Keynote Address at the Anniversary Commemorative Meeting at the Diplomatic Academy of the Foreign Affairs Ministry of the Russian Federation, Moscow

Rector Bazhanov,
Distinguished professors, teachers and staff of the Academy,
Colleagues,

Allow me to begin by expressing my appreciation to Rector Evgeny Bazhanov for his warm words addressed to me, as well as for his kind invitation to attend this ceremony marking the Day of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Diplomatic niceties aside, this is a great honour for me.

Since its founding in 1934 as the Training Institute for Diplomatic and Consular Staff, this unique scientific and academic centre has had a distinguished history, having trained many well-known diplomats including the legendary Anatoly Dobrynin, former USSR Ambassador in the US, Valentina Matvienko, the third highest-ranking official in the country today, and a great number of other prominent diplomats, including from CIS countries. Many well-known diplomats and politicians have received their academic degrees within the walls of the Academy.

This is due to the efforts of past rectors of the Academy who managed to bring it to the forefront of the world educational scene. Today, under the able and energetic leadership of the distinguished Russian scholar, Doctor of History, Professor Evgeny Bazhanov, the Academy continues to train skilled diplomats who represent their countries with honour in an international arena that is increasingly challenging for the well-being of nations.

The past few years have clearly shown the magnitude of the cataclysms taking place in today’s world. It has been a period of unprecedented upheaval and change in many spheres of public and political life, and in the economy. The consequences of the transformations that have occurred in the world order are yet to be analyzed. We have witnessed the so-called “Arab spring”, conflicts in Syria and Mali, increasingly savage religious extremism and ethnic conflict, rising tensions between rich and poor at the country level and between individual social groupings, a growing imbalance in the development of the world economy and the destabilization of the global financial system.

Strengthening international security — especially the nuclear non-proliferation regime — stepping up preventive diplomacy, attaining the Millennium Development Goals and, thereby, ensuring sustainable development, have thus become particularly pressing issues at the United Nations.

Given the circumstances, one cannot but agree with that well-known aphorism that diplomacy is the art of surviving into the next century, while some politicians think in terms of surviving the next election.

Speaking at Davos in January of this year, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, called the current period of development the “great transition”. Since time immemorial, humankind has always reckoned it was living through an era of great change. Recent events, however, may well be unprecedented in history. To my mind, this “great transition” did not start last year or even after September 11, 2001 but rather, at the end of the Cold War. The old world order is in ruins; a new world is taking an ominous, often blurry shape, requiring close study. One thing, though, is clear: there is no single power large, powerful and influential enough to assume full responsibility for the state of affairs on the planet. In other words, a unipolar world has proved to be impossible; there is no alternative to dialogue, negotiations and cooperation as a means of strengthening international security and stability. In such circumstances, regional associations and organizations, both economic and politico-military, have an increasing role to play, as per the provisions of Chapter VIII of the United Nations Charter. In this part of the world, organizations such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia and the Collective Security Treaty Organization are gaining in geopolitical stature. The BRIC group has become a factor in global politics.

One cannot overlook the growing shift in economic activity from West to East, from North to South. The Asia-Pacific region has acquired a special role in global developments; the prospects for economic development in China have everyone’s attention, with China having become the main holder of American government debt and having quickly emerged as a world player.
At the same time, the growing tensions in Asia associated with increasingly bitter territorial disputes are a source of concern. The United Nations calls upon States that are involved in these discussions to show restraint and resolve existing differences exclusively through consultations and negotiations. Conflicts and tension will not benefit the peoples of Asia, since they will hamper socioeconomic growth in the region.

The world today stands on the threshold of ground-breaking discoveries and technological innovations that will fundamentally alter our notions and our way of life and will lead to major geopolitical changes. States that have for many years paid due attention to education and science now find themselves in the most advantageous position. Qualitatively new technologies will emerge within our lifetime, whose influence on the international situation can hardly be overstated.The often-cited industrial production of shale gas is just the first indication of potential geopolitical realignments. Thus, exploring and developing alternative sources of energy, developing a “green economy”, to say nothing of strengthening the scientific and technological potential of nations laying claim to front-row positions in the global order, are becoming increasingly important tasks.

I would add that the Secretary-General of the United Nations has appointed the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Gordon Brown, as his Special Representative for Global Education.

Ensuring sustainable development is a key objective in today’s international relations. The world, unfortunately, continues to be full of dangerous contradictions and imbalances. Judge for yourselves: 2.3 billion people have access to the Internet, yet 1.5 billion have no access to electricity; overall global military expenditure has exceeded 1.7 trillion dollars, while more than a billion people live below the poverty line; 785 million people have no access to clean water, and 2.5 billion people – 37 per cent of the population of the planet have no sanitation. Similar imbalances can be observed in every region, every country, and every town.

Presenting on 22 January to the United Nations General Assembly the priorities of the Organization for 2013, the Secretary-General voiced his hope that the international community could stop stumbling from one crisis to the next and instead address their underlying causes.

The Secretary-General has identified his five main priority areas for action: sustainable development; prevention; supporting nations in transition; building a more secure world; and empowering women and young people.

While sustainable development is a key priority of the United Nations, it is difficult to speak of any significant accomplishments in this area. Global unemployment has reached 200 million, and over the next five years that number is expected to increase by another 10 million. Fully 40 per cent of those without jobs are people aged 24 or younger. This is the main reason for the incessant unrest and conflict in some countries. But even people listed as employed live in appalling poverty; their numbers have reached 400 million.

