PRESS BRIEFING BY SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT

PRESS BRIEFING BY SECURITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT

Mexico's principal focus during its two-year term on the Security Council would be on making that body more effective and its working procedures more expeditious, Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, the new Permanent Representative of Mexico and Council President for February, told correspondents this afternoon.

Just before this afternoon's briefing, in which he outlined his country's goals during its presidency of the Council this month, Mr. Aguilar Zinser presented his credentials to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Mr. Aguilar Zinser said his country aimed to produce more tangible specific results, while striking the proper balance between the quest for transparency, on the one hand, and efficacy and efficiency in the Council's work, on the other.

After 20 years of absence, he continued, there were two major pillars that would characterize Mexico's membership on the Security Council –- the quest for transparency and strengthening the indispensable strategic associations between and among United Nations bodies.

Addressing transparency, Mr. Aguilar Zinser said Mexico believed that public consultations, bringing Council members closer to the Organization's general membership, holding public meetings, disseminating documents, and sharing points of views with others would strengthen the Council's capability to maintain peace. Transparency in the execution of those responsibilities would also ensure international consensus and the support of the United Nations system.

Addressing strategic association among United Nations bodies, he said the Council was part of the Organization's system and had a specific role to play.  It did that job by acting according to its own rules of procedure.  The Council was designed to do work conducive to conflict resolution and the restoration of peace in regions where that peace was seriously threatened.

Peace, however, was far more than the resolution of a conflict that was under way, he noted.  It also involved creating the right conditions for development, establishing institutions, and creating ways and means for achieving understanding among countries.  All of those requirements required pooled efforts by the various United Nations bodies and other international agencies involved in trying to bring about international development.  Mexico, as a member of the Security Council, would, therefore, make every effort to see that such a pooled process did indeed take place, and that peace, which was lasting and final, was achieved.

He also underscored that there must be continuity of the work done by preceding presidents of the Council.  Mexico, for example, as President for this month, was interested in following through with the ideas and proposals that came out of the debate on Africa last month under the presidency of Mauritius.

Answering a correspondent's question, he said the Council's process on the issue of Iraq was contained in the Sanctions Committee.  Mexico supported the work of that Committee.  Also, the Secretary-General had requested that that issue be included in his discussions with the Council at an early date.  As far as the situation in the Middle East was concerned, the practice of regular informative

meetings on that issue would be continued under Mexico's presidency.  The Council must be a vehicle for dialogue on the issue, gradually moving towards consensus.

Reform of the Council was a matter of the General Assembly, and Mexico enthusiastically supported the work of the Assembly's committee on reform of the Security Council.  In the Council itself, Mexico would work together with other members on initiatives that would lead to greater democracy and transparency.  As President of the Council, he stressed that all decisions must be disseminated and a chance must be given to members and regional bodies to discuss them.

Responding to a question posted to him in his national capacity, he said the key concern at the upcoming World Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey, Mexico, must be meeting the financing needs for development of the poorest countries.  The draft outcome document was a first step in that direction, but further negotiations were necessary.  The Conference itself represented a major "leap forward" towards reaching agreements and understandings that would be realistic and practical.  Since many countries would be represented at a high level, it would be possible that specific commitments could be made.

He did not want the issue of development to be absorbed by the Council, but the Council must work more closely with the bodies of the United Nations dealing with those issues and follow their leadership in that regard.  The Council's work was limited to promoting peace through peacekeeping missions.  After that work was done, the Council must withdraw and yield to other bodies.

In Afghanistan, lasting peace depended, first of all, on stable and secure conditions in the country and the region.  That, however, would create only a fragile situation, if the international community did not back it up by other action.  Regarding the request of the Chairman of the Interim Authority in Afghanistan to the Council to expand the mandate of the security forces beyond Kabul, he said a series of meetings on Afghanistan had been scheduled.  Tomorrow, the Secretary-General would report on the situation.  That briefing would be public, after which the Council would go into consultations.  Another meeting was planned for 27 March.  The issue of Afghanistan was permanently kept under review.

In Africa, Mr. Aguilar Zinser said a continuous international community effort was needed to see to it that peace processes became consolidated, so that institutions could be built within countries.  That was not the Council's job, he said, but that of the whole United Nations system.

Asked what the Council must do to insist that the response to terrorism was multilaterally pursued and carried out within international law, he said Mexico was betting on multilateralism, on decisions reached by consensus and in line with international law.  More attractive multilateral mechanisms were necessary. Unilateralist impulses must be fought off.  It had become obvious that solutions reached by consensus were by far more effective and sustainable.

In response to a question on Colombia, he said the Council would not be involved there, because Colombia was handling those efforts and creating conditions conducive to peace.  The expectation was that Colombia's Government would soon start negotiations with various guerrilla groups around the nation. Mexico, on the invitation of both parties concerned, had been participating in the group of facilitator countries.  That was not the kind of issue to be discussed in the Council, but should be pursued at the national level.