A Vietnamese diplomat has urged the UN to improve its efficiency and effectiveness so that it can truly serve as a protector of international peace and security, and a promoter of friendly and cooperative relations among nations for development and progress.
Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN, Ambassador Le Luong Minh, delivered the call at a special session of the UN General Assembly held in New York on May 6 to mark the 65 th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.
While celebrating this great victory, it is necessary for us to recall that since that victory and since the United Nations was founded in 1945 with the mandate to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,” many peoples of the world have suffered and are continuing to suffer from war and want and injustice and many even have never had a day of peace, Minh stressed.
“As a nation who through the sacrifice of the lives of millions of its people, 2 million in 1945 alone, Vietnam had bravely taken part on their homeland and shoulder to shoulder with their comrades in the armies of the anti-fascist coalition in the struggle of the world’s peoples for liberation and who benefitted from the victory of this struggle to rise up to win independence and freedom after nearly a century under foreign domination.
“Vietnam join other peoples in paying deepest tribute to the many millions of people in the world who gave their lives to the fight to bring the disastrous war to an end and to all those who fell victims of this man-made scourge.
“We would like to pay special tribute to the peoples and the brave soldiers of the former Soviet Union who bore the main brunt of the battles and with their final decisive one contributed to the elimination of fascism,” he said.
Speaking at the meeting, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said "The war’s cost was beyond calculation, beyond comprehension -- 40 million civilians dead, 20 million soldiers, nearly half of those in the Soviet Union alone.”
"Those years saw extraordinary bravery, as well. World War II was one of the most epic struggles for freedom and liberation in history,” he said.
He said that the end of the war coincided with the San Francisco conference that established the UN "an organisation founded on that most human of hopes, an end to the 'scourge of war."
The secretary general stressed this year’s commemorative meeting takes place at a moment when nations are gathered to advance the cause of peace, citing the five-yearly review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) currently under way.
"The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is also a document of hope, a vision for a nuclear-weapon-free world," he said, and called upon the international community to “remember the past, so that we may better shape our future."/.
Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN, Ambassador Le Luong Minh, delivered the call at a special session of the UN General Assembly held in New York on May 6 to mark the 65 th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.
While celebrating this great victory, it is necessary for us to recall that since that victory and since the United Nations was founded in 1945 with the mandate to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,” many peoples of the world have suffered and are continuing to suffer from war and want and injustice and many even have never had a day of peace, Minh stressed.
“As a nation who through the sacrifice of the lives of millions of its people, 2 million in 1945 alone, Vietnam had bravely taken part on their homeland and shoulder to shoulder with their comrades in the armies of the anti-fascist coalition in the struggle of the world’s peoples for liberation and who benefitted from the victory of this struggle to rise up to win independence and freedom after nearly a century under foreign domination.
“Vietnam join other peoples in paying deepest tribute to the many millions of people in the world who gave their lives to the fight to bring the disastrous war to an end and to all those who fell victims of this man-made scourge.
“We would like to pay special tribute to the peoples and the brave soldiers of the former Soviet Union who bore the main brunt of the battles and with their final decisive one contributed to the elimination of fascism,” he said.
Speaking at the meeting, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said "The war’s cost was beyond calculation, beyond comprehension -- 40 million civilians dead, 20 million soldiers, nearly half of those in the Soviet Union alone.”
"Those years saw extraordinary bravery, as well. World War II was one of the most epic struggles for freedom and liberation in history,” he said.
He said that the end of the war coincided with the San Francisco conference that established the UN "an organisation founded on that most human of hopes, an end to the 'scourge of war."
The secretary general stressed this year’s commemorative meeting takes place at a moment when nations are gathered to advance the cause of peace, citing the five-yearly review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) currently under way.
"The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is also a document of hope, a vision for a nuclear-weapon-free world," he said, and called upon the international community to “remember the past, so that we may better shape our future."/.
