Chairperson, Deputy Chair, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, the last clause of the Freedom Charter states, "There shall be peace and friendship".
South Africa, as a fully independent state, respects the rights and sovereignty of all nations, big or small. The country strives to maintain world peace and the settlement of international disputes by negotiation and diplomacy, not war. All of the above form the core of our foreign policy.
The Treaty of Friendship and Partnership between RSA and the Russian Federation is a living testimony and bedrock of our people's desire to strengthen friendship, and promote mutual understanding, all-round co- operation and equitable relations between the two countries. It is another milestone in the two countries' commitment to the declaration of principles of friendly relations and partnership, which they signed in April 1999.
Both countries believe in relationships or partnership based on the commonality of their vital national interests, ideals of freedom, democracy, equality and the universally recognised principles and norms of international law. Together they are going to work towards a more just and democratic multipolar world order and the benefits of globalisation and participation in world affairs.
Through the treaty the two countries are committed to the centrality of the United Nations in international affairs. For South Africa, the treaty is going to open up new avenues for ensuring and contributing to the training of personnel for peacekeeping operations and the exchanging of experience in the sphere of preventive and peacekeeping diplomacy. It also increases regional and international efforts to solve the problem of the uncontrolled spread and illicit trade in small arms and light weapons, especially in Africa.
Above all, the treaty commits the two counties to multilateral disarmament without which everything else on earth would not be easily solved. It also strengthens nonproliferation of instruments of weapons of mass destruction as well as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968; the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction of 1993; and the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction of 1972.
These weapons are extremely dangerous and deadly. Above all, some of these weapons are capable of destroying earth ten times over. I think this is very important to all of us. That is why all sober-minded individuals in the world are urging each one of us to do everything in our power to make sure that a third World War does not break out. If that war breaks out, we should make no mistake, it will definitely be a thermonuclear war and there would be no place to hide, not for anyone. Therefore, we cannot afford to relax unless these weapons are destroyed.
The Select Committee on Economic and Foreign Affairs supports the report and invites this august House to do the same. I thank you. Debate concluded.
Question put: That the Report be adopted.
IN FAVOUR: Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West, Western Cape.
Report accordingly adopted in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.