I am honoured and
privileged to be able to speak in this great Assembly on
behalf of the people of the Republic of the Marshall
Islands.
I sincerely congratulate Mr. D’Escoto Brockmann
on his election. We have every confidence in his
wisdom and able leadership to guide us through our
deliberations. I extend my sincere appreciation to the
Secretary-General for his leadership and commitment
to the work of the United Nations.
As this body enters its sixty-third year, I am
moved to express my profound appreciation to those
visionaries who foresaw the importance of the United
Nations and took it upon themselves to establish the
necessary structures for the governance of our
collective affairs. It is not that the creation of this body
has led to the cessation of war; it has not. Rather, it is
that we now have an international forum in which
nations can talk over and deliberate issues of mutual
concern. One could well imagine what the alternative
to talking might be in certain circumstances.
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Like its sister island States in the Pacific region,
the Marshall Islands is struggling with the
implementation of its Millennium Development Goals.
Our effort has been made difficult by unforeseen global
forces capable of draining every ounce of our
resources. The Marshall Islands is a small economy
and inter-island distances are vast, making
transportation excessively expensive. Formulating
development strategies that address the new conditions
has not been easy.
An excellent example in this case may be found
in the current energy crisis arising from the escalation
in the cost of fossil fuel. Its adverse impact has been
immediate and severe. The transportation of essential
goods and the movement of people to and from far-
flung islands have been sharply curtailed. The
distribution of essential services and food products has
been acutely impaired, crippling our ability to sustain
normal public services and posing a particular threat to
food security and medical services. The rising cost of
fossil fuels occurring in rapid succession has left the
Marshall Islands with no choice but to declare a state
of economic emergency.
I am sure, and the International Monetary Fund
has observed, that at the height of the crisis, when the
cost of a barrel of oil was over $140, numerous other
countries were also at the tipping point.
As a small island developing State and a member
of the Pacific Islands Forum, we are now exploring the
concept of bulk purchasing of petroleum, as endorsed
by Pacific Forum leaders in Niue last month. Given our
painful experience, we request that the international
community give special consideration to the creation of
a comprehensive financial facility that can help small
island States to cope in times of crisis. In addition,
such a facility should also help small island States
transition from fossil fuel-based energy to affordable
and renewable energy sources.
Our small island States in the Pacific region are
among the lowest greenhouse gas emitters in the world,
yet we bear the full brunt of climate change and its
frightful consequences. The Marshall Islands supports
international initiatives aimed at stemming the tide of
climate change. In that context, we endorse the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,
the European Union-Pacific declaration; Japan’s Cool
Earth 50 Programme — which provides funding for
adaptation and mitigation — and the Niue Declaration
on Climate Change.
In further pursuit of greater guarantees of our
territorial integrity, the Pacific island countries intend
to introduce at this sixty-third session of the General
Assembly a draft resolution calling for climate change
to be addressed by the Security Council as nothing less
than a security concern of the utmost serious nature.
The litmus test of the international community’s
commitment to those agreements should be reflected in
its ability to provide sustainable financing for
immediate and concrete adaptation programmes on the
ground in small island States. It is one thing to produce
agreements or resolutions; it is another to give them
real meaning in concrete terms. Our commitments must
show themselves in deeds, not in words alone.
On the scale that we have experienced over the
past few months, the effect of rising fuel costs could
bring everything to a standstill. Nevertheless, some
in-country adjustments could be made, however painful
and agonizing those might be. Insofar as climate
change is concerned, however, we have no option. We
can alter neither the size nor the height of our islands.
They are our natural givens and we are stuck with
them. Our own very survival is at stake. If sea levels
rise by two metres, Tokelau, Tuvalu, Kiribati and the
Marshall Islands will be completely submerged under
sea.
Thus, clearly the only alteration or adjustment
that is possible is in the mindset and the moral,
economic and political behaviour of the heaviest
emitters of greenhouse gas. In summary, nothing is
more glaring now than the fact that not only are those
issues interrelated, but that their cross-cutting global
character clearly demands an effective and immediate
global response.
If wars have been waged to protect the rights of
people to live in freedom and to safeguard their
security, why will they not be waged to protect our
right to survive the onslaught of climate change? Is the
former more morally imperative than the latter? I urge
the United Nations to elevate this threat — this
nightmare — as justification for total war against
climate change.
Recent positive developments, evidenced by the
easing of tension and the improvement of relations
between the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan
13 08-51845
have begun a new era of good will and hope for
improved economic possibilities and political stability.
In the context of those emerging dynamics now
maturing between China and Taiwan, we see evidence
of a mutual desire for dialogue and engagement in a
process that can forge better relations and
understanding. It is a development worthy of our
respect, and it presents an excellent opportunity for the
international community to encourage and strengthen
that process.
In light of that, the Marshall Islands firmly
believes that the time is now ripe for the 23 million
people of Taiwan to be accorded full participation in
the specialized agencies of the United Nations. This is
a starting benchmark that is consistent with the
principle of true universality.
As we continue to build a United Nations that
better represents our global diversity, the Marshall
Islands believes that membership in the Security
Council should not be guarded as something that is
overly sacred and untouchable. To do so would be to
fail to keep in tandem with the principle of change.
Council membership should instead be enlarged to
reflect reality.
Japan’s fitting aspirations to seek a permanent
seat on the Security Council deserve favourable
consideration. Japan is a world economic and industrial
power, and its leadership and contribution to the
United Nations is admirable and self-evident. We are
confident that, as a permanent member of the Security
Council, Japan will bring much that is good to the
Council and to the United Nations as a whole.
Earlier this month, the United Sates marked the
seventh anniversary of the tragic loss of lives resulting
from barbaric acts carried out against the American
people on 11 September 2001. That event threatened
our collective security, prompting a response against
acts of terrorism.
It is a matter of personal gratification for me to
say that, over the past few decades, the special
relationship between the Marshalls and the United
States has continued to deepen with encouraging
outcomes. I am proud to say that, in Afghanistan and
Iraq, Marshallese young men and women have been
participating actively in coalition forces as part of the
United States armed services personnel, demonstrating
our commitment to shared democratic ideals.
I take this opportunity to express our deep
gratitude to the United States for its continuing
constructive role in our partnership under the Compact
of Free Association, as well as for its leadership in
advancing the cause of freedom around the world.
While the ideal of peace envisioned by the
framers of the Charter of the United Nations 63 years
ago is yet to be fully achieved, this should not be a
cause for despair. People of goodwill everywhere have
expressed their yearning for world peace. Today, we
see vast increases in movements and organizations
devoted to humanitarian work, empowerment of
women and mobilization of youth. We see young and
older nations engaged in matters of mutual concern.
The United Nations has demonstrated our collective
capacity for united action in a wide range of social and
economic initiatives. It has affirmed our collective will
to build a better future.
I believe the time has come for the United
Nations to convoke an international convention where
the fundamental principles and tenets of permanent
world peace can be deliberated. Such a bold step will
draw our attention more sharply to our true nature, to
existing constructive forces and to the need for
unifying social structures that can foster the
establishment of a truly new world order, a global
society animated by principles of social justice.
Today nothing is more urgent, more imperative
and more important for this great institution than the
establishment of a world peace that is permanent and
that rests firmly on the bedrock of justice. And as we
jointly undertake to gradually build that edifice of
lasting international peace, let us draw our strength and
take comfort in these words from the Gospel of
Matthew: “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall
be called the children of God”.