I would like to congratulate you, Mr. President, on your election. I also thank and congratulate your predecessor for his strong efforts and accomplishments.
I bring the warm greetings of Yokwe from the people and Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands — but I bring them at an uncertain global hour. Geostrategic tensions have risen both in Eastern Europe and the Indo-Pacific. The blue Pacific continent and, in particular, the Micronesian region, are no exception — indeed, we are a unique frontline.
As one of the last nations in the world to reopen its borders following the recent coronavirus disease outbreak in our community, we join the international community in mourning our losses, while we are also thankful for its partnership. We value the United Nations as our primary international stage, but if the world does not adequately respond to the island nations, and as the seas rise, then there is really no United Nations at all.
For the Marshall Islands, our first and most clear priority as the seas rise is to never cease safeguarding our nation’s land, ocean and maritime boundaries and to ensure that our communities have a safe, secure, fully democratic and sovereign future. The vulnerabilities that we and others in our region share are severe and diverse.
We join many others, especially our Pacific Island neighbours, in condemning Russia’s continued aggression and war crimes in Ukraine. We do so not only as a United Nations Member, but also in response to a wider global instability that directly impacts our own island region. Russia and all related actors will be held to account, as actions have consequences. The Republic of the Marshall Islands has proudly been a co-Chair of the Group of Friends of Accountability since its establishment following the aggression against Ukraine and supports the independent investigations of the Human Rights Council and International Criminal Court.
The war in Ukraine has set off sharp economic shocks around the world, and as a remote, small island developing State, our energy security is at a saturation point. Even as we seek to boost efficiency and renewables, greater cooperation is needed to move towards regional approaches to energy security and affordability, including by addressing potential joint bulk purchasing.
The Republic of the Marshall Islands condemns the recent military actions of the People’s Republic of China in the Taiwan Strait, which has threatened to disrupt peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region and across the globe.
We welcome the International Atomic Energy Agency’s recent monitoring reports on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and look forward to continued engagement through appropriate forums.
While we have shared goals and a strong partnership with the United States of America, we also have grave development challenges and essential needs to be met in order to better ensure the growth and wellbeing of current and future Marshallese generations. We welcome the recent progress made with the United States of America towards a renewed Compact of Free Association, and with it a targeted trust fund.
It is vital that the legacy and contemporary challenges of nuclear-impact testing be better addressed, that climate change be addressed with the urgency and commitment it deserves, and that our voice as an equal partner be strengthened. We know that the United States stands tall on behalf of its renewed engagement with the Pacific Islands, and it is essential for all of us to ensure that words be met with actions.
The Marshall Islands is gravely concerned about an increasingly polarized world where nuclear- weapons testing and detonation are only growing in risk. We condemn the threats of further nuclear testing and of nuclear warfare. We and a great many other nations also share humanitarian concerns of our own about any nuclear detonation or the risk thereof. And the Marshallese people also have a unique voice in that regard.
My country, the Marshall Islands, was ground zero for the testing of 67 nuclear and thermonuclear weapons for twelve years during the United Nations-United States-administered trusteeship era. The exposure of our people and land has created impacts that have lasted and will last for generations. Those impacts to our human rights, land, culture, health and lives are burdens that no other country or nation should ever have to bear.
Our own experience, history and current challenges to nuclear exposure are key drivers for urging progress in reducing and ultimately eliminating nuclear risk. We welcome effective and meaningful progress on that from major Powers, nuclear-weapon States and all other States in whatever form it can effectively be achieved.
As a member of the Pacific Islands family, we rally around and acknowledge the fact that climate change is the greatest challenge and threat. As a low- lying atoll nation whose future is at risk, there could be no stronger statement, nor should climate change be considered in isolation. Tackling complex adaptation measures within a wider fragility makes our task just that much more difficult.
Today, as I entered this iconic Hall — a symbol of humankind’s hope and aspiration for world peace, prosperity and international cooperation — my thoughts flashed back 31 years, when the first President
of the Marshall Islands addressed the Assembly (see A/46/PV.7) and called attention to the dangers faced by our small nation owing to the looming threat posed by global warming. More than 30 years ago, in this great Hall and at the Rio Earth Summit, our leaders sounded the alarm and warned of its dire consequences. As a matter of record, Marshallese Presidents and leaders in every succeeding Administration have been active and at the forefront of all United Nations global conferences on climate change and global warming, speaking out and fighting to keep our low-lying nation afloat.
