PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRIME MINISTER OF ANDORRA

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRIME MINISTER OF ANDORRA

At a press conference at Headquarters this afternoon, Marc Forné Molné, Prime Minister of the Principality of Andorra, talked to reporters about his nation and its relations with the rest of the world. Mr. Forné Molné was introduced by Under- Secretary-General for Information Kensaku Hogen. The Prime Minister, he said, was a lawyer by profession, and the founder of two important Andorran political publications. He was elected to Andorra's Parliament in 1993, and became Prime Minister in 1994. In 1995, he was elected President of the Andorran Liberal Party. Two years later, in 1997, he was re-elected Prime Minister.

Mr. Forné Molné told reporters that although Andorra was a very small country in the Pyrenees, it boasted more than seven centuries of peace and of cordial co-existence with larger neighbours. Given its long-standing tradition of harmonious relations with the outside world, Andorra obviously looked with favour on United Nations efforts to reduce tensions and promote and maintain peace. It therefore supported all United Nations initiatives aimed at furthering peace, ranging from the drive to reduce circulation of small arms to the creation of the International Criminal Court. Indeed, he said, Andorra was in large part responsible for the language of the Court's statute.

While Andorra's participation in United Nations activities was not always uncritical, its position was invariably one of support for the Organization. The Prime Minister believed that one vital condition for the continuing effectiveness of the United Nations was prompt and full payment of dues by every Member State. Like other micro-States, Andorra played its part. But large or small, it was essential that everyone contribute. Some conflicts facing the United Nations -- an example was the crisis in East Timor -- were especially intractable. There was no better instrument for containing and solving them than the United Nations. It was therefore of the utmost urgency that the international community should not stint on providing the Organization with the necessary means.

Following this afternoon's address to the General Assembly, he said, he would continue his discussions at Headquarters with other world leaders. He would also be talking to various groups and individuals in the United States in order to attract investments to Andorra. Beyond peace, social stability and the proximity of an unspoiled natural environment, his country offered many substantial attractions for outsiders. "Even our weather is an argument in our favour", he said.

Asked to tell his listeners exactly what he, as the leader of a very small country, hoped to achieve in his discussions at United Nations Headquarters, the Prime Minister replied that one objective was simply the re-establishment of personal relations with other leaders. However, he found the fact that his country's vote weighed as much as any other's quite remarkable,

Andorra Press Conference - 2 - 20 September 1999

particularly since Andorra's presence at the United Nations was only seven years old. Andorra's vote was solicited, for example, in elections to the Security Council, or in questions such as the admission of new members to the European Union. It was Andorra's Permanent Representative to the United Nations who had organized and created database archives for the Western European community -- the first such archives to be devised for any grouping of nations.

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