplomatic implications. Bolivia will also shortly associate itself with MERCOSUR. We look forward to other countries' of the region joining as well to further bolster the dynamic and open nature of MERCOSUR.

Now firmly rooted in the process of expanding and acting as an important partner of a growing number of countries and regional groups, MERCOSUR is a positive response by South American countries to the challenges and opportunities of today's world. Such achievements as MERCOSUR and the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries enhance their credentials and help to make the presence of those countries in the world an instrument for economic development and social progress.

My country comes to this General Assembly proud to present itself before the international community with a stronger presence in the world. Brazil owes this to the consolidation of its democracy, to economic stabilization and liberalization and to the resumption of economic growth with a deeper sense of social justice. It owes this as well to its participation in regional integration and in the globalization of the world economy. We are in tune with the two main forces that are shaping the world today: political and economic freedom, on the one hand, and cooperation through integration and trade on the other.

I am pleased to say that, through decisive action rather than words, we have made genuine strides in enlarging our dialogue and cooperation with friendly nations worldwide, developed and developing alike. We have strengthened traditional partnerships and established new ones, especially in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. We are aware that, if the Brazilian people are to consolidate these achievements, we will need to persevere in the policies that have brought us this far. We know that these policies have yet to meet many challenges Brazil faces in the social, economic and cultural fields. But they are an important beginning.

We are convinced that Brazil's growing interaction with its region and the world, the consolidation of its international partnerships and a fruitful dialogue and cooperation with its many friends are necessary conditions for our country to continue to pursue its policies at the domestic level.

Brazil is one of the world's largest democracies, a dynamic and diversified developing economy, an attractive opportunity for productive foreign investment and a market of huge potential -- in a word, a country capable of enjoying fruitful ties with all nations on the basis of mutual respect and reciprocity. By its very nature, Brazil can act as a bridge between the many different worlds that make up its own internal reality.

Our aspirations to enlarging the scope of our participation in the international decision-making bodies will always reflect a careful assessment of our own merits, of our specific weight and of the contribution that we can make to the community of Nations. We seek to be a force for peace and integration.

The fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations understandably raised the expectations of the international community -- expectations that we would not dwell only on the past and on the many achievements of the Organization, but also look to the future in search of ways for it to come to grips with new realities and problems.

We can confidently say that the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary produced good results. As world public opinion was focused on the United Nations, leaders and Governments were compelled to reflect on the Organization and to make room for it in their political agendas.

The historic meaning of the San Francisco Charter was recalled, as was the importance of the United Nations as a forum for political debate and as a sounding board for conflicting interests in the post-cold-war era.

Our collective reflection clearly revealed that, without the United Nations, the world would only have been more violent, more unstable and insecure, more unjust and cruel -- especially to the weak, who are prey to power politics and arbitrary decisions.

We celebrated great advances in international law and in the political and ethical commitments to the issues that concern humanity -- issues such as sustainable development, protection of the environment, respect for human rights, disarmament, non-proliferation and the fight against poverty, terrorism, organized crime and drug trafficking. We have thus given a positive account in the first 50 years of the United Nations.

We cannot say with the same confidence that the fiftieth anniversary has ushered in a renewed commitment to the United Nations and its future. Our efforts have fallen well short of the expectations of the international community. They have been disappointing even in the light of the predictions of some of the most cautious analysts. A stalemate persists -- an uncomfortable stalemate that leads to a feeling of uncertainty and frustration, of insecurity about the future of the United Nations, and thus of apprehension.

In the wake of momentous changes on the international scene, the United Nations has embarked upon a new phase in its history without the means and the effectiveness to act as the highest political forum of mankind and to fulfil the mandate conferred upon it by the international community -- a mandate that remains as valid today as it was half a century ago.

Back in 1961, President John F. Kennedy referred to the United Nations as "our last, best hope". In the face of the threat of nuclear war and in the midst of various conflicts, those words expressed the confidence of the international community in an Organization founded on the universal principles of peace, understanding and prosperity for all peoples.

At that time President Kennedy renewed a pledge to the United Nations, offering:

"our pledge of support -- to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invective, to strengthen its shield of the new and the weak and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run."

Thirty-five years after these inspired words, the United Nations finds itself at a crossroads. The world has changed, the correlation of forces has changed, and so have the hopes and expectations of countries with regard to the United Nations and its capacity to manage, prevent and settle conflicts. Yet various confrontations still cause suffering, instability and misery throughout the world.

This is happening just as the Organization faces the worst financial and motivational crisis in its history. There is a widespread feeling of dissatisfaction -- sometimes veiled and sometimes explicit -- with an Organization that still embodies the loftiest ideals ever conceived by the human spirit in the search for peace and understanding among peoples.