As last year’s Rio+20 conference on sustainable development, important agreements were reached. They now need to be fully implemented. To this end, the UN Secretary-General has appointed a High-level Panel of Eminent Persons, among them, a female senior official from the Russian Federation, to advise on current issues and map out the challenges beyond 2015, when the Millennium Development Goals expire. There will be a special high-level meeting on the Millennium Development Goals in New York this coming September. The UN Office at Geneva is involved in the consultative process leading to that meeting.

At the moment, the attention of the international community is on the crises in Syria and Mali. The situation in these countries will have long-term negative affect on global peace and security — the UN’s principal area of responsibility.

Despite the efforts of the United Nations and League of Arab States Joint Special Representatives, Kofi Annan and Lakhdar Brahimi, Syria is literally falling apart. The crisis is spilling over the borders of the country and poses a serious threat to the stability of the region. This has resulted from fundamental differences among the principal powers and from disagreements within the United Nations Security Council. The situation is complicated by a vulnerable group of some 800,000 refugees and 4 million Syrians, whose plight is described as a humanitarian catastrophe. The United Nations, through its specialized agencies, is doing all it can to ease the plight of the vulnerable civilian population in Syria, but in the absence of any consensus among the member states, future developments in the region are difficult to determine.

The crisis in Mali will also adversely affect international security. I agree with Foreign Minister Lavrov that the destabilization in this part of Africa is a consequence of the dramatic events in Libya. Amorphous governmental institutions and a weak economy have provided fertile ground for terrorist activity, coupled with a potent mix of religious fanaticism and extremism. This has confronted the United Nations with the need to resolve a complicated new problem in the vast expanse of the Sahel where an Islamist terrorist front is forming. Secretary-General Ban has appointed former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi as his Special Envoy for this region.

In general terms, the overall lowering of the threshold of mutual tolerance among the world’s principal religions is cause for alarm. In this reality, the activities of the Alliance of Civilizations, under United Nations auspices, and of the efforts by individual States to promote dialogue among different religions and cultures, grow in importance.

Preventive diplomacy has always played a significant role in the implementation of the goals and principles of the United Nations Charter. The task today is to ensure that the entire Organization and all its partners make full use of the resources at their disposal to prevent negative developments, whether conflicts, natural disasters, massive violations of human rights or economic and financial cataclysms.

Geneva is an important platform for preventive diplomacy, which is attested to by the fact that over the past 12 months, three high-level and ministerial meetings on Syria were held there. It was in Geneva that joint declaration on the settlement of the crisis in Syria – the only legitimate international agreement on the subject - was adopted on 30 June 2012. Geneva is host to the “international discussions” among representatives of Russia, Georgia, Abkhazia and Southern Ossetia; we are also hosting negotiations on the territorial dispute between Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Roughly 10,000 international conferences and gatherings take place at the Palais des Nations every year, which has turned Geneva into the world’s largest centre for international meetings.

Let me touch separately on the question of the Conference on Disarmament, of which I serve as Secretary-General. The Conference has a distinguished past and is credited with many achievements by the international community. Back in the days of the Cold War, it was the venue where major agreements establishing long into the future universal principles governing non-proliferation regime for weapons of mass destruction were negotiated. But times change, and foreign-policy assumptions change too. Due to geopolitical changes in the world, starting in 1996, when the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was adopted, the Conference on Disarmament has stalled and ground to a halt before an insurmountable obstacle – a treaty to ban the production of fissile material. The consensus rule has in essence been turned into a veto, actively wielded by one country, which is de facto a nuclear state.

It is a source of satisfaction that the permanent members of the Security Council generally have a consolidated position as regards the preservation of the Conference on Disarmament as the sole disarmament mechanism that has no alternative. I would like to express my appreciation to the Russian foreign ministry for its consistent position on this issue.

With a view to strengthening the rule of law in disarmament, the United Nations General Assembly has set up an open-ended working group. The group will meet in Geneva for two weeks in 2013, setting a precedent for similar meetings of the General Assembly outside New York.

Meanwhile, the Russian-American Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty remains the only serious accomplishment in nuclear disarmament. Despite its importance, it is not a multilateral treaty, which defines the need for progress at the Conference on Disarmament. As Secretary-General of this forum, I consider it essential, while demonstrating patience and perseverance, to actively seek potential areas for compromise, including through innovative diplomacy.

The Conference on Disarmament, in my view, will, at some point in the future, be faced with the need to draw up an agreement on cyber-security.

With regard to the recent nuclear test by North Korea, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, as many States — among them Russia — has condemned this action. There should be no ambiguity: here, it is essential to establish dialogue, consultations and negotiations to ensure complete transparency in all nuclear programmes.

In conclusion, I would like to point out that Geneva is an acknowledged scientific and academic centre. We actively collaborate with all research and academic institutions, offering access to the unique League of Nations and United Nations archives stored in the Library at the Palais des Nations. There are, I imagine, excellent opportunities for scholars here at the Diplomatic Academy to undertake research at UNOG.

The Diplomatic Academy will celebrate its eightieth anniversary next year. That is an important date of international significance. I venture to suggest that all of us — Academy staff and Academy graduates — are called upon to ensure the appropriate organization of such a notable anniversary. We have a year of hard, detailed work ahead of us. I look forward to sharing it with you. I wish you all continued success.