TRANSCRIPT OF PRESS CONFERENCE BY GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT HENNADIY UDOVENKO (UKRAINE) AT UN HEADQUARTERS, 18 SEPTEMBER

Press Release
GA/SM/3

TRANSCRIPT OF PRESS CONFERENCE BY GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT HENNADIY UDOVENKO (UKRAINE) AT UN HEADQUARTERS, 18 SEPTEMBER

The PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Mr. Sanbar, (Assistant Secretary- General Samir Sanbar), for your kind words addressed to me. This is my first meeting with the press corps in my capacity as President of the General Assembly. This session is of great importance. It is up to you to identify how it will be referred to in the future -- call it a milestone or a historic General Assembly, I don't know -- but I would like to emphasize that this session of the General Assembly should be known for considering a very important agenda item: the reform of the United Nations.

The Secretary-General suggested and elaborated proposals concerning the reform of the United Nations. Why is reform so necessary? The world is changing, and it is especially necessary to adapt United Nations activities to bring them into line with up-to-date requirements of the post-cold-war period. As you are well aware, many of you have been working here for a long time, that this is not the first time that the United Nations has wanted to introduce far-reaching reforms. I remember that the first attempt was made in the early sixties by Sir Robert Jackson of, I think, Australia. He prepared a very big volume, a report containing very detailed recommendations. This speaks for itself: the United Nations is a living organism, and this organism should be reformed from time to time. This period is very important, and very unique for the Organization because, again, we are in the post-cold-war period, and we need to adapt the Organization to the requirements of the present.

Today the General Committee completed consideration of agenda items to be included in the agenda of the General Assembly at this session. This will be considered in plenary tomorrow. I think we reviewed 162 agenda items, including a few new ones. The most important, I think, are the matters pertaining to the Secretary-General's report on the reform of the United Nations. Reform covers a very wide area; certainly everybody knows about the enlargement of the Security Council, and everybody knows about the financial problems. These three major issues will have to be considered by the General Assembly.

There is great interest in this session among Member States. I think that there are more than 180 Member States --

MODERATOR: One hundred and eighty-three.

The PRESIDENT: I am being vague consciously, because today no one knows exactly. Earlier it was 183 inscribed on the list of speakers, out of 185. A large number of heads of State are expected to participate -- 28 heads of State and 22 heads of Government. This speaks for itself. And this is the result of an intention by the United Nations, the Secretary-General, the President of the General Assembly and the General Assembly itself to reach a wide consensus on reforming the United Nations.

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I think that the role of the General Assembly will also have to be strengthened and increased. The role of the President of the General Assembly -- not just because I am the President of the General Assembly -- also will have to be increased. It should not be only a ceremonial position but a position that can affect the activities of the Organization.

I should like also to use this opportunity to commend my predecessor, the Ambassador of Malaysia, for his very active contribution to the activities of the United Nations. I have known him since I was the Permanent Representative of Ukraine here, and I have already had a chance to thank him for his really very great contribution to the activities of the United Nations. I know that he has also been very active in contacts with the press corps here. For me too, this is part of my job. As the Foreign Minister and as the former Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations, I met with many of you in the past.

But I should like again to say that I am devoted to the goals and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, the goals and principles of the United Nations. Ukraine is a founding Member, and even during the Soviet era we participated very actively in United Nations activities. For us in Ukraine it was the only possibility of dealing with the outside world.

Again, I am very glad to meet with you, and I should like to say that I am ready to cooperate very closely with you as a corps and individually with everybody. Thank you very much.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President, for your willingness to cooperate, and congratulations. The General Assembly, as you said, has recently been playing a role that is more than simply ceremonial. It took up the issue of settlements in an emergency session, and you know today's events in Jerusalem; there is more violence, of course, due to the fact that the Israeli Government has refused to implement these resolutions on the settlements or recognize them. What do you think is your job as the President of the General Assembly, and what is your reaction to the events of today?

The PRESIDENT: My reaction is very simple. The President of the General Assembly will have to participate and contribute to the extent possible to a peaceful settlement of the Middle East crisis, to help those who are negotiating this peace settlement and to use the possibilities of the General Assembly and the United Nations to settle this very difficult and involved crisis.

