SA ready to play world role

2004-02-06 12:31

Cape Town - South Africa cannot avoid playing its role in the construction of a new world order, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday.

In his state of the nation address at the opening of parliament, he said other regions of the world, including the most developed countries, were hard at work to change their neighbourhoods for the better.

"We can only ignore or minimise this task with regard to ourselves at our own peril, driven by a lingering sense that we are not an integral part of the African continent. This we will no do," he said.

All major current international developments emphasised the importance of constructing a new world order that was more equitable and responsive to the needs of the poor of the world, who constituted the overwhelming majority of humanity.

Various international developments underlined the importance of moving forward significantly towards building the new world order, which had been spoken of for a long time.

These included "the Iraq affair, the continuing and painful conflict involving Israel and Palestine, the WTO (World Trade Organisation) failure at Cancun, the seeming paralysis around issues relating to the democratisation of the UN and other multilateral institutions, the dissonance between the process of globalisation and a multilateral system of governance, the issue of global terrorism".

"We must stand ready to play our part in addressing this urgent challenge, in our own interest," Mbeki said.

- SAPA