FREDRIK REINFELDT, Prime Minister of Sweden, speaking also on behalf the European Union, said that though globalization had brought prosperity to the nations of the world through commerce, information, inventions and ideas, with that prosperity had come shared problems and crises, amongst them pandemics, food insecurity, drug and human trafficking, terrorism, and climate change.  Welcoming the United States commitment to work with others in multilateral institutions, he stated that with the United Nations coordinating to initiate and facilitate international norms and actions, a new era of worldwide cooperation had begun.

He went on to urge developed countries to reduce emissions by 25 to 40 per cent by 2020 and to support developing countries in both financial and technical means towards that end.  He also noted that the European Union had taken concrete steps towards ensuring reduced emissions, low-carbon growth, and climate financing to developing countries.  It was also planning to play an active role in Copenhagen in December 2009, and he encouraged other developed countries to do the same.  In that way, future generations would “experience nature as we know it”.

Addressing the global financial crisis, he stated that the European Union was determined to reach a comprehensive agreement of the Doha Round of World Trade Organization negotiations, and was committed in promoting global financial stability and sustainable economy.  He said that, with attention on developing countries, especially the poorest and most vulnerable, each member of the Union was working towards achieving their respective ODA targets in order to actualize the Millennium Development Goals.

Turning next to human rights, he said the European Union called for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances and in all cases.  The Union’s support for the United Nations peacekeeping forces and peacebuilding efforts, and for the work of the International Criminal Court, ensured that the rules of international law applied to all nations, regardless of size.  Thus, terrorism, genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes would continue to be appropriately addressed.

The relationship between Europe and Africa, close in geography, had also grown close through globalization and strong partnership.  One example, he said, was the European Union’s naval operation Atalanta, off the coast of Somalia, which protected vessels delivering humanitarian aid, as well as provided support to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).  He went on to say that Security Council resolutions 1325 (2000) and 1820 (2008) -- both dealing with issues regarding women, peace and security -- needed to be implemented, so that women and girls in areas of conflict would be protected from the brutality of sexual violence as a weapon of war.

As a friend of both the State of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the European Union urged all parties to take the necessary actions towards peace so that a two-state solution could successfully be implemented.  In this regard, he pledged the European Unions support to the efforts of the United States work toward resuming peace negotiations.

He concluded with a quote of the Swedish statesman and former United Nations Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjöld: “The pursuit of peace and progress, with its trials and its errors, its successes and its setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned.”  He observed that that statement held as true today as it had then.