Brazil is committed to the United Nations Charter and to the Organization's political, legal and diplomatic legacy of the past 50 years. That commitment is part of the diplomatic history of my country and of the principles that have always governed our actions in this body and in our relations with all peoples, particularly with our 10 neighbours, with whom we have lived in peace for well over a century.

Compelled by that commitment, we sound a word of caution to those who, like ourselves, wish to see the United Nations as a source of leadership in international relations, as an instrument for promoting an international society based on freedom, the rule of law and the rights of the citizen.

With the political and ideological constraints of the cold war behind us, the world is now organized around much more concrete and pragmatic variables, such as international trade, investment flows and the transfer of technology. The emphasis on political and ideological coalitions has given way to an emphasis on economic coalitions. Pressured by public opinion, Governments are today concerned with social well-being, the quality of life, economic and social indicators and unemployment.

The focal point of the political debate is shifting irrevocably from strategy and ideology to economics and integration. That is why the world is following the path of large-scale regional economic agreements. North-South and East-West -- the main axes of international politics in the last 50 years -- have given way to groups of countries dedicated to the goals of economic integration and the coordination of macroeconomic, financial and trade policies.

North, South, East and West are no longer the cardinal points on the international political compass. The World Trade Organization and its body of universal rules and regulations for fostering free trade, the European Union, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (APEC), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Group of 7, the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the South African Development Community (SADC), and the Southern Cone Common Market (MERCOSUR) have become, in their respective areas of action, the catalysts for development, cooperation, understanding and, indeed, for peace.

The peace that the founders of the United Nations envisioned may come about as a result of the response by the various regions and groups of countries to the challenges, opportunities and risks of a new world, which today is called the world of globalization. It is a world that generates prosperity and a healthy competition among countries and regions; but it is also a world that swells the ranks of the destitute and the outcast among and within countries, a world that breeds conflict and increases inequality, a world that demands reason, reflection and constructive action.

Through peace, cooperation, respect for human rights and development, the United Nations has a major role to play in preventing the divisions of the cold war from finding new expression in a widening gap in well-being.

The Organization must evolve in order to successfully play that role as it has so often done in the past. It must adapt its structure and methods of work in order to optimize its human, material and financial resources. It must make use of the great political, strategic, and moral power it is able to muster. It must implement and follow up on its decisions, on the rules with which it updates and consolidates international law and on the commitments it has won from the international community.

Much remains to be done in the wake of the great conferences that have shaped the international agenda in the present decade. The conferences on the rights of the child, the environment and development, human rights, population and development, social development, women and human settlements have sealed commitments that must be honoured, decisions that must be implemented and follow-up work that must be carried out.

The United Nations must ensure that its agenda becomes more appealing and results-oriented, in order to earn the esteem of the public and to retain its primacy in international relations. We must correct the tendency to convene meetings whose only purpose is to produce other meetings or to adopt resolutions of a rhetorical nature. We must rid the United Nations of its image as a lethargic body incapable of rising to the challenges of our times.

Brazil is convinced that United Nations reform remains within reach, that it is still possible to ensure that the United Nations will play a paramount role in this new phase of its existence. We believe in reform as a means to ensure that the United Nations becomes a viable and logical alternative to unilateralism and power politics. We believe in reform as a means to empower the United Nations to act in a radically changed world. We believe in reform as a means to restore the United Nations as a unique forum for political and diplomatic action and debate.

One year after our Heads of State and Government drew attention to the seriousness of the financial situation of the United Nations, a solution to the problem remains elusive.

To stifle the United Nations little by little by depriving it of the means to perform its functions is no way to secure greater administrative efficiency. Should this scenario persist, then the capacity of the United Nations to adapt to the dynamics of the contemporary world could be seriously jeopardized. We could very well witness a situation where other bodies come to occupy the space left by the United Nations, bodies with their own goals and agendas, which may or may not reflect the prevailing sentiments of the international community and the interests of world peace, security and stability. That is why we need perseverance, courage and, above all, the political will to advance the discussion on issues which reflect a true commitment to the United Nations, issues which relate to the very relevance of the Organization in international relations on the eve in the twenty-first century.

One of these issues is the reform of the Security Council. There is a virtual consensus that the Security Council should be enlarged to allow for greater participation by countries with the capacity to act on a global scale and the willingness to bear the responsibilities that would entail. We must now set a course for this process. Its outcome is essential for strengthening the United Nations.

