PRESS CONFERENCE BY ITALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER LAMBERTO DINI

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY ITALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER LAMBERTO DINI

The Italian Foreign Minister, Lamberto Dini, has outlined to a Headquarters press conference a proposed new set of principles, which he says could guide and facilitate future international interventions.

Presenting correspondents with an advance text of his speech to the General Assembly, Mr. Dini said he would seek to develop recent remarks by the United Nations Secretary-General on the redefinition of national sovereignty. The mood of the international community was now such, as to lead it “to engage in military intervention to prevent human tragedies that would have left States indifferent only 10 years ago”.

But new rules had to be defined, which would “justify the erosion of the long-standing principle of national sovereignty in the name of global responsibility”. Mr. Dini said his speech contained five proposed new principles that would serve to codify the criteria for deciding future interventions.

First, new emphasis had to be placed on “crisis” rather than “conflict” prevention. The cultural and economic causes of conflicts had to be uprooted.

Second, the use of force would clearly be the last resort.

Third, the new code would explicitly avoid the rule of the strongest, Mr. Dini said, “and reaffirm the strength of law, rather than the law of the strongest”.

Fourth, there must continue to be “an appreciation of the judgement of others”, of the sort mentioned by one of the founding fathers of American democracy, James Madison; but one that would involve a rethinking of the principles of national sovereignty and independence.

Fifth, there was need to strengthen large, universal institutions –- particularly the United Nations. Without this, peacekeeping operations might begin to resemble the powerful states “taking the law into their own hands”.

Mr. Dini pointed out that his speech did not touch specifically on the role of Italy in the future international scene. But he hoped that Italy’s candidacy for a non-permanent seat on the Security Council might pave the way for a third permanent seat for Europe. He reminded correspondents that Italy was the fifth-largest contributor to the United Nations budget, and the sixth-largest contributor of troops to peacekeeping operations.

Mr. Dini also spoke of his support for reform of the Security Council, “to make it more democratic and more representative of the world of today”. In response to a question, he said the criteria for membership were more important than the names of [possible] new members. Two such criteria, he added, could be population and gross national product, “which would make the Security Council more representative of the world, which today it’s not”.

In response to another question, Mr. Dini said the idea of non- permanent Member States with large populations rotating more often was “attractive” but had to be submitted to the membership as a whole.

To another correspondent, Mr. Dini said that the recent international intervention in Kosovo had been carried out without the explicit authorization of the Security Council “for fear of a veto”. That could not be repeated. Replying to another query, Mr. Dini said that while he was not against the principle of veto power, he wanted “new rules that will legitimize interventions,” and he expressed the hope that the Security Council would then be better placed to make such judgements.

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