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40.

The Agenda for the Year 2000

OPENING STATEMENT
BY MR. VLADIMIR PETROVSKY
UNITED NATIONS UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL
DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS OFFICE AT GENEVA
ROUND TABLE
ON OPEN DOOR DAY AT THE PALAIS DES NATIONS

15 October 1995

Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

W
elcome all of you to the Open Door Day at the Palais des
Nations and to this Roundtable on The Agenda for the Year
2000. 1995 has been marked by reflection on what the
United Nations system has achieved, on the tasks at hand and on what role it is
going to play in the next millennium. This Roundtable is part of the ongoing
debate and I look forward to a lively discussion.

There is an increasing recognition that a fundamental conceptual trans-
formation is under way in our world: the democratization of the international
system is today seen as both necessary and possible. This is a civilizational
change, the ramifications of which we are only beginning to understand. For
nearly three and a half centuries, since the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, the
State has been the foundation-stone of the international system.

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