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Sunday, May 23, 1999
Mr. Malcolm Frazer, Head of the Interaction Council Ladies and Gentlemen, At the outset, I would like to welcome this top-level gathering in Egypt on the occasion of the annual meeting of the Interaction Council. I would also like to express my deep appreciation for the initiative of proposing to convene the 17th conference of the council in Cairo. It is important to me to point out my complete conviction of the importance of the role played by the council, and my great appreciation to its members who all shared in the making of great events of the second half of the Twentieth Century, bringing about major achievements and notable successes. It is also my pleasure to pay tribute to the sincere effort these members exerted to enhance their countries relations with Egypt during their respective tenures in their friendly countries. Ladies and Gentlemen, It is not a coincidence that your conference is held here in Cairo, at this critical juncture of human history where the world is living the last months of the Twentieth Century. This is a century where humanity has made as many great achievements as it has been exposed to disasters and bloody tragedies. The century has witnessed an unprecedented acceleration of pace in the science and knowledge revolution in all walks of life, the issuance of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, increasing attention to the environment as a common stock for all humanity and stress on the importance of sustainable development that fulfils nations aspirations for higher levels of progress and prosperity. On the other side, this century witnessed also two world wars, a cold war, and a record-breaking number of bloody conflicts and disputes all over the world. It also witnessed the precedent of using nuclear weapons and other mass distruction weapons, the emergence of international terrorism and crimes of genocide and ethnic cleansing. These have claimed the lives of millions, wasted away a huge portion of nations energies, obstructing their legitimate aspirations to enjoy a descent, unfettered life and contribute to the progress of civilization. It is auspicious that this century witnessed a tangible activity for joint international work where the U.N. with its system play a top role. Moreover, it witnessed the birth of Bretton Woods institutions where there is currently much talk about the necessity of upgrading, in addition to the emergence of the important role played by the non-governmental organizations of a developmental and humane nature. All these parties have become partners in coordinating joint international work that helps draws up the picture of life on earth. I am aware, dear gentlemen, that the aim of our meeting today is not to assess such international efforts, but it is important, in my point of view, to draw conclusions and lessons from both successes and failures made by the generations of the Twentieth Century. This would enable our sons and grandsons, who will wake up the coming centurys generations to benefit from them in the future; hence ensuring that predecessors successes are upheld and reinforced, their failures and errors evaded and causes thereof eliminated. Ladies and Gentlemen, The Middle East region has been the cradle of heavenly religions, the springboard for human civilizations and an arena for approachment and interaction among nations and civilizations. During this century, however, the Middle East region has witnessed the eruption of the Arab-Israeli conflict and its aggravation to the extent where the energies of states and peoples have been wasted away. Consequently, it is rare to find any Arab or Israeli family that has not suffered, directly or indirectly, from its repercussions either on a human or physical scale. The valiant initiative by the late President Anwar al-Sadat in 1977 was the first practical step towards peace between the Arabs and Israel and a historical starting-point towards a perseverent effort to establish a comprehensive and equitable peace in the Middle East. The Arab-Israeli peace process resulted in the restoration by Egypt of all its occupied territories and paved the way for convening Madrid Peace Conference in 1991 and the subsequent agreements between the Arabs and Israel. It also created wider hopes to the public opinion in the region and the world for a possible closing of the Middle East conflict file by the end of this century. As you know, the peace process faces at present major difficulties and challenges as a result of the current stalemate. The make it incunbent upon us all to redouble our efforts so as to regain confidence of the public opinion in the credibility of the peaceful process. This could be only possible when the people of the region feel that the Arab-Israeli signed agreements are honestly and precisely implemented, when the stalled negotiations between Israel and the Arab parties are resumed on various bilateral tracks, and when such negotiations achieve their purpose within a logical time frame. We hope that the new Israeli government will adopt a positive policy to realize peace and a historical reconciliation between Arab and Israel based on mutual respect for rights and duties; as well as dealing with various Arab parties on a pari-passu basis rather than on grounds of military supremacy and the status quo policy because this will never survive. This is a situation that will never be accepted by the international community while standing on the threshold of the third millennium that witnesses an increasing trend towards confirming nations right to self-determination and establishing their relations with other countries