Foreign minister Miroslav Lajčák faced questions from UN representatives regarding his candidacy for the UN Secretary-general in New York on Tuesday. Miroslav Lajčák presented four of his biggest priorities: avoiding conflict and mediation, development aid, human and international rights protection, and the effective functioning of the United Nations. The Foreign minister believes the UN has all the means necessary to face the world's significant challenges. However, a big problem is the inability of individuals to understand mutual differences.
"My goal, therefore, would be to put more emphasis on how to do things better, how to use the existing instruments and processes more efficiently", said the Slovak Foreign Minister.
"We have managed to avoid the third global conflict but we have failed to prevent and stop the horrors of Rwanda, Srebrenica or Syria". Miroslav Lajčák emphasised that today's world isn't any safer than it was 30 years ago. However, he emphasised that the UN is not to be blamed for these problems: "The UN is the most universal and relevant organisation on this planet".
The Slovak foreign minister believes that his experience from the Balkan countries speaks in his favour. After the Yugoslav Civil Wars, he served as Slovakia's Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia for four years. In 2006, he was the EU's supervisor to the Montenegrin independence referendum.
"Independent Montenegro was the first and only post-Yugoslav country to be born as a result of a negotiated process and without any violence", Miroslav Lajčák explained. In 2007, he became the EU Special Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina for two years until he accepted a position of the Foreign and European Affairs minister within the Slovak government in 2009.
