UNITED NATIONS, September 20 (Itar-Tass) —— Russia will once again submit a draft resolution condemning the connivance with racial discrimination and xenophobia to the UN General Assembly because of the attempts to review the WW2 outcome, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who leads the Russian delegation to the UN General Assembly session, said in an interview to be published by the Wednesday issue of the newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
“In the line of our consistent efforts to resist the attempted revision of the WW2 outcome, we will once again present a draft resolution on the impermissibility of the connivance with the modern forms of racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia,” the minister told the newspaper.
The other Russian initiatives include the proposals “on the traditional subject of transparency and confidence building measures in the outer space activity,” he said. “We plan to strengthen the agreements achieved at the previous session to establish a group of governmental experts, who will draft practical recommendations,” Lavrov said.
“In the subject of international information security, our efforts are centered on the prevention of the use of information and communication technologies in the criminal, terrorist and military-political goals and in the interference in internal affairs of third states,” he said. “Last year the General Assembly approved our initiative of the creation of the group of governmental experts for studying the existent and potential threats to information security. At the current session we plan to update the mandate of the group with the elaboration of rules of the responsible conduct of member states and confidence building measures in the information space,” the minister said in the interview.
“The member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) have a consolidated position. They have presented a collective document defining the aforesaid rules to the UN secretary general and all the member states,” the minister said.
“Russia is actively participating in the UN reforms in all spheres and promotes practical proposals, which target for the strengthening of the central role and higher efficiency of the structures and mechanisms of the world organization,” he observed.
“The UN reforms go on. However, far from all of them, even the most important, can be implemented quickly, because the UN is made up of 193 sovereign states with their national interests. The innovations must be based on the broadest consent and strengthen the unity for the sake of a higher efficiency of the UN rather than exacerbate differences. The same fully applies to such important problems, as the enlargement of the UN Security Council,” he told the newspaper.
The reform of the UN Security Council is “a key link in the raising of the efficiency of the world organization and its capability of the adequate and operative response to challenges. The negotiations are progressing, although the progress is slow. The absolute majority of the UN member countries, among them Russia, aim at the broadest consent,” the minister said.
“The efficiency of the UN reforms depends to a large extent on the strengthening of the regional component of the global governance, the potential and operative capabilities of regional organizations and their preparedness to interact with the UN and between themselves,” he said. “The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) consistently promotes the achievement of that goal. By forming its peacekeeping forces, the organization members proceed from the possibility of their use in peacekeeping operations the UN is holding in various regions. The CSTO proposal of practical cooperation with NATO, in particularly, in the deterrence of the drug threat coming from Afghanistan, is well known,” Lavrov said.
“The 66th session of the UN General Assembly will discuss the UN role in the global governance in compliance with UN General Assembly resolution 65/94 with the emphasis on the economic element and the assistance to development,” the minister said. “The main goal of the upcoming debate is the formation of the unifying agenda and consensus in key areas of the reform of the UN socioeconomic sector on the basis of the balanced analysis of cons and pros of the existent mechanism of the regulation of world economic processes,” the minister said.
“At the current stage, a priority area of the reform of the UN socioeconomic sector is the strengthening of the potential of the UN Economic and Social Council – the main intergovernmental body of systematic and comprehensive monitoring and evaluation of progress in the achievement of the millennium development goals set by the UN,” Lavrov said.
A key item on the UN General Assembly session’s agenda is “the organization’s reform in the sphere of governance, which will increase the efficiency and transparency of the UN Secretariat and concentrate its resources on priority spheres for the sake of the achievement of practical results,” Lavrov said.
“The main guidelines in the comprehensive reform of the world organization under the new realities were laid down in the final document the chiefs of state and government from over 170 countries signed at the UN General Assembly session in 2005,” the minister said. “In development of the initiatives approved by the chiefs of state, new bodies have been formed, among them the Peacebuilding Commission, which is bound to assist post-conflict states, and the Human Rights Council, which replaced the Human Rights Commission. The global counter terrorist strategy of the Un was approved, decisions were made to revive the activity of the UN General Assembly, and much attention was given to the reform of the organization’s administrative structure,” Lavrov said.