At the outset, I would like to extend my warmest congratulations to the President of the General Assembly at its
seventy-seventh session and his entire team. I pledge Thailand’s full support as he undertakes to fulfil his important mission.
We are at a watershed moment as an international community and as the United Nations. We stand at a point where the decisions we make and the actions we pursue can shape the world and the course of humankind for years to come. But we can only do it together, guided by our shared interests and on the basis of mutual respect.
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has only exacerbated inequality gaps and has reversed at least four years of development gains, according to the United Nations Development Programme. At a time when the world is trying to recover from the two years of the pandemic, our problems are compounded by multiple challenges.
We are seeing new conflicts, on top of global geopolitical tensions. We are experiencing a food crisis, an energy crisis and a financing crisis. These have had the most detrimental impact on those who are most vulnerable — least developed countries, small island developing States and vulnerable groups, such as women, girls, the elderly and people with disabilities. Collective action is certainly needed now.
The food crisis has affected us all. This global food insecurity is due to conflicts, climate change, disruptions to supply chains and uneven recovery from COVID-19.
As such, there is an urgent need to strengthen multilateral action among like-minded partners, United Nations agencies, the World Trade Organization and international institutions in order to facilitate a constructive dialogue and improve policy coordination to address this crisis. It is now especially vital to keep our global supply chains open for seamless cross-border flows of food, fertilizers and essential goods, while also making our food systems more resilient so that equitable access to safe and healthy food for all can be guaranteed. Thailand is prepared to work in partnership with countries and international organizations in order to realize that vision.
In that context, Thailand welcomes the Black Sea Grain Initiative, established by the United Nations, to open a safe corridor for grain transportation that would help ease a global food crisis. The Initiative further stresses the importance of international cooperation under the Organization’s framework in order to respond to new global challenges.
In addition to overcoming food insecurity, we also need to overcome health insecurity. As we learned from the pandemic, good health for all is critical. And that is why universal health coverage should be a high priority for us all. We need to ensure access to high-quality essential health-care services and to safe, effective, high-quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for everyone. We must continue to promote and protect the right to receive the highest attainable standard of health as part of our commitment to human rights. We must continue to invest in promoting a more inclusive social protection system for all, as called for by the Secretary-General in Our Common Agenda (A/75/982).
To reinforce that, the global health architecture needs to be reformed, both structurally and functionally, in order to address the current shortcomings and systemic failures of health systems. And that is why Thailand fully supports the development of a legally binding international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response under the World Health Organization (WHO). The new instrument must place equity at the centre in order to ensure the self-reliance of developing countries when faced with pandemics, especially through enhancing their capacity to manufacture certain medical countermeasures.
With better food and health security, we will be better positioned to putting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) back on track. In doing so, a human-rights-based approach is needed in order to ensure that the rights and basic needs of all persons are guaranteed, especially those of the most vulnerable and furthest behind. That will help enhance our resilience and capacity to cope with future crises. SDGs serve as both the pathway and the end goal in ensuring the survival of our present and future generations.
As we have only eight years left to attain the SDGs, we need to employ every tool at our disposal — from science, technology and innovation to working in partnership at every level in order to drive this agenda forward — because without sustainable development, there is no future. We need to promote North-South and South-South cooperation and the integration of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable peace with other cooperation frameworks, both at the global and regional levels. That is why the Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are working to enhance the complementarity between the 2030 Agenda for sustainable peace and the ASEAN Vision 2025. Thailand’s hosting of the Global South- South Development Expo with ESCAP and the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation in Bangkok last week also demonstrates the importance we place on development cooperation, especially among developing countries.
Furthermore, financing for development and finding innovative sources of finance are key to transforming SDGs from mere aspirations to a reality for all. Thailand agrees with the Secretary-General’s proposal to promote cooperation with leading global financial institutions in order to mobilize financing so as to drive forward the SDGs while improving financial liquidity for the least developed countries.
To promote sustainable development, Thailand has adopted the Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) Economy Model as a means to achieve a more balanced development in this recovery phase. The BCG Economy Model utilizes science, technology and innovation to encourage the optimization of resources for environmentally friendly economic growth.
In pursuing sustainable development, we need to ensure balance between our people-centred approaches and protecting our planet. To that end, Thailand is ready to work with the international community in order to contain the triple planetary crises of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. Thailand is committed to promoting international cooperation for the protection of the environment, including on the negotiations on the post-2020 global biodiversity framework and the international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution.
