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<text> <title> U.K. Prime Minister Major to UN Security Council Summit </title> <article> <hdr> Foreign Policy Bulletin, January-April 1992 Security Council Summit Meeting: John Major, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, January 31, 1992 </hdr> <body> John Major, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Presents Declaration of the Security Council Summit, January 31, 1992 It is my understanding that the Members of the Security Council are content for me to issue the Declaration which, in accordance with custom, I will read in a moment as a Presidential Statement on their behalf. I am grateful for that authority and I would now like to read to the Council the statement that has been agreed. It reads as follows: The Members of the Security Council have authorized me to make the following statement on their behalf: The Security Council met at the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York on 31 January 1992 for the first time at the level of Heads of State and Government. The Members of the Council considered, within the framework of their commitment to the United Nations Charter, the responsibility of the Security Council in the maintenance of international peace and security. The Members of the Security Council consider that their meeting is a timely recognition of the fact that there are new favorable international circumstances: circumstances under which the Security Council has begun to fulfill, more effectively, its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. This meeting takes place at a time of momentous change. The ending of the Cold War has raised hopes for a safer, more equitable and more humane world. Rapid progress has been made in many regions of the world towards democracy and responsive forms of government, as well as towards the purposes set out in the Charter. The completion of the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa would constitute a major contribution to those purposes and positive trends, including the encouragement of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. Last year, under the authority of the United Nations, the international community succeeded in enabling Kuwait to regain its sovereignty and territorial integrity which it had lost as a result of Iraqi aggression. The Resolutions adopted by the Security Council remain essential to the restoration of peace and stability in the region and must be fully implemented. At the same time, the Members of the Council are concerned by the humanitarian situation of the innocent population of Iraq. The Members of the Council support the Middle East process facilitated by the Russian Federation and the United States and hope that it will be brought to a successful conclusion on the basis of Council Resolutions 242 and 338. They welcome the role the United Nations has been able to play under the Charter in progress towards settling longstanding regional disputes and will work for further progress towards their resolution. They applaud the valuable contribution being made by United Nations peacekeeping forces now operating in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe. The Members of the Council note that United Nations peacekeeping tasks have increased and broadened considerably in recent years. Election monitoring, human rights verification and the repatriation of refugees have, in the settlement of some regional conflicts at the request or with the agreement of the parties concerned, been integral parts of the Security Council's effort to maintain international peace and security. They welcome these developments. The Members of the Council also recognize that change, however welcome, has brought new risks to stability and security. Some of the most acute problems result from changes to state structures. The Members of the Council will encourage all efforts to help achieve peace, stability and cooperation during these changes. The international community therefore faces new challenges in the search for peace. All the Member States expect the United Nations to play a central role at this crucial stage. The Members of the Council stress the importance of strengthening and improving the United Nations to increase its effectiveness. They are determined to assume fully their responsibilities within the United Nations Organization in the framework of the Charter. The absence of war and military conflicts amongst states does not in itself ensure international peace and security. The nonmilitary sources of instability in the economic, social, humanitarian and ecological fields have become threats to peace and security. The United Nations membership as a whole, working through the appropriate bodies, needs to give the highest priority to the solution of these matters. The Members of the Council pledged their commitment to international law and to the United Nations Charter. All disputes between states should be peacefully resolved in accordance with the provisions of the Charter. The Members of the Council express their deep concern over acts of international terrorism and emphasize the need for the international community to deal effectively with all such acts. To strengthen the effectiveness of these commitments and in order that the Security Council should have the means to discharge its primary responsibilities under the Charter for the maintenance of international peace and security, the Members of the Council have decided on the following approach: They invite the Secretary-General to prepare for circulation to Members of the United Nations, by 1 July 1992, his analysis and recommendations on ways of strengthening and making more effective, within the framework and provisions of the Charter, the capacity of the United Nations for preventive diplomacy, for peacemaking and for peacekeeping. The Secretary-General's analysis and recommendations could cover the role of the United Nations in identifying potential