Speech by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali before the members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to Tunis Carthage, January 29, 2001 In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate Mr. Doyen, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am pleased to meet with you at the start of this new year as we step into a new century. I hope it will bring your sisterly and friendly nations prosperity and happiness and will bring mankind increased advancement toward brotherhood, peace, and solidarity. I wish to avail myself of this opportunity to ask you to convey my heartfelt congratulations to the leaders of your countries as well as to your peoples. I wish all of them welfare, progress, and prosperity. I should like to say how much I appreciate your efforts to reinforce the bonds of brotherhood and friendship between your countries and Tunisia, and to enhance both bilateral and multilateral cooperation. As I congratulate His Excellency the Doyen on his rise to the rank of Doyen of the diplomatic corps accredited to our country, I wish to thank him for his kind words and lofty feeling toward Tunisia and its people. I wish you all plenty of success and prosperity in discharging your noble mission. Mr. Doyen, Excellencies, Our country has just taken leave of a year that was rich in accomplishments in various fields, and in achievements evidenced by many indicators, as we focused our efforts on giving concrete expression to our Program for the Future which we had issued on the eve of the presidential and legislative elections in October 1999. We are determined to attain the targets set forth in this Program in a political and social context characterized by security, stability, concord, and dialogue, while persevering in developing our human resources, enhancing our scientific and technical capabilities, upgrading our economy, and reinforcing its competitive edge. Whereas, in our development efforts and in the reforms we have carried out, we have to a large extent relied on our own resources and on giving concrete expression to the spirit of solidarity and mutual assistance proper to our people, we also rely on cooperation with our brothers and friends, a cooperation that we wish to diversify and expand, now that adequate incentives and an appropriate legislative framework have been provided to encourage investment. Mr. Doyen, Excellencies, Building a democratic, pluralist society is a fundamental and permanent option in our policy, an option which we have endeavored to substantiate ever since the Change with a number of initiatives and steps to uphold this approach. We are determined to take this course even further so as to keep abreast of the various aspects of development and reform and reinforce the fabric of civil society in our country. On the Thirteenth Anniversary of the Change, we had announced our decision to increase the amount of the allowance which the government grants to political parties and their press. We have issued a number of decisions and measures aimed at developing and enhancing local democracy, giving concrete expression to freedom of the press and information, and reinforcing decentralization. Such reforms will be constantly upgraded so as to step up democratic development, taking it from one stage to the next. Tolerance, moderation, and solidarity, as eternal values in our civilization, have inspired our comprehensive and self-contained outlook on human rights. We have endeavored to firmly establish, protect, and develop these rights, while striving to propagate their culture in both legislation and practice. On the Thirteenth Anniversary of the Change we had announced –as part of the steps and initiatives we have taken since the Change to foster human rights in our country– our decision to improve the penal system, provide new assurances in penal procedures, and transfer the management of penal institutions under the authority of the Ministry of Justice. Mr. Doyen, Excellencies, Our country has always endeavored –in concert with the international community– to spread security and peace around the world, as well as uphold cooperation and solidarity between nations. As a member of the Security Council, Tunisia has always striven to give substance to the values of right and justice, as a pledge of loyalty to the lofty principles set out in the United Nations Charter. As it is about to assume the chairmanship of the Security Council next February, Tunisia will strive, as sincerely as ever, in the light of those principles and within the framework of cooperation with all parties, to contain the hotbeds of tension and conflicts in the world, and to give precedence to dialogue and concord in addressing problems. On numerous occasions we have raised the alarm concerning the persisting wide gap between states and between peoples; we have called for a more equitable, supportive, and affluent international community that opens the gates of hope in the face of the coming generations worldwide, and curbs the upsurge of poverty, the expansion of diseases, the degradation of the environment, and the destructive armament race. The Millennium Summit and the Security Council Summit held last September were two excellent opportunities to discuss mankind's present as well as its future. For us they were an opportunity to underscore the urgent need to achieve a quantum leap in international relations and to support the call for developing the Security Council's mission and membership. We have also called for taking advantage of the current rapid technological