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Annan Urges Renewed Efforts for Peace and Partnership
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan believes the new century can and should be a time of renewed efforts to forge peace and partnership within and among nations.
In an exclusive interview with Xinhua, Annan said that in a rapidly globalizing world, no nation can stand alone, and "I hope that governments will therefore act to ensure that they can maintain strong and productive ties with each other, and in particular, focus on providing the basic building blocks -- including the provision of education and health for all -- for their mutual development."
"Of course, any development depends upon peace," said Annan, adding that he hopes that governments can build on the peace processes which are now taking hold in many parts of the world.
The United Nations, he said, will do all that it can to ensure that the opportunities for peace in the new year -- and the new century -- are not lost.
Annan said that in order to do this, the United Nations itself should be better equipped to handle the challenges of the new century. He expressed the hope that UN member states will support the recommendations made by the UN specialists panel on peace operations to enhance the capacity of the organization to deal with crises in the future.
The panel has recommended that the United Nations must ensure that peacekeepers take action in clear cases of aggression, and must also establish the equivalent of a ministry of defense to modernize and professionalize U.N. peacekeeping operations so that troops can deploy more rapidly to world crises.
Annan said that alleviating and eradicating poverty, fighting against AIDS and protecting the environment constitute some of the tough and demanding priorities that the United Nations has to face
in the new century in addition to dealing with crises.
None of the targets set by the world leaders in the Millennium Summit in September can be achieved unless there is real development throughout the world, especially in the poorest countries, he said, adding that development cannot happen without resources.
The Millennium Summit committed the world leaders to turn the 21st century into an epoch free of war, poverty, ignorance and disease, setting the year 2015 as the deadline for halving the proportion of the world's people whose income is less than one dollar a day and the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.
Annan said that he is concerned that all nations are able to face the challenges of globalization, not just have the benefits of globalization go to the few, so that all people around the world can enjoy better living standards.
The secretary-general suggested several steps for governments to take to alleviate poverty. These steps include upgrading slums through support of the "Cities without Slums" action plan, which aims at improving the lives of 100 million slum dwellers by 2020, and granting free access for goods produced in poor countries to enter the markets in the industrialized countries.
He said various UN agencies all implement projects designed to address every aspect of poverty, from hunger to illness and from maternal mortality and well-being to sanitation. "I intend to encourage even stronger efforts, including projects to boost training in information technology, in the years ahead," he said.
On the role of China, Annan said that China has an important role to play not only in this organization (UN) but around the world. "China, as the most populous nation and a permanent member of the Security Council, is in an important position to help safeguard world peace and to speak up for development," he said. He added that he had noticed that in the developing world, China is doing whatever it can to help fight poverty and give assistance and that he hopes this effort will continue.
Annan also said, "I wish the Chinese people happiness and prosperity in the new century."
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