SECRETARY-GENERAL PRAISES GERMANY'S CONSISTENT COMMITMENT TO UNITED NATIONS AT DINNER HOSTED BY FOREIGN MINISTER KLAUS KINKEL
Press Release
SG/SM/6006
SECRETARY-GENERAL PRAISES GERMANY'S CONSISTENT COMMITMENT TO UNITED NATIONS AT DINNER HOSTED BY FOREIGN MINISTER KLAUS KINKEL
19960620 Following is the text of a toast given by Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali at the dinner hosted last night by the Foreign Minister of Germany, Klaus Kinkel, in Bonn:It is always a pleasure to be in Germany. It is particularly so at this time, as the historic capital of Bonn joins the ranks of the United Nations host cities. This gesture is an affirmation of Germany's consistent commitment to the United Nations. Germany has played an important role in the Organization's most critical bodies, including the Security Council, upon which it now serves.
Germany's contribution to United Nations peace-keeping operations dates from the very start of its membership of the Organization. Within months of its admission to the United Nations, Germany made available a voluntary airlift of troops for the Second United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF II). More than 100 German military and police personnel serve in such missions today.
Fifty years after its creation, the United Nations today stands at a crucial crossroads. As Germany's distinguished representative observed in the General Assembly last year, "we have to decide whether we need and whether we want a United Nations capable of meeting the challenges not only of the next century, but even of today".
Over the last few years, the world community has demonstrated that it does want, and does need, such a United Nations. Political support has been extended at the highest levels to United Nations-sponsored global conferences -- on the environment, human rights, population, social development, on the advancement of women and on human settlements.
And yet, at this very moment, the United Nations is being starved of the resources it needs to perform the essential tasks entrusted to it. The Organization is now in a position where it has no capital and no reserves. It is in debt nearly one and a half billion dollars.
I have done everything in my power as Secretary-General to address the financial crisis and to move forward the process of reform. I fully share the
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wise philosophy articulated by Germany in the General Assembly, that efficiency offers an incentive to pay.
I am grateful for Germany's support for my efforts to use the budgetary process as a means to increase the efficiency of the Organization, and to improve its performance. These efforts have been greatly strengthened by the work of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, led by my senior colleague, Under-Secretary-General, Karl Paschke.
I wish to commend Germany for being the first Member State to pay part of its contribution to the 1996 budget. Germany's entire assessment was now paid in full.
Even as peace-keeping and the United Nations financial crisis continue to grab the headlines, Germany has continued to pursue the goal of global development, with dynamism and resolve. Germany understands that the now undeniable link between the persistence of poverty and dangers to peace demands new forms of global development cooperation. The development objective cuts across all sectors of German assistance. And it concurs with the central mandate of the United Nations Development Programme, whose activities Germany has so diligently supported. It is especially heartening to know that government policies on development cooperation enjoy the support of the overwhelming majority of the German people.
Three years ago, the Leipzig Orchestra performed at the United Nations. The strains of Beethoven's "Eroica" symphony echoed through the General Assembly Hall.
I recall the inscription that great composer had appended to one of his works, where he asked: "Muss es sein?", and answered himself: "Es muss sein".
It was the same question that Member States asked themselves of the United Nations, and it was the same conclusion that they reached.
Today, it remains the responsibility of all Member States to ensure that the being they created -- and whose continuing relevance they have so repeatedly affirmed -- continues to serve the peoples in whose name it was established: the peoples of the United Nations.
I know the United Nations can count on Germany's support in that mission.
May I now propose a toast to our distinguished host, and to the eminent guests gathered here this evening; to the Government and people of the Federal Republic of Germany; and to their ever closer involvement with their Organization, the United Nations.
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