Let me begin by praising and thanking Almighty God for His everlasting love, peace, mercy and blessings upon the world and each one of us here today. In his holy name, Kam naba bane ni Mauri.
I join previous speakers in congratulating Mr. Csaba Korosi and the Government of Hungary on his election as President of the General Assembly. He may be assured of the full support and cooperation of Kiribati as he steers the helm of the General Assembly to make the seventy-seventh session a watershed moment for the many interlocking challenges facing humankind.
By the same token, I congratulate and thank the outgoing President, Mr. Abdulla Shahid of Maldives, for a resoundingly successful seventy-sixth session, as demonstrated in the accomplishment of his many new initiatives. He infused a renewed sense of faith and hope in the power of a united humankind and a stronger multilateralism. The most remarkable legacy of his leadership has been the inclusion of underrepresented Member States within the workings of the United Nations. Never before have the small island developing States been as diversely and widely represented within the realms of the Office of the President of the General Assembly.
I also thank the Secretary-General of the United Nations for his stellar and steady leadership, especially during these very difficult and trying times. Kiribati welcomes and fully endorses his reappointment for a second term to further advance and complete a comprehensive overhaul of the United Nations in meeting its obligations for the peoples it serves.
We also appreciate the restructuring of the multi-country offices aimed at bringing the United Nations closer to the people on the ground. The establishment of the United Nations multi-country office for the northern Pacific region, which includes Kiribati, is a symbolic notion bringing the United Nations closer for effective and tailored delivery of United Nations agency services. We hope to see more tangible development activities occurring in that remote and underrepresented region of the United Nations.
I wish to also acknowledge the great contributions and services that the United Nations agencies have delivered to my country and people. In particular, I would like to convey my sincere gratitude to the United Nations police for all the assistance and support that have enabled our Kiribati police to participate for the first time in United Nations peacekeeping missions, starting with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan.
Seventy-six years ago, in establishing the Charter of the United Nations, our founding fathers committed to cooperating to prevent future wars and eliminate the root causes of wars and other violent conflicts in society. They agreed to restore the godliness, dignity and worth of the human person and improve the standards of living for all, to name a few. Today we take stock of the progress made towards those goals along with new commitments, and reflect and assess whether we have truly lived up to those values.
As a small island developing nation, multilateralism is central to the sustainable development of Kiribati. It offers a variety of opportunities to engage on global
issues that are of importance to the well-being of our people. With an ocean area large enough to fit the whole of Europe, our Kiribati Vision for 20 years and foreign policy objectives have been on the promotion of ocean health and wealth. That includes both the risks from nuclear submersibles traversing our waters and the damaging effects of illegal, unregulated and unreported activities on our fisheries. Most important is the health of our people, especially those who were exposed to the nuclear test blasts on Christmas Island.
We are grateful for the leading role, together with Kazakhstan, on articles 6 and 7 of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons concerning assistance for persons and environments harmed by nuclear testing. Two of the initiatives that we proposed are now reflected in the Vienna Action Plan. The first is the establishment of a voluntary trust fund to assist countries, communities, people and environments harmed by nuclear testing. The second is the creation of a scientific advisory body to help provide the science needed to address health and environmental problems occasioned by past nuclear testing. We are grateful to those countries that have already pledged support for and made contributions to those initiatives, especially those that are not yet States parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Let me be clear on this. Humankind should be free now and forever from the testing and use of nuclear weapons. That is why my Government has decided to invite the United Nations to use Kiritimati Island as a global or sub-global centre for anti-nuclear research and related programmes and activities.
The choice of theme for the seventy-seventh session could not be more appropriate or timely. A cloud of uncertainty and fear continues to hang over humankind in the light of the two-year coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Communities, families and businesses are still reeling from the effects of the pandemic. Compounding the devastation are the persisting challenges of climate change that have manifested in coastal erosion, reducing available land space, and droughts that have affect the livelihoods of many persons.
The Ukraine war has added to the despair and uncertainty through the unnecessary loss of lives, scarcity of food grains, increase in food and fuel prices, interest rates and many more. The consequences of COVID-19, climate change and the war in Ukraine are clear examples of interlocking challenges that must be addressed urgently, using the seventy-seventh session’s motto of solidarity, sustainability and science. Solidarity underscores the sustainability of science and its advances. We saw this through the record-breaking production of vaccines that have saved millions of lives. By emulating the success of sharing vaccine production and science discoveries, we can ensure that many more receive life-saving vaccines and medicines. On that note, I would like to take the opportunity to thank all those who have assisted the people of Kiribati in many ways by providing vaccines, financial support and others during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Climate change is another area in which science has made and continues to make advances in our understanding of the root causes and ways to address climate change. However, the lack of solidarity even through multilateralism continues to be the stumbling block to addressing the global climate change emergency. The targets that have been agreed and set under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, including the financial pledges, continue to remain out of reach. Those challenges and the many others that have caused much human suffering in the past seven decades all have one thing in common. They are curated by people in positions of power and influence. Much of that irresponsible, selfish and heartless behaviour is part of what the late Queen Elizabeth II referred to as the darker side of human nature. That darker side harbours negative mindsets and attitudes that give in to greed, hatred and many other vices that breed more bad than good, resulting in conflict, violence across societies and the world at large.
Broken humanity can be fixed not by wonderful speeches, meetings, resolutions or international instruments, but by an interplay of greater compassion and solidarity. Sadly, harmful mindsets persist and we ourselves, being a remote country, are far from immune from such. The escalating geostrategic competition in our part of the world means that regionalism and solidarity are at risk of being increasingly used to serve specific national interests, rather than a collective of diverse needs and views working in unison for our common benefit. As is the case now, any differing views and sovereign decisions that deviate are at risk of being vigorously scrutinized and labelled as adversarial through a security lens rather than a genuine desire to pursue sustainable development for the country and its people.
Likewise, efforts undertaken by Kiribati to prepare for its graduation from least developed country status, as recommended by the United Nations, are being scrutinized. With limited resources, we are committed to driving our development agenda and ensuring sustainability when we graduate by maximizing benefits from the Phoenix Islands Protected Area and many others. Our development agenda is grounded in our culture, traditional values and norms, practices and aspirations for the benefit of our people. Yet it continues to be oppressed by neo-colonial thinking that does not take our needs, our priorities or our national context into account. A system of global thinking remains and is steeped in legacies of environmental destruction, which our peoples have now inherited, as in the case of the mining of Banaba Island. We must work together to ensure that the solutions and actions to correct these legacies and local watershed moments work hand in hand with actions and solutions for today’s interlocking challenges.
Wendell Berry has pointed out that global thinking is often merely a euphemism for abstract anxieties or passions that are useless to engaged efforts to save actual landscapes. Multilateralism should never be viewed as a one-size-fits-all scenario. We are reminded that it is best to orient our work through locally grounded planning and action that focus on the actual scaled down watersheds commonly addressed.
We have a duty as leaders entrusted with the power to decide, and as enablers of solutions for the security, peace and well-being of our people that are sustained through education, awareness and financing. Acting together side by side in unison and solidarity, making decisions and taking action based on reality and facts derived from natural law and true science is a precursor for the transformative solutions we need. Let us all agree to make this seventy-seventh session a watershed moment; a moment for renewed and positive mindsets; a moment for true discipleship action; and a moment for a prosperous, peaceful and secure world for all. I believe that together in unison and solidarity, as one human family and with God’s blessings, we can do it. Certainly, we can do it.
I conclude by sharing our traditional blessings: Te Mauri, Te Raoi ao Te Tabomoa.