progress to achieve a balanced development and a better future for mankind as a whole. It was also an opportunity for us to reiterate our proposal to set up a World Fund for Solidarity and Poverty Eradication, as a mechanism to reinforce existing humanitarian instruments in the most deprived and poverty-stricken regions in the world. While we express our great satisfaction and deep pride for the recent decision made by the United Nations General Assembly to set up this Fund and to call on the UN Secretary General to undertake the necessary negotiations with member states and concerned financial and development institutions to investigate practical steps to set up the Fund, we extend our thanks to all Heads of State, United Nations officials as well as international and regional organizations and conferences that have supported our humanitarian initiative since its inception. We hope that this initiative will find its way to effective implementation in the near future. We have derived our proposal from a comprehensive national approach whose results have proved effective and positive in practice. Over a very short period of time we have indeed provided basic services as well as the requirements of economic and social development for more than one million Tunisians whom we have brought out of isolation and marginalization. We have provided them with income sources and the conditions of a decent life, based on the spirit of solidarity that we kindled in our people. We made this a further incentive to enhance concord, cohesion, and charity and this has contributed in reducing the poverty rate in our country to less than 6% today, against 40% in 1960's. The success scored by the National Solidarity Fund in attaining such targets has rekindled our determination to place our confidence yet again in the stock of solidarity engrained in our people. We have therefore set up the National Employment Fund that relies for its funding on voluntary contributions, to uphold the various initiatives, programs, and mechanisms designed to address the employment issue; and to provide increased employment opportunities to young people, urging them to be daring and productive, and to adhere to the economic cycle. Mr. Doyen, Excellencies, The events now taking place in the Palestinian territories are a source of extreme concern to us, as the brotherly Palestinian people is still bearing the brunt of daily blatant aggressions, violating their rights, desecrating their holy sites and laying siege to their cities and villages. Whereas our country has reasserted that peace was a strategic option to solve the Middle-East crisis and bring this enduring plight to an end, and has contributed effectively in pushing the peace process forward and in upholding it since its inception, it will not accept that this should take place by relinquishing a single Palestinian legitimate claim, Syria's rights over the Golan, and Lebanon's right over its still occupied territories. A just, sustainable, and comprehensive peace cannot be based on force, and on reneging on international legality, because there is no room for bargaining on the right of the Palestinians to recover their occupied territories, on the return of refugees and on establishing their independent state with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital. While we express our appreciation of the efforts made by the United States of America to steer the peace process out of the deadlock in which it is now stranded, we call on the international community to discharge its responsibilities in righting this course and in abiding by its decisions, notably the relevant United Nations resolutions, so as to put an end to Israel's continued excesses and usher in a new era of peace, coexistence, and cooperation for the peoples of the region. We are convinced that the region as a whole will remain threatened by conflicts and wars as long as Israel has not ceased its provocation and aggression and the Palestinians have not recovered their rights, and also as long as the other outstanding issues have not been corrected in the Arab region, chiefly lifting the embargo on the brotherly people of Iraq and lifting definitively the embargo imposed on Libya. Tunisia has always closed ranks with Arab nations and has loyally contributed in enhancing and developing the common Arab endeavor so as to get over temporary disputes and develop Arab relations within the framework of a strategy that paves the way for a better future and unites all energies and efforts. We believe that the Arab Summit held last October, the important resolutions it has issued, the fact that it will be held on an annual basis, and the regular meetings held by the follow-up and action committee it has set up, are a good and encouraging sign which we hope will be firmly established and will develop to serve the interests of our nation, close its ranks, and enhance its status on the international arena. Tunisia wishes, on this occasion, to reassert its deep faith in the importance of the Islamic common action and in the need to uphold the foundations of solidarity and complementarity between countries within the Islamic group and to unite its standpoints on major international issues. The Islamic Summit held last November was a propitious opportunity for us to renew our call to give concrete expression to the common Islamic endeavor, expand its scope, enhance its subject matter, and to fill the requirements of progress and prosperity so as to reinforce the immunity of our peoples and buttress our Islamic identity. Mr. Doyen, Excellencies, We