Speech Mr. William Infante, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Serbia

Transcription

1 Speech by Mr. Boris Tadic, President of the Republic of Serbia, during United Nations Day Celebration Gala event on October 22, 2010, in Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade Dear Mr. Infante, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Serbia, your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, there is no need to emphasize particularly the importance of the United Nations, as the umbrella global institution, and the fact that now, after 65 years of their existence, in the light of the challenges faced by the world in this period, and in the years to come, their importance is even stronger. As all other world organization states, Serbia has an obligation and intention to fulfil the strategically designed Millennium Goals, and, above all, to fulfil them in the period of next five years.

2 The essence of all this is fighting against poverty, global poverty, fighting against discrimination, striving to protect human rights, fighting against environmental damages, fighting to create new and against destroying old. Last month, in New York, at the Millennium Development Goals Conference, I underlined one more time the joint accountability of all United Nation member states and their leaders. As we in the South East Europe region always play with deadlines, sometimes even with too tight deadlines, considering our actual capacities to implement them, this time, I have tried, together with my associates, to set a realistic timeline of the next five years for us make a real step ahead in the implementation of all eight Millennium Goals. In addition to the global scene in which Serbia participates, my dear friends, please allow me also to underline some specific areas of cooperation between our country and the United Nations and their agencies. We are thankful to the United Nations, and first of all to the UNHCR and their project for the return of refugees to the areas under which the people, and not only the Serbs who are our nationals, but all the ethnic communities from the territory of former Yugoslavia and their members, would be able to return to their homes, and that is why the support for the project for the return of refugees to their homes is essential and of key importance for the reconciliation process in the former Yugoslavia region. In the last ten years, the support for development projects in Serbia was essential for us to be able to build the administrative capacities in our country in various areas. We will continue, together with our counterparts from the United Nations, to work on various development projects, and we will continue our partnership on both global and regional level. Recognizing that any major challenge for the future of Serbia, such as the Kosovo issue, also has a global dimension, we are thankful to the United Nations institutions and their Security Council for their meritorious role and their arbitrator s role in the process of the resolution of the Kosovo and Metohija issue. This year s concept for the United Nations Day celebration under the title Serbia: where tradition meets nature combines, in my opinion, in the best possible way, the values born from our rich tradition, and at the same time, that that title, that motto, crystallizes in a way the philosophy of our relationship with the United Nations through which we give our natural resources and cultural heritage for use not only to the generations of our compatriots, but also to all the people on this planet. And, please, let me finish my speech and my address to you, my esteemed friends, your Excellencies, and our international public, from the Ethnographic Museum of all places, by stating some of the dilemmas that are ahead of all of us.

3 The answers to those dilemmas, I am strongly convinced, could only be found by the multilateral institutions such as the United Nations. Those dilemmas arise also as a consequence of the global financial crisis, and therefore, the issue is raised weather the word today and the world in the next couple of decades is and would be able to manage crises that affect every economy in cyclical; would it be possible to continue building the world s future and predictability of our shared civilization based on the model from the previous century, or we would be forced to adopt solutions in the global financial domain in a more creative way so that they could ensure a higher level of protection, lower level of discretion, and higher level of security, particularly for small countries, and for small nations to avoid that they are hit drastically by cyclical financial crisis waves. Because if the world at utmost umbrella institution of the today s community fails to find adequate mechanisms to ensure the highest possible level of financial security and predictability, we will not be in a situation to speak of Millennium Goals, fight against poverty, protection of human rights, fight against discrimination, fight against organized crime, protection of our cultural heritage, and environmental protection. That is why this issue is central and underlies all possibilities for the implementation of the goals that the world is discussing today, and implies concern with the financial order, as a precondition for our economic and overall security. Thank you very much for your attention. Speech Mr. William Infante, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Serbia Thank you all very, very much, Your Excellency President Tadic it is particular honor to be joined tonight to celebrate UN day; it is also an honor to welcome the Spanish Embassy represented by Mr. Javier Hergueta, to recognize all our partners, some of whom I have known for almost 10 years. I want to thank the Ethnographic Museum, Lepa Srbija and all our sponsors who helped make this a different, a wonderful and a great night I hope. This evening celebrates the United Nations 65 th anniversary but more importantly I and UN Country team want to celebrate Serbia tonight. We are celebrating Serbia its people, its traditions, its culture, its natural beauties and we are also celebrating the partnership that the United Nations enjoys with the President of Serbia, with the Government and the people of Serbia. The President mentioned the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and I couldn t agree more that they are an excellent institution that s made a difference but the UNHCR is only one of 24 agencies that are represented here in Serbia all of whom are equally committed to helping to improve the quality of life and to promote democracy in Serbia.

4 Together, with you and with the Government, the United Nations looks forward to promoting governance, development, and regional stability and cooperation. These goals are tied directly to the objectives articulated and communicated to us by the Government and in an effort to be responsive our new 5 year strategy embraces these three areas which will help Serbia to continue to realize its objectives which include EU membership. In celebrating Serbia the UN wants to highlight the country s many virtues by promoting rural and cultural tourism because this connects ecology with heritage with traditions, arts, crafts, music and food. These are some of the elements that make Serbia a very, very special place and they are some of the elements that are at the core of our effort to promote rural tourism and regional development. This important project, which we also salute here tonight, is looking to improve the quality of rural people s by assisting and engaging them in the process of developing the tourism sector and with the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development, with the Ministry of Agriculture, and with other key agencies, and other stakeholders we hope to make a difference. Serbia is truly a country where tradition meets nature and I want to thank the President and again all of you for joining us here tonight. Now I am very pleased to introduce Mr. Javier Hergueta, the deputy chief of mission of the Spanish Embassy, because it is the Kingdom of Spain that provided the funding and the resources to support the Rural Tourism and Regional Development project and to many other projects that were implemented here in Serbia and which the UN is implementing worldwide. Thank you all very much. Speech Mr. Javier Hergueta, Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain in Serbia Your Excellency Mr. President Tadic and Mr. Resident Coordinator of United Nations system, ladies and gentlemen it is an honor for me to be here tonight participating in the celebration of the United Nations Day I am particularly pleased by the fact that this year the United Nation family in this country has decided to focus the event on the Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund, a fund that was established by Spain in the year of This fund of 528 million EURs is a fund that is working for 4 years, from the year 2007 to the year 2011 and it is most important expression of the Spanish firm commitment in the field of cooperation to development as well as to strengthening the multilateral system of the United Nations. As you already know we are very proud to have different programmes being implemented in Serbia with this fund with the budgetary support of 12.5 million US dollars.

5 I would like just to finish giving my congratulation to the United Nations system, especially to Mr. Infante for all the hard work he has done here and for the effort that he has put into the implementation of this programme. To the President Tadic I would like to transmit the firm commitment of the Spanish government in the support of Serbia. In Spain Serbia has a friend and a partner and we are hoping and we are sure that we very, very soon will be able to celebrate that Serbia is in the place that it deserves in the European Union. We are sure that 2010 is going to be a year of Serbia and that the candidacy status is going to be held. Thank you very much.