As this is the first time I
have stood at this rostrum as Prime Minister of Tuvalu
and participated in the general debate of the General
Assembly, I am delighted to convey the warmest
greetings and best wishes of my people and my
Government, and I am honoured to speak today on
their behalf. Let me first extend my special thanks and
sincere appreciation to the Government of the United
States of America, as the host country, for the warm
hospitality and special protocols accorded to my
delegation since our arrival.
Ten years ago, Tuvalu established and opened its
Permanent Mission to the United Nations here in New
York, with a mandate to engage more closely with
nations of the global family. Despite our limited
resources as one of the smallest Member States, our
presence is a simple testimony of our hope and trust in
collaboration with Member States in the pursuit of our
destiny. This further reflects our continued
commitment to uphold the maintenance of international
peace and security, development and human rights as
fundamental pillars of the United Nations, as enshrined
in its Charter.
Tuvalu warmly welcomes and fully supports the
four main areas of focus of Mr. Al-Nasser’s presidency,
including the peaceful settlement of disputes, United
Nations reform and revitalization, improving disaster
prevention and response, and sustainable development
and global prosperity, which he clearly identified
during the opening of the session. In particular, the
theme that he proposed for the general debate — “The
role of mediation in the settlement of disputes by
peaceful means” — is timely, considering what is
happening around the world today.
In this context, I wish to express our belated
tribute and respect to the people and the Government
of the United States in commemoration of the recent
tenth anniversary of the events of 11 September 2001.
Tuvalu strongly condemns such terrorist acts and all
similar incidents worldwide, and our prayers are with
those who have lost their loved ones. Tuvalu further
salutes those who have lost their lives for the cause of
justice and peace.
As a peace-loving nation, Tuvalu fully supports
the role of the United Nations in the maintenance of
peace and security across the globe. However, at the
same time, the integrity and sovereignty of countries
should be respected at all costs. Tuvalu firmly believes
that military and violent action should not be used as a
means for the settlement of disputes. Instead, the
parties concerned should be encouraged to discuss and
understand the root causes of their differences and try
to listen to each other in a more peaceful manner.
Today the world is undergoing profound changes
without any boundaries through the unprecedented
impacts of globalization and other related global
events, which have critical implications for Tuvalu.
This has been further exacerbated by the continued
severe impact of the global financial and economic
crisis, which has had an enormous and critical negative
effect on Tuvalu’s economy. In particular, the Tuvalu
Trust Fund, which is the main source of revenue to
stabilize our recurrent budget, has been severely
affected. As a consequence, my Government has no
other option apart from streamlining and containing its
national recurrent budget to a sustainable level so as to
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enable the provision of basic services to its people
during these difficult times.
In this regard, I humbly call upon the
international community and development partners to
urgently fulfil their commitments to assist the least
developed countries (LDCs), including Tuvalu, through
the implementation of the Istanbul Programme of
Action, adopted at the fourth United Nations
Conference on the Least Developed Countries, held in
Turkey earlier this year. The Istanbul Programme of
Action is a living document that needs to be
implemented vigorously and collectively by LDCs and
the international community during the next 10 years.
In that regard, I am pleased to confirm that the main
thrusts of that Programme of Action will be integrated
and mainstreamed in the Tuvalu National Sustainable
Development Strategy, during the Fourth United
Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries
scheduled for next month.
Furthermore, as a least developed country, Tuvalu
is most vulnerable to global economic shocks, the
impacts of climate change and outbreaks of disease,
including non-communicable diseases. Tuvalu
continues to call on and appeal to the United Nations to
take those vulnerabilities seriously into consideration
when addressing the question of the graduation of
LDCs. Despite the ambitious target of the Istanbul
Programme of Action for 50 per cent of LDCs to be
graduated within the next decade, Tuvalu firmly
believes that its economic and environmental
vulnerability, coupled with its continuous dependence
on official development assistance, cannot be totally
ignored. In that context, the graduation criteria need to
be reviewed to reflect and recognize our vulnerability.
