I congratulate Mr. Korosi on his election as President of the General Assembly at its seventy-seventh session. I also pause to salute his predecessor in office, His Excellency Mr. Abdulla Shahid, Foreign Minister of Maldives, for his sterling tenure during his service. I recognize the Secretary-General, Mr. Antonio Guterres, for his outstanding stewardship over the past few years.
It is indeed an honour for me to address this organ for the first time since assuming the role of Prime Minister just 44 days ago. I bring greetings from the Government and the people of Saint Kitts and Nevis, and we pledge our unswerving support for the ethos of this great organ.
I assumed my new responsibilities at a time when the complexities of the multiple and interlocking challenges facing humankind require from us a renewed commitment to the democratic principle and to multilateralism.
It is clear to me that the tectonic plates of geopolitics and global stability are shifting beneath us. What are those tectonic shifts? It is now certain knowledge that a pathogen can emerge with such lethal power that it threatens the very survival of humankind. The coincidence in timing of a global pandemic and a war, with the growing calamity of the climate crisis, has exposed the fragility, vulnerability and instability of the global supply chains for food, staples and other essentials.
Power shifts are taking place in international relations as the influence of some countries rises and that of others wanes. With that has come an insistence on the reform of the United Nations to make it more relevant and reflective of the composition of today’s world and the current power structures, including the reform of the anachronistic Security Council.
The effect and widespread nature of technology is creating change faster than most can manage. Faith in multilateral systems is being eroded, and their capacity to do global good is being jeopardized by the rise in crass, unbridled nationalism, which has shown the powerful to be nonchalant to the suffering of anyone other than their own population.
It was the seventh Secretary-General, His Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan, who reminded us that no nation can defend itself against the threats to development entirely on its own and that the challenges we face are global, and they demand a global response. That remains true today.
The coronavirus disease, with all its consequences, has presented us with a powerful reminder that we are all connected, which compels every nation and every person to be their brothers’ and sisters’ keepers.
The United Nations finds itself at a crossroads in our reckoning with history’s judgment. Do we want to be the body that abdicated our responsibility to protect the planet or the body that debates and postures as the world around us submerges beneath cascading crises? It is my hope that we choose instead to be the body that met the moment and responded to the fierce urgency of now.
We must therefore use this seventy-seventh session of the General Assembly not merely for political posturing, but for a resolute recommitment to multilateral cooperation. For small island developing States, and indeed vulnerable peoples everywhere, there can be no international security without climate security. That requires collective fidelity to multilateral action for our very survival.
I am ready, and I am sure that all of us are eager to build a better world through multilateral action and to uphold this sacred tenet of the United Nations with all our will and might. Even as geopolitics and great Power competition exacerbate conflict and the climate catastrophe, we must face the hard truth that only through multilateralism will we force the global trajectory towards global peace, prosperity and sustainability.
Every country on the planet and national populations have had to confront the reality of climate change. As our planet heats up, so too have the frustrations and impatience of the globe’s ordinary citizens, who feel that they are losing the fight to make ends meet and secure the future of their children.
Small island developing States and other developing nations experience a reality that is plagued by that continuous existential threat. With the passage of every hurricane, every outbreak of war and every global food shortage, we all remain at risk of tipping the balance that we have striven to create over these many years.
Consequently, it is not enough for us to articulate that grim reality year after year. We must now look to act in ways that provide tailored responses to those vulnerabilities so as to foster true resilience and risk mitigation. I therefore humbly urge countries to honour the financial commitments made before the twenty-sixth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to double contributions to adaptation financing by 2025. A delayed response to those commitments would further imperil our developing nations. Climate financing, resiliency and environmental conservation must be integrated into national development policies and must be at the forefront of our global development agenda.
The situation cries out for the multilateral system to urgently put in place a multidimensional vulnerability index that takes into consideration the particular characteristics and climate vulnerabilities of small island developing States such as mine.
All countries are environmentally vulnerable; all are socially and economically exposed to the exogenous shock, but the climate-challenged, tourism-dependent countries in the Caribbean Sea run the real risk of a wipe-out event during several consecutive months every year. Surely that warrants special consideration.
Caribbean nations are on the bullet end of a climate fight that we did not cause, do not want and cannot afford, but that we are unable to escape. I therefore join my brother and sister leaders in the Caribbean Community in calling for the development of a multidimensional vulnerability index. Saint Kitts and Nevis will use such an index in its advocacy for a more
appropriate redistribution of development assistance and access to concessional financing.
Notwithstanding such injustice, we continue to invest in social empowerment programmes in order to build resilience in our people and our economy. One such area is education, which is one of society’s greatest equalizers. Saint Kitts and Nevis reaffirms that access to quality education is a human right and the foundation of sustainable development and thriving societies.
We welcome the Transforming Education Summit, which was held earlier this week. I am happy to report that our Government committed to entering a new pact — a new deal on education, as it were — that will reform, transform and reinvigorate our education system based on equality, access and inclusion. In fact, just a few weeks ago, my Government made a decision to introduce free tertiary education to ensure that all people can have equal access regardless of their socioeconomic status.
Other goals for education reforms include, but are not limited to, first, incorporating specialist spaces for science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics in all schools; secondly, reintroducing the I-Literacy one-to-one laptop programme; and thirdly, strengthening technical and vocational education by providing alternative programming and scholarships.
As part of my Government’s thrust to mainstream empowerment across all sectors and policies, Saint Kitts and Nevis will continue to put women and young people at the forefront of its social development and all its pursuits, including the advancement of the digital economy. We are confident that our active inclusion of women and young people in public life through their appointment in our Parliament, diplomatic and senior civil service and other decision-making forums will bear much fruit.
It is against that backdrop that we therefore pledge our support for the ongoing process of the Declaration for Future Generations, which will culminate in the Summit of the Future next year. As its leader, I pledge my country’s active commitment to meeting Sustainable Development Goal 5 and surpassing, or meeting, the goals of the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women in achieving gender equity now and for future generations.
The recent past has proved that we cannot ignore the glaring truth of our interconnectedness as nations in the international community. The world continues to shrink in size, drawing us all nearer to each other as a people, reinforcing the need for global solidarity, international cooperation and strong and meaningful partnerships.
We are therefore stronger in the company of our friends, particularly those that share our democratic principles and values. At this body of nations, I re-emphasize our unswerving support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the United Nations system. Taiwan has been a long-standing friend and a partner for sustainable development. Its unfailing commitment in that regard since the very day of my country’s independence is consistent with the spirit and intent of Sustainable Development Goal 17.
I can also speak first-hand to what our friendship with the Republic of Cuba means to me and its value to the people of Saint Kitts and Nevis. Cuba has partnered with my own country and many in the developing world in health care, education, training and agriculture. We therefore call for an end to the decades-long embargo imposed against Cuba. My country encourages meaningful dialogue in resolving that and other conflicts in countries targeted by unfair sanctions that create enduring external and internal hardships.
In conclusion, we must be bold and grand in the way in which we forge ahead with the promise to leave no one behind. My Government and I are prepared to do our utmost for our people. That will be enhanced by multilateralism, and the United Nations should afford that opportunity to all of us. The theme for this year’s General Assembly shares the idea of a watershed, which speaks to the significant and transformational changes that are taking place. The challenges faced by the countries of the world and their peoples are indeed interlocking, and we must resolve them together. The issue for us is how we will bring that change about for those who most need it.