Canada's new foreign affairs minister urged the United Nations on Tuesday to appoint a high-level special envoy to Afghanistan, saying the monumental task of rebuilding and stabilizing the beleaguered country is too great for one nation "to tackle it alone."

Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier makes his debut address Tuesday to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
(Ed Betz/Associated Press)

In his debut address to the General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York, Maxime Bernier said the envoy would help co-ordinate and draw world attention to international security and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.

"The challenges which we must face to preserve our security are of such a magnitude that no country can hope to tackle it alone," Bernier told delegates during his 10-minute speech. "Democracy and political stability cannot develop in a climate of terror."

He said Canada demonstrates its values of freedom, democracy, human rights and rule of law in all of its international duties, and especially in the Afghan mission.

"The challenges are great — we all know that — but the principles we defend are even greater," Bernier said while highlighting Canadian successes in the UN-sanctioned NATO mission.

"Promoting them is not enough. They need to be protected, particularly when under attack."

Canada currently has about 2,500 soldiers deployed in Afghanistan, mostly in the volatile south, as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Since the mission started in 2002, 71 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have died.

UN's human rights work on Burma 'crucial'

Bernier also praised the UN Council on Human Rights for its work on Burma as "crucial to restore democracy and human rights" in the wake of the ruling military's bloody crackdown on anti-government protesters in the past two weeks that has resulted in an unknown number of deaths.

The foreign minister, who assumed the portfolio in a cabinet shuffle in August, also asked the UN Security Council to extend the international stabilization mission in Haiti, known as MINUSTAH.

The UN mission in Haiti was established in October 2004 after an insurgency forced then president Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile. According to the Foreign Affairs Department, Canada is contributing up to 100 civilian police officers to the stabilization mission in Haiti.