And, In Informal Settings.

Among the innovations introduced at the Millennium Summit were four interactive round-table sessions to discuss the overarching theme of the Summit. "The Role of the United Nations in the twenty-first century." In the phrase of Prime Minister Gob Chok Tong of Singapore, Chairman of the firs Round Table, they provided "interactive discussion among leaders in an informal setting, away from aides, officials and prepared scripts." The Chairman of the second Round Table, President Kwasniewski of Poland, observed that be and his fellow leaders "all seemed to enjoy this innovative forum of more direct and informal discussion". President Hugo Chavez Frias of Venezuela, Chairman of the third Round Table, observed that an important consensus bad been reached in its sessions on the new to transform the United Nations. "One cannot navigate the twenty-first century with a map from the end of the second world war." And President Adbelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, who chaired the fourth Round Table, said he was particularly impressed by the deep sensitivity some of the delegates from developed nations showed to problems of developing countries in "the most interesting debate" he had attended in many years.

The Chronicle is privileged to have received from the President of Poland and the Prime Minister of Singapore contributions reflecting their detailed assessment and appraisal of the Round Tables.

Frankness ... and Friendship

By His Excellency Aleksander Kwasniewski

President of the Republic of Poland

I consider the debate in the framework of Round Table 2 at the Millennium Summit of the United Nations, which I had the honour and pleasure to chair, as one of the most fascinating exchanges of views I have witnessed in my political career. More than 30 world leaders took the floor m that debate. I sensed the intention they all shared to make use of this opportunity to bring forward workable solutions to the challenges and problems facing the world in the coming century. I also wish to thank Secretary-General Kofi Annan for his idea of holding those round tables and thus enabling the world leaders to discuss freely global dilemmas and all matters of concern.

The optimistic conclusion that I draw from the debate is that we approach in the same way the nature of our common challenges, among them, violent conflicts and instabilities, poverty, development gaps, pandemic illnesses and environmental hazards. And what is even more important, we seem to be equally convinced that timely and concerted action to address these challenges is necessary. Of course, we may differ as to the timing and specifics of our responses, but, as reflected in the Millennium Declaration, common denominator is placed highly enough to offer hope and optimism. I cannot say that the round-table discussion provided us with ready-made recipes, or magic formulas, to solve the problems we are all confronted with. The point is, however, that it produced a number of new ideas and approaches made not for the sake of catching the public eye, but for the sake of testing their usefulness through frank examination.

I left the Conference Room with strengthened belief that the agenda for change outlined in the...