Speech at luncheon with UN ambassadors

Your Excellencies,

The United Nations is much more than an organisation. The United Nations is a symbol of our aspirations, ideals, and hopes for a better future.

It is therefore with great pleasure and pride that I salute you here today. As ambassadors to the United Nations, each one of you is an ambassador for the noblest of causes: peace and prosperity for the peoples of our planet. It is a privilege to work with you to promote these noble goals and human values.

The United Nations is the only arena where all peoples and states of the world, large and small, can do so.

Together with you we will strive to strengthen - not reduce - the role of the United Nations.

The World Organisation has always occupied a special position in Norwegian policy, as it does in your countries. Into the 21st century, Norway remains firmly committed to multilateral action and solidarity.

Our generation of politicians has been brought up on faith in the purpose and principles of the UN Charter.

The United Nations remains vital to ensuring the rule of law in international relations.

No other international body can match the UN with its universal membership and broad mandate. This is why Norway’s political support to the United Nations will remain consistent and constructive.

More than 50 000 Norwegians have served in United Nations peacekeeping operations – one per cent of our population.

We are also among the top ten largest contributors to the development efforts of the United Nations’ economic, social and humanitarian programmes.

Together with the other Nordic countries, Norway represents a group, whose efforts to promote peace and prevent poverty have an impact far larger than our size indicates.

Economic growth and social development leads to political stability. But political stability is also a prerequisite for sustainable economic development.

While retaining its vital role in economic and social affairs, the United Nations must also involve itself more extensively in conflict prevention, crisis management and peace building. We need comprehensive approaches, like the one adopted by Secretary General Kofi Annan in his Africa report.

Norway has initiated a Trust Fund for Conflict Prevention, at the disposal of the Secretary General.

When a conflict erupts, the UN must be at the centre of crisis management. Norway has worked to enhance the response capacity of the UN, including the role of the Special Representative of the Secretary General.

After conflicts, the UN must provide leadership to consolidate peace and ensure a swift transition from emergency relief to long-term development. I am encouraged that this year’s humanitarian segment of ECOSOC will address this critical issue.

Successful conflict prevention, crisis management and peace building requires co-ordination, both within and outside the United Nations system.

We must secure a better unity of purpose and integrate UN peace building efforts with those of other actors.

Through our presidency of the Organisation of Security and Co-operation in Europe in 1999, we will develop further the relationship between the United Nations and the OSCE.

The conflict in Kosovo shows the importance of involving both of these organisations in finding peaceful and political solutions.

A strong commitment to the United Nations and its efforts to promote peace and prevent conflicts – this is at the basis of Norway’s candidature to the Security Council for the period 2001-2002.

Norway has in fact not served on the Council for two decades. We believe it is time for us to contribute positively to the work of the Security Council again.

As a member of the Council, Norway would be able to build on our engagement in peace and reconciliation in various regions – in the Middle East, where I was recently; in Central America; in the Balkans. We would work to enhance the capacity and central role of the United Nations in international peace and security.

Conflict resolution must always be seen in the broader perspective of long term development. The recent financial turmoil has shown that the international community needs to improve the mechanisms for managing economic globalisation.

The United Nations system must be central in a renewed effort to ensure that also developing and low-income countries can reap the benefits of globalisation. The United Nations must make itself heard in the coming multilateral trade negotiations.

The interests of poorer states and peoples must be taken better into account in the promotion of economic integration and a new financial architecture. I have taken the initiative to host a Symposium on globalisation in Oslo this summer, where I am inviting leaders of developing countries, international organisations and multinational corporations to discuss ways and means to achieve this aim.

The income gaps - between and within nations – continue to grow. At the same time, we experience a steep reduction in official development aid from North to South.

Industrialised countries are distancing themselves from the agreed United Nations target of allocating 0.7 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product for development purposes.

Norway has for decades been well above that target. We intend to further increase our official assistance for development. We are actively seeking to reverse the donor fatigue and to promote better distribution of resources, globally as well as within states. This is in the interest of all – developing and developed countries alike.

Our planet holds no sanctuary. No segment of the world population can hide or isolate. There is no alternative to multilateral action if we are to solve the many pressing global problems facing us – poverty and pollution, movements of populations and moves towards protectionism.

The United Nations must be at the very centre of our multilateral efforts. The United Nations represents our best hope for a better world. If there were no United Nations, we would have to invent it.

I look forward to a frank and open exchange of views with you on how we can best equip and enhance the ability of the United Nations to meet the common global challenges. My Government looks forward to working with each and every one of your governments to promote our common ideals and objectives.