crises and areas of instability as well as the contribution to be made by regional organizations in accordance with Chapter VIII of the United Nations Charter in helping the work of the Council. They could also cover the need for adequate resources, both material and financial. The Secretary-General might draw on lessons learned in recent United Nations peacekeeping missions to recommend ways of making more effective Secretariat planning and operations. He could also consider how greater use might be made of his good offices and of his other functions under the United Nations Charter. The Members of the Council, while fully conscious of the responsibilities of other organs of the United Nations in the fields of disarmament, arms control and nonproliferation, reaffirm the crucial contribution which progress in these areas can make to the maintenance of international peace and security. They express their commitment to take concrete steps to enhance the effectiveness of the United Nations in these areas. The Members of the Council underline the need for all Member States to fulfill their obligations in relation to arms control and disarmament, to prevent the proliferation in all its aspects of all weapons of mass destruction, to avoid excessive and destabilized accumulations and transfers of arms, and to resolve peacefully, in accordance with the Charter, any problems concerning these matters threatening or disrupting the maintenance of regional and global stability. They emphasize the importance of the early ratification and implementation by the states concerned of all international and regional arms control arrangements, especially the START and CFE treaties. The proliferation of all weapons of mass destruction constitutes a threat to international peace and security. The Members of the Council commit themselves to working to prevent the spread of technology related to the research for, or production of, such weapons and to take appropriate action to that end. On nuclear proliferation, they note the importance of the decision of many countries to adhere to the Nonproliferation Treaty and emphasize the integral role in the implementation of that treaty of fully effective International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards, as well as the importance of effective exports controls. The Members of the Council will take appropriate measures in the case of any violations notified to them by the IAEA. On chemical weapons, they support the efforts of the Geneva Conference with a view to reaching agreement on the conclusion by the end of 1992 of a universal convention, including a verification regime, to prohibit chemical weapons. On conventional armaments, they note the General Assembly's vote in favor of a United Nations Register of Arms Transfers as a first step and, in this connection, recognize the importance of all states providing all the information called for in the General Assembly's resolution. In conclusion, the Members of the Security Council affirm their determination to build on the initiative of their meeting in order to secure positive advances in promoting international peace and security. They agree that the United Nations Secretary-General has a crucial role to play. The Members of the Council express their deep appreciation to the outgoing Secretary-General, His Excellency Mr. Javier Perez de Cuellar, for his outstanding contributions to the work of the United Nations, culminating in the signature of the El Salvador Peace Agreement. They welcome the new Secretary-General, His Excellency Dr. Boutros Ghali, and note with satisfaction his intention to strengthen and improve the functioning of the United Nations. They pledge their full support to him and undertake to work closely with him and his staff in fulfillment of their shared objectives, including a more efficient and effective United Nations system. The Members of the Council agree that the world now has the best chance of achieving international peace and security since the foundation of the United Nations. They undertake to work in close cooperation with other United Nations member states in their own efforts to achieve this, as well as to address urgently all the other problems, in particular those of economic and social development, requiring the collective response of the international community. They recognize that peace and prosperity are indivisible and that lasting peace and stability require effective international cooperation for the eradication of poverty and the promotion of a better life for all in larger freedom. (Text provided by the Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington.) The presidency of the Security Council rotates among the members in alphabetical order for one-month periods. The United Kingdom, as presiding member for January, provided impetus for the meeting, and its Prime Minister, John Major chaired it. The statements reprinted here are those of the five Permanent Members of the Security Council. They are in alphabetical order (by country) except for the United Kingdom, placed last because Prime Minister Major read the "President's Statement" on behalf of the entire Council. The ten Nonpermanent Members (Nonpermanent Members are elected for two-year terms by the General Assembly) were represented by: Austria, Chancellor Franz Vranitsky; Belgium, Prime Minister Wilfred Martens; Cape Verde, Prime Minister Carlos Veiga; Ecuador, President Rodrigo Borja; Hungary, Foreign Minister Geca Jeszensky (representing Prime Minister Jozsef Antall); India, Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao; Japan, Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa; Morocco, King Hassan II; Venezuela, President Carlos Andres Perez; Zimbabwe, Foreign Minister Nathan Shamuyarira (representing President Robert Gabriel Mugabe). Texts of their statements can be obtained from the United Nations in New York or from the Missions of the individuals nations to the U.N. </body> </article> </text>