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9.

STATEMENT
BY MR. VLADIMIR PETROVSKY
UNDER-SECRETARY-GENERAL
DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS OFFICE AT GENEVA
AT INVITATION CONCERT
ORGANIZED BY THE STATE COUNCIL OF THE REPUBLIC AND
CANTON OF GENEVA AND THE GENEVA CITY COUNCIL
FOR UNITED NATIONS DAY

Victoria Hall, Geneva, 23 October 1993

State Councillor Föllmi,
Deputy Mayor,
Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I t is a true pleasure for me, as Director-General of the United
Nations Office at Geneva, to address this gathering on the forty-

Organization. eighth anniversary of the signing of the Charter of the

This anniversary is no ordinary event in the history of the United Nations.
It coincides with the 50th Anniversary of the birth of the very concept of the
United Nations. In the midst of World War II, on 30 October 1943, the Allied
Foreign Ministers adopted the Moscow Declaration, which introduced the idea
of creating an international organization for security in the post-war period.

Nowadays, in this time of global changes, the United Nations - the sole
international body harmonizing the interests of States - is dealing with security
in all its aspects - not only with the maintenance of peace and removal of

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