on grounds of equality rather than imposition, hegemony and suppression. In this context, the first test will be how the new Israeli leadership handles the Palestinian issue which is the core and crux of the conflict. The Palestinian issue is the first test for the Israeli intentions towards the Arab. It is aspired that any detente in this connection will pave the way for an un delayed tangible progress on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks; thus making the year 1999 one of real progress on various tracks. This will entail a new frame for a comprehensive historical reconciliation based on legitimacy and a commitment to rules of law and justice. I need not to point out the significance of the effective role played by friendly countries and institutions similar to your venerable council in helping bring about such transition. To this end, they insisted on supporting the Palestinian peoples right to self-determination and establishing its own independent state on its soil, according to the guide-lines set forth by the European Union in the recent Berlin Summit. This approach can bring about a decisive progress on the other two tracks, on basis of recognizing the legitimate rights and obligations assigned to both sides according to the peace process groundwork and the international law provisions, salient of which are the principle of Land-for-Peace, respecting the special status of Jerusalem and the right of all peoples of the region, including Israel, to live in security and peace. Ladies and Gentlemen, As regards the most important intellectual challanges of this crucial stage of human history, it is necessary for international efforts to unite so as to seriously confront false theories propagated by some intellectuals, since the end of the cold war, hinging, in some form or another on inevitable conflict of civilizations. What makes the situation more serious is that some authors in Western countries propagate fallacious claims that, after the termination of the threat of communism, Islam has now become the main threat to the West. They base their false claims on the manifestations of extremism and violence some Islamic countries, as other human communities, witness. In this connection, they ignore the fact that various communities all over the world, Islamic, Christian, Jewish or Buddhist, Eastern or Western, Northern or Southern without distinction suffer from this phenomenon. The propagation of these ideas in the Western World and their repercussions elsewhere in the world have led to a negative reaction in Islamic communities to the extent that some sectors of intellectuals in these communities now find in those themes a decisive evidence of claims propagated about the impossibility of coexistence and cooperation with the West. They claim that it aims at imposing its will on others, drawing upon its own power and insistence on exploiting and suppressing other nations in addition to practicing new methods of colonial domination on them. Faced with such serious phenomena, several countries and international institutions have become aware of the importance of a creative objective dialogue between civilizations and cultures, in an attempt to rectify such wrong notions, highlight the meeting points between peoples and stress the fact that each civilization has its own contributions in different stages of history, bearing in mind that the western civilization itself has evolved as a result of influence and interaction with other civilizations, the eastern ones in particular. This present stage witnesses a variety of suggestions for interaction between civilizations in several international forums. Examples of these are a resolution adopted by the United Nations, to declare the year 2001 an international year of interaction between civilizations, and initiate a dialogue between the ancient world civilizations in the East and the European continent, the German president Hertzug initiative for a dialogue between the Islamic world and the West as well as a proposal for an international conference involving intellectuals, philosophers and creative writers from all parts of the world to develop an overall vision and conception of cooperation and interaction among civilizations. In addition, the importance of dialogue between civilizations has been underscored in the deliberation of the U.N. General Assembly, the Organization of Islamic Conference and the Non-Aligned Movement. I believe that this council involving personalities enjoying a considerable international esteem, can effectively contribute to asserting the importance of regarding this issue as a top priority in the international policy interests. This should be considered not as an academic issue exclusively confined to debates by intellectuals and historians, but rather as a political issue in the first place, where wide discussions may result in volatile dangers. On the other hand, I suggest that the deliberations of your council may cover, considering the possibility of cooperation between two countries, international institutions and non-governmental organizations in making a proper use of modern media and communication means, publishing houses and institutions specialized in developing educational curriculum, calling for coexistence among civilizations and ensuring that the innovations of these institutions would be made available to the public in various countries. Ladies and Gentlemen, Moving to the recent economic challenges of the world, the first thing that springs to ones mind is the importance of coordination between the advanced countries in the North and the developing ones in the South in order to confront the challenges created by globalization