Today, we renew our call on the world to declare total war on this century’s greatest challenge — the climate change monster. Yet, after all these years, the world has failed to break our addiction to fossil fuel. We are not investing enough in life-saving adaptation, particularly for small island States. We see the toll of the global crisis. How much worse will it be if we breach 1.5°C? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been clear — solutions exist that can give us a fighting chance. The twenty-sixth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change delivered vital progress. As the convener of the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, we believe without question that the Glasgow Climate Pact must be the foundation for a safer future.
We must honour those commitments and deliver enhanced, nationally determined contributions and policies on coal and fossil-fuel subsidies to reach those targets. We must build that future by catalysing transformations today, by drastically increasing renewable energy and by taking on tough sectors like aviation and shipping. The Marshall Islands has proposed a carbon levy for international shipping that will drive the transition to zero-emission shipping, channelling resources from polluters to the most vulnerable. I humbly urge all countries to embrace it at the International Maritime Organization.
I see hope in elaborating a global goal on adaptation that will set our collective sights on a safe, resilient future. Delivering adaptation at scale required calls for bold and substantial investment. The doubling of adaptation funding is a vital start, but, like all climate finance, we must see it delivered to the most vulnerable. Loss and damage to property and human suffering are already occurring, with profound human rights impacts. That must be addressed, including through a finance facility that will help those on the front lines. This is a question of giving hope to those of us that face immeasurable threats to our people, nation and culture.
We are pleased to note and support the establishment of the human right to a clean environment and the post of Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change. As a small island developing State, the Marshall Islands is committed to better understanding and addressing complex challenges in human rights around the world, but development is never a trade-off for affirming universal human rights. Our own national experience teaches us that politics must never ignore the voices of the most vulnerable.
We welcome the recent release by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights of its long-delayed report on the human rights situation in the Xinjiang region of the People’s Republic of China. We are gravely concerned about the report’s findings that serious human rights violations have been committed and that widespread arbitrary detention may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity. The international community cannot bear silent witness and must react. The Republic of the Marshall Islands also affirms the role of the Pacific Islands Forum in addressing human rights issues in West Papua, including the prior call for engagement with the United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner.
As an ocean and island nation, the Marshall Islands congratulates its close neighbour Palau on having successfully hosted the Our Ocean Conference earlier this year. We also supported the recent 2022 United Nations Ocean Conference, held in Lisbon, and congratulate Portugal and Kenya on co-chairing that meeting. The world must address a growing gap in effective oceans management in the high seas and neighbouring coastal States. While we welcome important progress, far greater effort will be needed to conclude an ambitious instrument on biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. While our Pacific islands tuna stocks stand strong, the fishing efforts of global actors grows. We are proud of our sustainability benchmarks and partnerships, and small island developing States must continue to boost economic participation to match their leadership efforts.
The United Nations must be truly universal, all- embracing and all-inclusive, and we must guard against leaving any nation or people outside the gate in the cold. Today, we call on the United Nations to better welcome Taiwan and its people into our global family. How long will the United Nations persist in closing
its doors and thereby denying access to the people of Taiwan? Taiwan is a vibrant and responsible democracy and contributing member of our global family, and the United Nations circle of unity will remain incomplete without Taiwan and its people.
The Secretariat too often relies on politically motivated interpretations of resolution 2758 (XXVI), when responding to opportunities for the meaningful participation of Taiwan in international bodies and the United Nations system. Now that the world is facing escalated tension in and around our islands region, we as the world cannot be silent. With the ability to engage in meaningful participation in the United Nations system and to make greater contributions, Taiwan can constructively join all of us to make a collective difference. The United Nations system should revert to its original policy of consideration of widely accepted passports for basic public access to the United Nations itself and make good on its goal of broader participation, including registration procedures for civil society access. No one is left behind in the Sustainable Development Goals, least of all one of our important partners in tackling them.
The United Nations is in desperate need of a Security Council that is truly fit for purpose and should be better shaped to the realities of today, not those of eight decades ago. We strongly support better progress in achieving Security Council reform outcomes, and in particular support Japan’s bid to become a permanent member of the Security Council.
In conclusion, it is very clear to us that none of the problems that our global communities are facing today, from the COVID-19 pandemic to roaring inflation and rising energy costs, can be solved by any single nation. Rather, we must come together as a united global family to solve them. But we cannot solve all those problems as long as the world is in conflict; in other words, we cannot do it without world peace.
That reminds me of the following poem:
If there is righteousness in the heart,
There will be beauty in the character.
If there is beauty in the character,
There will be harmony in the home.
If there is harmony in the home,
There will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
There will be peace in the world.