New York, Sep 21 2011 7:05PM
In the face of the world financial crisis, Argentina called from the podium
of the United Nations today for true economic reform to regulate run-away
speculation and other factors undermining market stability, global
development and well-being.
“Speculation apparently has no brakes and can move from one place to another
and from one country or region to another, affecting currencies, economies
and also the daily life of citizens, destroying jobs, depriving them of a
worth education and of health care,” Argentine President Cristina Fernández
de Kirchner <“http://gadebate.un.org/66/argentina“>told the General Assembly
on the opening day of its annual general debate.
“It is crucial that this be understood, because today it might be
speculation on food, yesterday it was on oil, and tomorrow it could be on
mints if that proves profitable and provides a better market position to
those capital flows that are transferred from one end of the world to the
other without any type of control or regulation,” she said.
“Regrettably we continue in the same position because beyond what I would
call totally cosmetic changes no serious steps have been taken towards the
regulation that is required.”
At the same time Ms. Kirchner called for fundamental Security Council
reform, expanding its current 15-State membership, but not by increasing the
number of permanent members. That category should be eliminated, she said,
along with the right to veto now held by the five permanent members – the
United Kingdom, China, France, Russia and the United States.
The veto was necessary at the UN’s foundation during the Cold War when there
was a bipolar world aligned either with the US or the former Soviet Union,
but now it no longer defends security and stability and is used for those
members’ national interests, she said.
She urged the admission of Palestine as a full UN Member State and called on
the UK to negotiate with Argentina, as demanded by UN resolutions, on the
future of the UK-ruled Falklands Islands (Malvinas), saying that fishing and
offshore oil resources were being illegally appropriated.
Returning to a theme that her country has raised every year since 2003, Ms.
Kirchner called on Iran to hand over Iranians implicated by Argentine
judicial authorities in the blowing up of the Israeli embassy and a Jewish
community centre in Buenos Aires in 1992 and 1994 respectively.
She noted that the Iranian foreign ministry in July voiced its intention to
“cooperate and begin a constructive dialogue,” an offer she said Argentina
would take up. But, she added, “although this may show a change of attitude
on the part of the (Iranian) Government, it does not by itself constitute
satisfaction of our demands which, as I have said with all clarity, are
those of justice.”
Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo Mendez echoed Ms. Kirchner’s calls for
financial reforms and urged the UN to establish measures that allow States
to implement policies enabling them to reduce inequalities in their own
countries, as well between rich and poor countries.
He stressed that inequality is growth-stifling and called on the Assembly to
design and construct a new financial model that can adequately respond to
cyclical economic crises.
“Solidarity is not only a moral imperative, it is a necessary reality to
achieve progress and to avoid and combat the dark consequences if we ignore
it: violence and delinquency,” Mr. Lugo said, emphasizing that inequality
would not be reduced without cooperation from all states
He also voiced opposition to the United States’ 50-year economic embargo
against Cuba.
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