and the unprecedented rapid flow of goods, services and capital across borders. The most significant challenge is how to tackle the financial and economic crises that Asian countries have witnessed since mid-1997. The impacts and repercussions of these crises have extended to involve countries in other continents such as Latin America. These crises, as well, have somehow affected the world economy. They have added a new burden to developing countries. During recent years, these countries have suffered from the the repercussions of the fall in the prices of primary commodities and decrease in the international aids for development, in addition to the lack of competition opportunities in advanced industrialized markets, leading to increased indebtedness. The recent crises have revealed the increasing challenges faced by many countries owing to their growing financing needs and their sharp race for attracting foreign investments. This has been taking place in a world where capital is flowing at a rapid place according to individual and institutional projections and information with no logic but that of maximizing individual profitability and minimizing risks. These crises have also unveiled the fact that countries should seek to maintain their gained credibility in the world capital markets and to recognize the difficulty of any negative impacts resulting from any possible shake undergone. Within this frame, there emerges the importance of monitoring by the countries of their own economic indicators and remedying any irregularities as they occur on the spot. The alternative would be that such remedy would be imposed by capital markets in the manner recently witnessed. It has become imperative on those countries to promote supervisory and control capabilities of their central banks over their banking institutions with the object of ensuring compliance with the international banking criteria. On the other hand, it is the duty of nations to mobilize their national savings, seek to increase its exports to the world markets and promote their capability to attract direct foreign investment, so as to alleviate negative impact of any sudden financial fluctuations. No doubt, it is a prerequisite for such nations to successfully manage crises, they may suddenly face from time to time, that other nations cooperate with them by providing means to enable them to get off crises with the least possible loss. Regardless of its level of progress, no nation should forget that the entire human community is now in the one and same boat. It is no long possible for one set of nations to enjoy prosperity and stability while others groan under the yoke of crises. In this respect, there emerges the necessity of opening industrialized markets in the North to the exports of the developing countries in the South without any obstacles or barriers. Unless the developing countries of the South, representing the majority of world population, manage to export a percentage of their exports, they will per necessity fail to import from the North countries. Consequently, the new world trade system will face a crisis that will tear it down. Ladies and Gentlemen, The international community is witnessing today discussions on reformulating the world financial system with a view to improving its effectiveness to the common benefit and interest of all countries. In this context, I would like to stress the importance of the active participation by the developing countries in international discussions, in the face of the challenges of the new international reality on the economic level. Whereas the transaction in shares and currencies performs an indispensable function in the world economy, it has become incumbent for both advanced and developing countries to cooperate to set up new mechanisms that prevent reoccurrence of the recent financial crises, particularly as they proved that they could waste long years of sacrifices and development efforts. Hence, as the current Chairman of the Group of Fifteen, I delivered messages to the heads of state of the major eight industrialized countries, stressing the importance of cooperation and dialogue between both groups in this respect, in an atmosphere free of confrontation and tension, and out of feeling of a common interest and destiny of peoples , regardless of the level of progress. I hope the next meeting of the Group of the Eight Industrialized Countries will take into consideration the fears and suffering of the developing countries, when discussing ways of strengthening the world financial system, so as to address the new challenges fairly and effectively. Ladies and Gentlemen, These are some meditations on the major challenges that preoccupy states and public opinion in the Middle East and all developing countries. I wish to review these meditations with you at the beginning of the seventeenth conference of your august council. I am fully confident that your discussions and recommendations at this conference will constitute a positive addition that may be beneficial in diagnosing the challenges faced by the whole world, and in finding the best ways for addressing them, through these recommendations that will reflect the opinions of highly outstanding figures who enjoy special appreciation from their nations as well as those of the whole world, for their notable contributions to the national work in their respective countries, and on the wider international level. Once again, I welcome you friends, and I wish you a happy stay in Egypt, successful deliberations, and steady progress of your august council. May Allah's peace and mercy be upon you. Thank you very much |
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