In his address opening the Jakarta International Defense Dialog (JIDD) here on Wednesday, Yudhoyono said although the number of wars between countries had dropped significantly after the second World War, there were also potential signs that they would increase.
Meanwhile, he said, internal conflicts in a country that had increased to 44 in the past few decades had not shown a significant decline despite the implementation of various peaceful resolutions.
"We have also seen sustained terrorist actions and their quick capability to mutate and adapt themselves to pose new challenges for us including the recent parcel bomb threats in Indonesia," he said.
The head of state also mentioned the tensions in the Korean peninsula recently as an example of a dormant case that could still pose danger to the world.
"This means that international security has not become less relevant in the 21st century world order but it has even become more complicated," he said before the dialog participants from 34 countries.
Now was not an easy time for the world, he said referring to conflict in Libya, nuclear radiation in Japan, upheavals in Middle Eastern countries and the soaring of the world price of crude oil to above US$100 per barrel.
World peace and security, he said, were now being challenged by more difficult situations.
President Yudhoyono said the world now was not only challenged by problems of ideological differences but also territorial claims and border disputes which were characteristics of the cold war.
Right now, he said, various issues were threatening world peace such as development of intolerance towards identity and faith differences, distrust to governments that could trigger political as well as social conflicts and disputes over natural resources as the population had grown beyond the world`s capacity to provide resources.
President Yudhoyono however said that the challenges on the other hand also provided chances to find new opportunities.
The President expressed optimism that the world could leave the "bloody" 20th century marked by two world wars that caused deaths larger than ever before.
"We certainly may not live in such an era again. That was a cruel era which was full of neglect, hatred and prejudices," he said.
President Yudhoyono said right now the world`s condition had been better because relations among nations had for the first time become relatively stable and cooperative.
Besides that he said the world had also seriously encouraged nuclear disarmament and multilateralism.
He said the number of countries and people living under democracy had also shown an increasing tendency as has been reported by the Washington-based Freedom House institute.
For the sake of a better life of the world President Yudhoyono said developed countries had to cooperate and look after their relations with development nations in all fields such as in strengthening democracy, law enforcement and de-radicalization of extreme groups and anti-terrorism.
He said the world also had to cooperate more closely and intensively in the settlement of all kinds of conflicts from the old to the latest ones.
All of the efforts, he said, must also be accompanied by world institutional reform in the security field like what the Group of 20 countries had done to reform the world`s financial institutions.
"In the field of security the efforts must be accelerated. The United Nations Security Council is right now still reflecting the post-second World War order," he said.(*)
(H-YH/HAJM/f001)
Editor: Ruslan Burhani
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