In tackling climate change, Thailand stands firm in our pledge at last year’s twenty-sixth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2065. And with adequate support, Thailand will be able to increase its nationally determined contributions or targets to 40 per cent while achieving net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050. That is not an empty promise. Thailand will submit our nationally determined contributions and long-term low greenhouse-gas emission development strategies that reflect those goals ahead of the twenty-seventh Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27), to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh.
Meanwhile, the pledges of developed countries must also be fulfilled. I urge developed countries to keep their promise of providing financial, technological and capacity-building support to developing countries and to deliver on the climate-financing goal of $100 billion annually as soon as possible. Equal attention should be paid to mitigation and adaptation. Thailand stands ready to work with Egypt and all partners at COP27 in that regard.
We need to restore faith and confidence in the multilateral system and our United Nations. An important step to achieving that is to reverse the polarization in this organ by working more closely on issues that bring us together. Addressing humanitarian concerns is one such issue.
Thailand will continue to work closely with the international community, taking into account the needs of the affected country, in order to address urgent humanitarian challenges through bilateral, regional and multilateral efforts, in accordance with the key humanitarian principles and without politicization. We have supported humanitarian work in Afghanistan through the World Food Programme (WFP) and have contributed to Ukraine through the Ukrainian Red Cross Society and UNICEF.
As for Myanmar, Thailand has worked with partners to provide humanitarian assistance to the people in need through various programmes at the bilateral level, including the donation of 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines and through ASEAN. Financial contributions were also made to support the work of international organizations, such as UNICEF, WHO, WFP and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
As an immediate neighbour, with the longest land border, of 2,470 kilometres, it is in Thailand’s vital interests to see a quick return to peace and stability in Myanmar. We call on all parties in Myanmar to urgently take steps to de-escalate, end the violence and engage in meaningful talks to resolve differences peacefully. Thailand fully supports the constructive role of ASEAN and believes that ASEAN is best placed to help Myanmar through the time-tested ASEAN practice of consultation, cooperation and consensus. Thailand will continue to play an active and constructive role to
support that ASEAN process, as well as the role of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on Myanmar.
As a strong believer in multilateralism, Thailand stands ready to continue to do its part to promote multilateral and international cooperation at all levels. Sustainable development and human rights are intertwined and mutually reinforcing. They are vital in ensuring an environment of peace and prosperity. Thailand hereby presents its candidacy for membership of the Human Rights Council for the term from 2025 to 2027. If elected, we can help to strengthen the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms so as to reach out to the vulnerable and those furthest behind and bring about meaningful and real positive changes on the ground.
Thailand also firmly believes that close regional cooperation can complement the multilateral system and reinforce the global agenda. This year, Thailand plays host to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, which is meeting under the theme “Open. Connect. Balance”. Such a theme signifies the willingness to embrace every opportunity, connect in all dimensions and balance in all aspects. That highlights Thailand’s commitment to promoting multilateral cooperation, which will hopefully lead to more balanced and sustainable development after the COVID-19 pandemic. We look forward to welcoming world leaders to Bangkok in November, as Thailand is fully open and ready to welcome visitors once again.
Despite the challenges and difficulties at this critical juncture in the history of humankind, Thailand continues to have faith in the multilateral system, with the United Nations at its core. We remain confident that the goodwill and shared common interests of humankind will help us to make the right decisions at this watershed moment so that we can move together towards a more stable, sustainable and safer future, with no person or country left behind.
Let me now add this very brief account to end my statement. A few days ago, a sentiment was expressed by the European Union foreign policy chief when he said that we should not rule out the possibility of the use of nuclear weapons in the Ukraine crisis. An oriental saying that could be related to that context pertains to the enjoyment of riding a beast, whether it be a tiger or a dragon. Let us say a tiger in that context. Riding on the tiger’s back could be fun and challenging, but no one could enjoy riding on its back with no end in sight.
The question is how to safely dismount without killing the tiger.
Suddenly, the question of “how to” is daunting. We have a suggestion that takes all elements into account and is definitely not free of realpolitik. A possible breakthrough could be apparent during the month of November, with the third week of the penultimate month of the year as our first and golden opportunity for all super-stakeholders in the Ukraine crisis to assemble at three venues in South-East Asia as legitimate participants.
The three venues are one in Phnom Penh for the ASEAN Summit, another in Bali for the Group of 20 and the third in Bangkok for the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting. Separately or in a series, they could serve as a most appropriate platform for talks to provide a possible off-ramp or exit to the high-tension global crisis in Ukraine.
The world body, the United Nations, with all its relevant roles and mechanisms to help safeguard peace and stability, could certainly join in at any juncture to add value to that endeavour. Let us therefore hope that that golden opportunity is not passed up by all the super-Powers and super-stakeholders with regard to the high-tension Ukraine crisis.