have bestowed on our relations with our brothers in the Maghreb Union the care and attention they deserve. We have spared no effort in strengthening the bonds of brotherhood and cooperation between its peoples in various fields, based on our firmly based conviction that the Arab Maghreb Union is an inevitable strategic option upheld by the deeply-rooted historic relations between its member countries and imposed by the loyalty of our peoples to the militant spirit of our martyrs, leaders, and reformers so that this entity may be established and the ambitions of our coming generations may be attained in terms of complementarity and unity. We hope this new year will achieve a quantum leap in the enforcement of our Maghreb Union, a leap that will release it from the state of lethargy in which it is stranded and enable it to give concrete expression to its institutions and complete its establishment. In this we rely on the unyielding determination and firm conviction which our brothers the leaders of the Union have in our common destiny. Furthermore, our country has shown its resolve to further consecrate its African dimension. We have called for developing cooperation between the African continent and the other regional or continental blocs. We have made practical proposals to give concrete expression to this cooperation during the Euro-African Summit and the Afro-Mediterranean Forum. We have also called on the international community, during the Millennium Summit, to adopt urgent humanitarian measures aimed at alleviating the continent's plight, upholding efforts for peace, and containing the dangerous expansion of epidemics and diseases among a large number of its inhabitants. As we reiterate our satisfaction for the peace agreement reached by the two sisterly nations, Ethiopia and Eritrea, we hope it will be strengthened to serve the interests of the two nations and establish a sustained peace in the region. We also note with satisfaction the emergence of mechanisms for common African action and the rapidly growing regional integration in the continent, in a context marked by the prevalence of continental and regional blocs. It is within this framework that Tunisia signed the document establishing the African Union and became a member of the Sahel and Sahara group of nations. Mr. Doyen, Excellencies, Tunisia, a nation of tolerance and moderation, is determined to take part, from its own position, in disseminating the values of understanding and concord on the regional as well as the international level. Relying on its Mediterranean roots, it strives to set up an economic and cultural area founded on an efficient and fair partnership benefiting peoples on both sides of the Mediterranean. We hope that during the Swedish chairmanship of the European Union, negotiations will be pursued on the draft Euro-Mediterranean Charter on Peace and Stability, that cooperation for youth employment will be reinforced in the areas of modern communication technologies, and that the integration of women into the economic and social cycle, and efforts to boost the dynamics of cooperation, solidarity, and complementarity in the Mediterranean region will be continued. Whereas we are satisfied with the results achieved by partnership between Tunisia and the European Union in several sectors, we believe that we could have achieved better results. In this regard, we insist on the comprehensive nature of the Association agreement and on the need to make up for the delay in the implementation of a number of projects due to procedural issues. Tunisia is open on its close as well as remote environments. It is pursuing the reinforcement of its cooperation with its friends worldwide, based on common interests and shared benefits. The scope of our cooperation has expanded continuously to include friendly nations in both Asia and America, in a context characterized by shorter distances and increased means of communication. Mr. Doyen, Excellencies, The year that has just elapsed was for us an excellent opportunity to meet a number of Heads of brotherly and friendly nations, to consolidate bilateral cooperation, to consult on regional as well as international issues, to exchange views, and to deepen the ties between our peoples and our countries. We hope that the New Year will bring increased understanding, cooperation, and solidarity to international relations, that it will bring benefits to all mankind, that it will consolidate the spirit of concord and harmony, and that it will propagate security, peace, welfare, and prosperity in every corner of our planet. To conclude, I wish to reiterate to you all my congratulations for the New Year. I also wish to renew to our brothers and friends, the leaders of your states and nations, our wishes of happiness and success. Thank you for your attention. Speech by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali before the members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to Tunis (23 January 2003) Speech by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali before the members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to Tunis (15 January 2002) Foreign Policy Speech by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (27 January 2000) Adress by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali at the Ceremony for the Accreditation of New Foreign Ambassadors (13 January 2000) Speech by President Ben Ali at the closing of the annual conference of the heads of diplomatic and consular missions (25 August 99) Foreign Policy Speech by President Ben Ali (28 January 99)