Brazil has made several commitments in the field of nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems. We are now committed to having the southern hemisphere recognized as an area free of nuclear weapons. It is our firm belief that this is a right to which the peoples of the southern hemisphere are entitled, and an obligation on the part of those throughout the world who possess nuclear weapons or the means to develop them.

A further commitment to disarmament in all fields that I now wish to convey to the General Assembly is the decision by the Brazilian Government to declare a moratorium on the export of anti-personnel land-mines. The experience of the Brazilian contingent serving in the United Nations Angola Verification Mission has underlined for us the importance of a universal moratorium of this kind and the need to rid the world of the scourge of land mines, which pose a threat to the daily lives of millions of human beings. We would like to see all countries that export land-mines or that have the capability to do so join in this decision.

The international community has placed its hopes in a Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). These hopes are fully justified. We have a historic opportunity to put an end to an outdated practice which has increasingly drawn repudiation and condemnation from international public opinion. We are taking an important step towards general and complete nuclear disarmament and stating unequivocally that there is no room in today's world for nuclear weapons or regional arms races.

Brazil is committed to the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and to the elimination of nuclear arsenals. It has consistently expressed its disapproval of nuclear tests. Brazil strove for approval of the CTBT at the Conference on Disarmament and considered the blocking of consensus in Geneva a grave setback. It was inconceivable to Brazil that we could have let the moment pass, that we could have run the risk of seeing the CTBT meet the same fate as so many other initiatives which were allowed to lapse into oblivion.

This is why Brazil was one of the first sponsors of the Australian initiative to seize the historic opportunity of submitting the CTBT for approval by the General Assembly. This decision reflected the commitment to bequeath to present and future generations a safer and nuclear-weapons-free world. This is why Brazil will immediately sign the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. We call upon all nuclear- and non-nuclear-weapon States to do the same.

The peoples of the world expect action and leadership from the United Nations. They expect that the United Nations will continue to be an essential benchmark of international politics over the next 50 years and that it will always be not the last, but our best hope.

The President

The next speaker in the debate is His Excellency the Honourable Philip Muller, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Marshall Islands, on whom I now call.

Mr. Muller (Marshall Islands)

I wish to take this opportunity on behalf of His Excellency President Amata Kabua and the Government and the people of the Republic of the Marshall Islands to thank and to acknowledge the leadership of the outgoing President, Professor Diogo Freitas do Amaral, and also to congratulate you, Ambassador Razali Ismail, on your well-deserved election to the high office of the Presidency of the General Assembly.

I am pleased to inform you, Sir, that at the recently concluded South Pacific Forum meeting in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, your country, Malaysia, was invited to join the post-forum dialogue next year as a partner, where we hope to further our cooperation.

In our capacity as Chairman of the South Pacific Forum, I have the honour first to make some remarks of a regional nature on behalf of the Forum members that are also United Nations Members, followed by some remarks of a more national perspective.

The South Pacific Forum held its twenty-seventh meeting last month in Majuro, the capital of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The theme for this session, "Pacific Solidarity for the Common Good", highlights one of the important building blocks of our regional cooperation towards sustainable development. The Forum leaders reviewed a broad range of measures in the area of economic reform and development. These and other important decisions of the South Pacific Forum leaders are contained in the Forum communiqué, which has been submitted to the Secretary-General and will be circulated as an official United Nations document.

In his opening remarks to the Forum at Majuro, the President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, His Excellency Mr. Amata Kabua, emphasized the unity and the harmony of the nations gathered at the meeting, which traversed immense ocean barriers. The restraining pull of national interests and cultural differences are all harmonized -- fine-tuned, so to speak -- into a single sea of unity. It is through this unity that seemingly insurmountable obstacles or intractable problems can be resolved. In deliberating on and reviewing their respective performances together and charting the way towards a prosperous and secure future for the region, the Forum leaders gave deeper meaning to the theme of this year's session.

I wish to make some remarks about the outcome of those discussions. Climate change is a global problem that requires a global solution. The Forum has again highlighted its concern over climate change and called for urgent action in view of the second assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which states that the balance of scientific evidence suggests a discernible human influence on the global climate. This report has given us much to be concerned about, and the Forum countries call on the international community to accelerate negotiations at the next conference of the parties.

The international community needs to achieve significant progress towards the goal of lowering greenhouse gas emissions in the near future. The survival of many small island developing States, as well as many other developing States that are adversely affected in some way by climate change depends upon our taking action. We will all be adversely affected by climate change. For this reason we reaffirm our full support for the alliance of small island States protocol in the context of the discussions of the Ad Hoc Group on the Berlin Mandate, which calls for stronger carbon dioxide reductions in a time-bound framework.