Last month, Tuvalu published its second
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Progress
Report covering the period from 2010 to 2011, which
highlights the progress we have made to date towards
achieving those goals. Despite the ongoing impact of
recent global crises, which Tuvalu continues to face, it
is encouraging to note that five of the MDGs are likely
to be achieved and three will have mixed results by
2015. As alluded to earlier, while we have made
progress in achieving the MDGs, such progress can be
reversed overnight because of our particular economic
and environmental vulnerability.
The ongoing process and inter-governmental
negotiations at the United Nations to revitalize and
reform the General Assembly and the Security Council
respectively are fully supported. However, while we
recognize the importance of the reforms being
undertaken by those United Nations bodies in order to
update their mandates, we are concerned that the time
taken to conclude such undertakings is far too long. In
that regard, we look forward to a more realistic
timetable to complete those negotiations in the near
future, once and for all.
Our collective efforts to strengthen and maintain
peace across the globe will be meaningless, if the
United Nations continues to turn blind eyes and deaf
ears to Taiwan’s contribution and efforts toward those
common goals. Furthermore, Taiwan’s continued
contribution to the international community as one of
the committed development partners cannot be
overemphasized. In that regard, Tuvalu strongly urges
the United Nations to recognize those contributions
without any reservations. In particular, Tuvalu calls
upon the United Nations subsidiary bodies, especially
the World Health Organization and the International
Civil Aviation Organization, to allow Taiwan to
participate fully and meaningfully in their meetings
and activities, including in United Nations meetings on
climate change.
Climate change is a priority global issue of the
twenty-first century and beyond and therefore requires
a global solution. Climate change impacts countries
unequally and not all countries possess the same
capacity and resilience to adapt and respond to such
impacts. For a small island developing State like
Tuvalu, climate change is without a doubt a security
issue that threatens our survival. At the end of this year
parties to the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change will be meeting in Durban to
advance our work on climate change. It will be a
critical meeting, as time is fast running out for highly
vulnerable countries like Tuvalu. My country believes
the meeting in Durban must deliver key outcomes.
First, we must adopt amendments to the Kyoto
Protocol, so as to allow for a second commitment
period. It will be necessary to adopt a decision that
includes provisional entry into force of those
amendments to avoid any gap between the first and
second commitment periods. That is necessary in order
to ensure that the clean development mechanism
continues without any complications and that the
mechanism continues to provide financing for the
Adaptation Fund.
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Secondly, we must make rapid progress in
developing an international mechanism to address loss
and damage. For highly vulnerable countries like
Tuvalu, that is vitally important. We need an
international mechanism to spread the burden of
rebuilding after major weather catastrophes. Thirdly,
we must re-focus our work on reducing emissions from
deforestation and forest degradation. To properly
reduce global deforestation we must put in place
appropriate measures that effectively address its
causes. We must look at this from the demand side and
explore all means of regulating the trade in products
that is driving deforestation.
Finally, we believe that all major emitting
countries must take more decisive action to reduce
their emissions. The current pledging system found in
the Cancún Agreements is inadequate. We will be
seeking a mandate in Durban to commence
negotiations on a new, legally binding agreement for
those major emitting countries that have not taken
commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. That
agreement should complement the Kyoto Protocol, but
not replace it.
As we make progress towards the Rio+20
Conference next year, we must ensure that there is a
focused section dealing with the needs of small island
developing States. In considering the theme of the
green economy, we must explore carefully how we can
redirect the current international trading system to
properly reflect the needs of small island economies.
We need accessible and affordable technologies that
take advantage of renewable energy and energy
efficiency, we need help to protect our blue economies
and our oceans, and we need to explore new
preferential trade arrangements to overcome our size
disadvantage.
In conclusion, let me reiterate the severe impact
of the recent financial and economic crisis and other
ongoing global crises, which continue to affect my
country’s economy and its overall social and economic
development. As a small island developing State and a
least developed country, vulnerable to such crises and
dependent on overseas development assistance, Tuvalu
appeals to the international community to urgently
honour and fulfil their commitments and obligations
outlined in the Istanbul Programme of Action and other
international platforms. We firmly believe that with our
continued cooperation and strong partnerships at all
levels, we can successfully overcome those problems
for the sake of our people and humankind.