I just met a few minutes ago with a good friend of mine, the Permanent Observer for Palestine, and we agreed to meet with him and to discuss in detail his views. He wants to brief me on the situation there. Being an old- timer at the United Nations, I participated actively in the work of the

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Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and in the consideration by the General Assembly of this issue.

However, I would like to emphasize that the peace diplomacy which is being undertaken in that area greatly contributed to the settlement of the Middle East crisis. And we at the General Assembly -- and I, as the President of the General Assembly -- will have to use this experience of diplomacy to help them.

QUESTION: Can you pronounce yourself exactly on the issue of settlements? The issue that I put before you is that...

The PRESIDENT: Well, at this time I would like to limit myself to general remarks, general comments. And do not forget that I have been here for only three days and that I first have to be briefed by those who have intimate experience and knowledge through their participation in the solution, and during our next meeting I will be more specific. Thank you.

QUESTION: The problem about this ceremonial position ... you are not very happy with a ceremonial position as the President of the General Assembly. So may I ask you what kind of role do you see in the future for the President of the General Assembly? Do you think that it should be more active and more participatory in nature?

The PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, there are established rules of procedure of the United Nations General Assembly which also concern the role of the President of the General Assembly. Therefore, for each President the most important thing is to be guided by the already existing rules of procedure. In principle we are talking about a more important role for the General Assembly in world affairs and in the activities of the United Nations and, hence, about a more important role for the President of the General Assembly.

The General Assembly is actually the parliament of the United Nations. This parliament's task, as that of any national parliament, is to prepare legislation. What the General Assembly is doing is just adopting numerous resolutions. Whether these resolutions are implemented -- very often they are very repetitive -- the problem is how to increase the importance of these resolutions and how to have the Member States that adopt these resolutions here at the General Assembly be guided by them in their implementation.

This poses a problem. This is the role of the General Assembly and the United Nations, in principle: to identify whether we should continue to ... well, this is, for instance, the annotated -- I always take it with me -- provisional agenda of the current session of the General Assembly. And there will be a few volumes of resolutions which are going to be adopted by the General Assembly. Some of them are not being implemented. So there is a role

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for us. This is not the personal role of the President himself, because his duties are identified by the General Assembly, by the rules of procedure.

But the problem is, what is the General Assembly? Whether we as Member States are going to be guided by these resolutions we adopt here when pursuing our national policies -- this is the problem. The question is not a new one. The question is the reform of the United Nations, which touches on both sides -- the General Assembly and the Member States.

QUESTION: The Secretary-General has said that over the years there has been a blurring of the functions of the General Assembly and the Secretariat which has led to micromanagement of the Organization by the General Assembly. Do you share that view, and what do you think the likelihood of the Secretary- General's proposal for result-based budgeting is?

The PRESIDENT: Well, I share the view of the Secretary-General because his recommendations are well elaborated and his recommendations are very practical. The task is to have them implemented without delay. Today at the General Committee meeting it was discussed what will be the mechanism of the consideration of this agenda item. And some delegations already expressed themselves in the General Committee, suggesting -- I, as the Chair of the General Committee, also suggested -- that the members of the Committee to consider this issue in plenary. But it does not exclude other mechanisms. Therefore it is up to the General Assembly to discuss how the recommendations of the Secretary-General will be considered and what will be the final outcome of the session. My intention is to facilitate the early consideration of the recommendations of the Secretary-General to start their implementation at the beginning of the new year.

Another thing is that certainly these recommendations, as well as other possible recommendations, will have to be supported financially, but this is another issue.

QUESTION: Ukraine, since independence, has maintained high visibility in the international arena, which was largely due to your personal activity and your diplomacy. Who is going to run the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs now that you are here, and the presidency of the General Assembly is pretty much a full-time job?

The PRESIDENT: First of all I would like to emphasize that the President of Ukraine is very active in foreign policy, and thanks to his great authority the world and Ukraine have managed to really make a number of important achievements during the last year. The most important is the signing of the treaty of friendship and cooperation and a number of agreements with the Russian Federation on the Black Sea navy. This was a great contribution to peace and stability, not only in Europe but in the world.