Mr. Muller (Marshall Islands)

During this session of the General Assembly we will review progress on a number of related issues under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, including fisheries conservation and management and efforts to reduce the incidence of illegal fishing practices. We will also reiterate the importance that our region has placed on the effectiveness of an international legal regime for oceans and their resources, including, in our view, providing adequate financial resources to the International Seabed Authority in Kingston, Jamaica.

The Forum leaders underscored the importance that the Pacific fish stocks have for international trade and our livelihood. We recognize that this important resource must be managed sustainably to maximize its benefits to our region. In this connection, the Forum leaders have requested our regional experts to develop comprehensive agreements for the sustainable management of the region's fisheries across the full geographical range of the stocks, including the high seas, taking into account the Agreement on straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks opened for signature here in New York last year. The Republic of the Marshall Islands has offered to host a second High-level Multilateral Consultation on the Conservation and Management of Fisheries Resources of the Central Western Pacific next year to advance this process. This ministerial meeting will discuss a number of issues, including restocking, greater involvement of the distant-water-fishing nations in conservation and management, data gathering on the range of the stocks, and transshipments.

The Forum leaders are also committed to the review and appraisal of Agenda 21, which will take place at the special session of the General Assembly next year. Mechanisms have been established for regional dialogue, partnership and participation in the development of concrete proposals for action regarding the progress made since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992. The Forum has asked its Advisory Committee to coordinate these tasks and make preparations to submit reports to that special session. In this respect I wish to call on our development partners to support the efforts of the Forum countries and our regional organizations, so that the special session will be a thorough and comprehensive review. But in this regard, we caution against a proliferation of organizations and meetings when the concerted efforts of the international community should be focused on practical measures, which will improve on the efforts under way at the regional level. It is problematic for our administrations, with limited resources, to cover too many meetings dealing with the same topics, and we fear that unnecessary duplication may occur as a result.

We will report to that session on a number of initiatives, following on from the report submitted to the Commission on Sustainable Development in 1996 by the South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP). In our region we recognize the importance of the multiple role that forests have, and the need for a comprehensive approach by the international community to the sustainable management and conservation of all types of forests. For our part in sustainable forests management, the Forum endorsed a South Pacific Code of Conduct for Logging of Indigenous Forests in selected South Pacific Forum countries. Also, in the light of the fact that 1997 will be the Year of the Coral Reef in the Pacific, we hope to include progress reports on the implementation of coastal-zone-management strategies.

The international community took steps at the Barbados Conference to acknowledge the special situation and interests of small island developing States. We stress the need to give particular attention to the comprehensive Programme of Action produced at that Conference, and to have the special needs of small island developing States adequately addressed in the United Nations development efforts. In its review of Agenda 21 the special session should lay the grounds for further international cooperation, national and regional initiative, and the mobilization of resources for meeting the sustainable development needs of small island developing States.

I wish to raise some of issues of political significance for our region. The Forum commended progress by France and parties in New Caledonia on the implementation of the Matignon Agreements. It welcomed the recent reception accorded to the Ministerial Mission from the Forum countries by the French and New Caledonian authorities. Forum countries encourage all parties to continue dialogue in the search for a durable solution to the question of the territory's long-term future.

I wish to inform the General Assembly that the Forum has reaffirmed its strong and unanimous support for Australia's candidature for the Security Council in this year's election. Furthermore, in recognition of the importance of Japan as a constructive partner for the region, the Forum also expressed strong and unanimous support for the candidature of Japan at the same election.

The Forum expressed satisfaction at the permanent cessation of French nuclear testing in the South Pacific. This marked the end of all nuclear testing in a region that had been subjected to both atmospheric and underground testing for five decades. China's recent announcement of a moratorium on nuclear testing meant that all five nuclear-weapon States were now observing testing moratoriums long urged by the Forum. Earlier this month the General Assembly took action to adopt and open for signature a comprehensive test-ban Treaty (CTBT). This was an effort fully supported by the Forum, and the resolution was sponsored by all the United Nations members of the Forum. We are pleased with the passage of resolution 50/78, and urge all States to join with us in signing and ratifying the CTBT as soon as possible, to facilitate the Treaty's earliest implementation.

We should recall the Advisory Opinion tendered by the International Court of Justice on the legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons, which recognized that all members of the international community have an obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control. The Forum leaders urged all States concerned, particularly the nuclear-weapon States, to continue meaningful negotiations with a view to further significant reductions of nuclear stockpiles in the near future as a step towards the ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons.

