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Mr. Secretary General,
The High Representative of Secretary General on Alliance of Civilizations,
President General Assembly,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to thank the Governments of Turkey and Spain for pioneering the Alliance of Civilizations. Both the countries have the advantage of rich experience of peaceful co-existence of multi-ethnic and multi-cultural societies in their lands at some point in history. This experience is a valuable asset that can be emulated globally as part of efforts to alleviate existing mistrusts among various stakeholders in contemporary multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious societies. I also want to thank Mr. Jorge Sampaio the High Representative of Alliance of Civilizations for providing leadership to the work of the Alliance and arranging this meeting.
Excellency,
We live in a global village and are privileged to have access to all kinds of information on real-time basis. But the distrust and misperceptions that divide our societies and civilizations today were never wider. We can easily apportion blame on extremists and proponents of divisive ideologies. But it would not help. We, as the representatives of the civilized world, have the responsibility to act and act resolutely to frustrate their designs. We also need to work to promote tolerance and understanding within and among our societies to make our interdependent world a peaceful, prosperous and harmonious place.
The cultures and civilizations have been interacting and competing with each other throughout history. It has helped, in a healthy way, to enrich human experience and to augment our heritage. As we seek to forge collective political will to overcome prevailing prejudices, misperceptions and polarization between cultures and civilizations, particularly the misunderstanding between the Islamic and the Western world, we feel encouraged by this hopeful message from history. In this backdrop, the initiative to build an alliance of civilizations, is both timely and a move in the right direction. Pakistan fully supports this endeavour.
Excellency,
Building an alliance of civilizations, in our present day world, is a moral imperative. It is not only an option. It is must to build on our rich heritage and existing synergies to create a peaceful, secure and prosperous world for our future generations. Dialogue among various cultures, civilizations and religions has to be an essential ingredient of our collective efforts to achieve this noble objective.
Pakistan believes that concerted efforts to find amicable, just and durable solutions of conflicts and disputes which involve adherents of different religions and faiths will go a long way in allaying mutual animosity and distrust to a large extent. In this context, I would particularly draw attention to the Palestine question and the Jammu & Kashmir dispute, which have been main sources of spreading discontent among Muslims.
Excellency,
Pakistan has been supportive of all efforts to promote inter-religious, inter-cultural and inter-civilization dialogue. We see the Alliance of Civilizations as a vehicle to promote much needed dialogue and cooperation among religions, faiths and cultures that give amazing colour and flavour to our beautiful world.
The Alliance provides an interactive platform to Friends and all other stakeholders including international organizations, civil society and private sector to share views and exchange ideas on various practicable steps which we need to take to overcome existing prejudices and mistrust in the world.
Excellency,
The progress made by Alliance reflects substantive work. It has shown that it has the resources, capacity and will to set tangible goals and achieve results. We believe that the Second Implementation Plan of the Alliance of Civilizations could help in building further bridges among various stakeholders in line with our goals and objectives.
Excellency,
We have carefully reviewed the implementation plan and as members of the Alliance’s Group of Friends, would be working with the Alliance on various ideas mentioned in the plan including the following:
Thank you