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We also signed a very important treaty of friendship with Romania, with Poland, with Belarus. This is the first treaty on border issues between former Soviet republics. We signed such a treaty with Belarus.

We signed a charter on special partnership between Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. And on the eve of my departure for New York there was a historic meeting, at least for us in Ukraine: the summit meeting of the European Union and Ukraine, which took place in Kiev. These are a number of important events which have occurred recently in the foreign policy of Ukraine. And Ukraine has won great respect for settling all these issues with its neighbours.

Number two in the Foreign Ministry will be running the office when I am here, but because of the difference in time I can be in touch with Kiev before I start my work here. I'm in communication every day with the Ministry, and I have scheduled to be here through the whole session of the General Assembly, through the main part of the session. And then we will see how much of my time I have to spend here.

But for the time being, Mr. Buteiko, who is number two at the Foreign Ministry, is in charge of the Ministry.

QUESTION: You referred to the volume of resolutions that are approved and never implemented. Isn't the problem with the General Assembly that it has only the mentality to repeat itself every year? Because we have seen -- I have been around here for almost 20 years -- the agenda items are the same, they are approving the same things, the same speeches, and so on. Can you make any reforms of the work of the General Assembly?

The PRESIDENT: Well, this issue is always under discussion in the General Assembly: whether it is necessary to repeat resolutions every year on an issue. But there are some very important issues: if you do not adopt a resolution at the current session on a particular issue because a similar resolution was adopted at the previous session, one can interpret it that this issue is no longer of interest to the Member States. Therefore, the General Assembly -- these numerous working groups which deal with the efficiency of the United Nations -- referred a number of times to this issue, and this is under consideration even now. I think there are many approaches. For instance, the General Assembly decided to consider some issues once every two years in order to avoid this repetition. There is another way out, with this clustering of various issues and considering them as a cluster.

But in principle you are right, and this issue will have to be looked at very carefully, and it is under scrutiny by many organs of the United Nations.

QUESTION: I wonder how important, in your view, is the reform of the Security Council? Are you going to speed up the procedure, the discussion, a

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little, maybe with your own proposal to overcome the kind of deadlock that has been reached?

The PRESIDENT: You know, there is an established procedure to deal with this issue. There is a working group; there is a timetable for the activities of the working group; and the working group is supposed to submit a report at the end of this session. I will certainly be dealing with the working group. As the President of the General Assembly, I am supposed to cover all the issues which are before the Organization. I will be meeting periodically with the working group to review from time to time the problems they are discussing, to be familiar with the situation and with the reactions of Member States. This is a normal procedure here in this Organization.

Certainly I do not have to tell you that there are a number of different proposals concerning the enlargement of the Security Council, concerning the right of veto, concerning the composition of the Security Council -- there are a number of things. And certainly this is a very important issue for this session of the General Assembly.

QUESTION: Although their views were not identical, both the Secretary- General and your predecessor as President have placed considerable emphasis on so-called partnership of non-governmental organizations with the United Nations. What is your view on the role of non-governmental organizations?

The PRESIDENT: I think, first of all, that this issue is also under very careful consideration within the reform of the United Nations. Non- governmental organizations play a very important role within the United Nations system. A number of them have consultative status with the Economic and Social Council and with other organs of the United Nations. But they want to take part in the General Assembly. And they want to pronounce themselves before the General Assembly. And this issue and these proposals, as you are well aware, are also under very careful consideration.

But in principle, the role of non-governmental organizations in world affairs is great, and no one -- including the General Assembly -- can disregard their role. This issue is under consideration.

QUESTION: Do you expect the Secretary-General's reform proposals to be considered as one package or as individual elements? And which do you prefer?

The PRESIDENT: Personally, I would prefer these proposals of the Secretary-General to be considered as a package. If we try to divide these proposals and if we assign them for consideration to various organs, then it will cause a great delay in their consideration. Therefore, we should avoid any fragmentation in the consideration of the Secretary-General's proposals.

I am in favour of considering them as a package. I don't want to impose my views, but my preference is that they should be considered at the plenary meetings of the General Assembly.

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