President at UN: ’Maintaining world peace is collective responsibility’

Maintaining peace in the world requires 'collective responsibility' Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite has told the United Nations general assembly.

"Keeping peace throughout the world requires collective responsibility, efforts and determination as well as fulfilment of obligations," said the President at the  69th session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly.

"The security of all countries is indivisible - we all are responsible for peace and sustainable future. We have to act together to stop armed conflicts, redrawing the borders of sovereign states and creating frozen conflicts. And we must do it immediately." 

According to Grybauskaite, the nature of global security has changed dramatically over the past years. International agreements are not complied with, new forms of terrorism have emerged aiming to frighten people and countries and attempting to impose their own rules and order on the world.

"We cannot make any concessions to terrorists or to instigators of war. We cannot close our eyes and think that problems and conflicts will disappear. Every country must assume responsibility for maintaining peace in the world." the president was quoted by her press service.

The president called world leaders' attention to security challenges in different places of the world. Terrorist attacks are carried out in the Middle East, territorial integrity of sovereign states is violated using military aggression in Eastern Europe. 

Proper and effective response by the international community to all these challenges is needed.

The Lithuanian head of state underlined that the United Nations together with NATO, European Union and other international organizations should fulfil their duty and do everything possible to bring an end to these and other conflicts as soon as possible.

Grybauskaite added: "If we fail and violence, aggression and terror win, we are at risk to wake up on the doorstep of everyone fighting each other and with chaos prevailing. Everything we worked on, everything we created, the world we live in will be destroyed. A silent consent to such brutal forms of aggression should not be the answer of the international community.

"We must go back to the main purposes of the United Nations: to keep peace throughout the world. Our undivided attention for the undivided security should be our main focus," 

She called on all countries of the world never to abandon the values that hold us together and to take immediate concrete action to counter challenges to global security.