They also warmly welcomed the signature and ratification by Vanuatu of the South Pacific Nuclear-Free Zone Treaty, the signature of Tonga, and the signing of the protocols to the Treaty by France, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. As a result of these developments, all States within the Treaty area have now given their support to the Treaty, and all five nuclear-weapon States have undertaken to respect its provisions. We welcome the ratification by France of the protocols. The Forum also urged early ratification of the protocols by the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

The Forum leaders were encouraged by the establishment since their last meeting of two nuclear-weapon-free zones: in South-East Asia and Africa. Leaders noted with satisfaction that these developments represented progress with respect to the decisions accompanying the indefinite extension in 1995 of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. In this context, Forum leaders expressed support for an appropriate resolution at this session of the United Nations General Assembly whereby signatory States of the southern hemisphere nuclear-weapon-free-zone treaties and other members of the international community could affirm their support for these zones and cooperate in the furtherance of the goals of these zones and of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.

The Forum again reaffirmed the existence of a special responsibility towards those peoples of the former United Nations Trust Territory administered by the United States, the Marshall Islands, which was adversely affected as a result of nuclear-weapon tests conducted during the period of the trusteeship. This responsibility includes the safe resettlement of displaced human populations and the restoration to economic productivity of affected areas.

The Forum wishes again to raise concerns over shipments of plutonium and radioactive wastes through our region. These shipments must be carried out in accordance with the strictest international safety and security standards. All contingencies must be fully addressed, and full consultation must be carried out with the countries of the regions through which the shipments will occur.

I now wish to make some comments on behalf of my national delegation.

In regard to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), it is important that countries that were severely affected by nuclear testing play a role in the 51-member Executive Council being envisaged within the CTBT framework to oversee all aspects of the implementation of the Treaty. I wish to reiterate that the Republic of the Marshall Islands stands ready to present its candidacy for that Council, once established.

We are grateful to President Clinton and his Administration for their transparent policy of disclosing previously classified information relating to the nuclear-testing programme in the Marshall Islands. We also wish to thank our friends and supporters in the United States Congress for their assistance. We hope that our cooperation continues to improve and that the process of disclosure is accelerated. All the information pertaining to the nuclear-testing programme should be provided to my Government, in order that we may fully comprehend the implications for our planning for the health and well-being of our citizens and our environment.

The Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands has recently learned that the damage caused by nuclear-weapon-test programmes during the trusteeship is far greater and more horrible than originally disclosed. The radiation released by all 67 nuclear-weapon tests is currently known to affect more atolls and more groups of people than previously disclosed, as reported by the White House Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments. The health, environment, medical, social and economic consequences resulting from the effects of the radiation released remains a major concern for the Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. As a result, at our current level of knowledge the costs related to the effects of radiation make it very hard to properly treat and care for the people who have, and continue to show, radiation-related illnesses. This also applies to programmes related to the rehabilitation of contaminated islands and the safe resettlement of affected communities.

We cannot solve these problems on our own, and we feel obliged to appeal to the international community. Our concern continues to be that our situation has not been fully addressed and rectified until now. We welcome the new willingness of the United States authorities to constructively work with the Republic of the Marshall Islands to address the full range of outstanding nuclear issues, which have for so long affected our relationship and the well-being of our people. We acknowledge the assistance that has been provided up to now, which includes efforts at clean-up and resettlement. But much more needs to be done.

We reiterate the call that was made to the High-level Open-ended Working Group of the General Assembly on the Financial Situation of the United Nations to reduce the so-called floor rate in the scale of assessments. This is an issue of vital importance to all developing countries with small economies, in particular a large number of small island developing States and least developed countries. The situation was firmly noted by the Committee on Contributions in its last report:

"the current floor assessment rate of 0.01 per cent resulted in a serious departure from the principle of capacity to pay for a number of smaller Member States." (A/50/11/Add.2, para. 50)

We call on the Fifth Committee to take action on this matter as soon as possible, and the time for this has come at this session of the General Assembly. In our view, this would have a beneficial effect for over 60 countries.

Another area of reform that is of great concern to us is the expansion of the Security Council. The need for a more democratic process and for allowing greater participation in the work of the Council is something that we all reaffirmed during the fiftieth-anniversary session. However, we have to make more progress in implementing our ideas in this regard.

This will be a very important year for the United Nations in that we will take stock of many of our current activities and lay the groundwork for many others. As Chair of the South Pacific Forum, the Republic of the Marshall Islands will spare no effort to ensure a successful conclusion to this year's agenda. The Republic of the Marshall Islands has been an active participant in this Assembly in the five years that we have been a member. We have come a long way since the adoption of our Constitution in 1979. We pledge our cooperation to the President's leadership and we look forward to working closely with him and the members of the General Assembly.