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Canada & the UN > Newton Bowles Reports
Asia Japan (Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi) A new international order in the twenty-first century must emphasize the interlocking issues of peace and security, as well as U.N. reform. Peace demands comprehensive disarmament, especially nuclear and small arms. The Security Council has cautioned North Korea against developing and testing missiles. Establishment of a permanent International Criminal Court will have historic importance. Japan advocates a new development strategy that makes all nations, donors and developing, equal and active partners. Japan is providing Asia with $43 billion in development aid. After five years discussion, now is time to act on Security Council reform. Japan is ready to serve as permanent member. U.N. personnel need much better protection. My good friend Professor Yutaka Akimo, along with colleagues from Poland, Tajikistan and Uruguay, were brutally killed while serving in the U.N. Observer Mission in Tajikistan. He used to say: Don't react, act. India (Prime Minister Vajpayee) India is exemplar of democracy that is advancing world-wide. Terrorism affects all nations. India supports NAM's call for an international conference in 1999 on terrorism. Also at the recent NAM summit India proposed, and NAM agreed, that another conference be held, preferably in 1999, on phasing out all nuclear weapons. Meantime, last May, India held a few underground nuclear tests "essential for ensuring a credible nuclear deterrent for India's national security..." India's prudent policies have protected it some from the volatility of the global economy. "But a drop in commodity prices by 30 percent in a year and a reduction in net capital flows to the emerging markets by 50% will have a negative effect on growth everywhere..." Pakistan (Prime Minister Sharif) In an increasingly interdependent and troubled world, the U.N. is the only place where all can join in partnership for peace and development. People are suffering in Kashmir, Palestine, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan. Pakistan was forced to hold underground nuclear tests in June to protect itself from India. No more tests. Will talk to India. Globalization reinforces our striving for a world partnership, bridging north and south. Sri Lanka (President Chandrika Bandaranaika Kumaratunga) In this fiftieth year of independence, she recalls what her mother, then Prime Minister, said to the Assembly in 1976: It is indeed a sad reflection on the moral and intellectual standards of the twentieth century . . . that so much of the world's resources, which might have been devoted to the eradication of poverty, ignorance, disease and hunger are being wasted on the production of monstrous weapons . . . She is the chairperson of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC - seven countries), and supports the G77 proposal for a "third world" development summit in the year 2000. SAARC has decided to draw up a "Social Charter" to establish "practical, basic norms" for poverty eradication, empowerment of women, mobilizing youth, for health and nutrition, and for protecting children. Sri Lanka has its own plan of action for children. Her government seeks to redress ethnic grievance through peaceful political discussion, not forgetting past failures. Political power will be decentralized. Only the violent "Tamil Tigers" are opposed. She renewed the commitment to the U.N. made by her father, Prime Minister Bandaranaika, in 1956. Vietnam Peace is essential to development, as our experience shows. South-East Asia is more stable with the enlargement of ASEAN (the Association of South-East Asian Nations), although some problems remain (e.g. in the South China Sea). Vietnam played host to la Francophonie in November 1997; and will host an ASEAN summit in Hanoi in December 1998. Newly elected to ECOSOC, Vietnam continues with the U.N. towards peace and security. Republic of Korea (South) Newly elected government has adopted a "sunshine policy" aimed at engendering mutual trust and constructive engagement with the North. His government maintains this approach despite having been rebuffed by the North. The launching of a rocket into the western Pacific, by the North without warning is a serious threat. He hails the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights, and the decision to establish an International Criminal Court. Myanmar After fifty years of turmoil, his government has achieved national stability. Regrets that some try to use the U.N. to foist an alien form of democracy on his country, interfering in their domestic policies. |
