Let me first congratulate Your Excellency, Mr. Csaba Korosi, on assuming the presidency of the General Assembly at its seventy-seventh session. I also commend my good friend, His Excellency Mr. Abdulla Shahid, for his stalwart leadership of the seventy-sixth session during a most challenging year.
This session of the General Assembly is taking place in the shadow of multiple concurrent crises. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine flagrantly violates international law and the Charter of the United Nations and undermines the rules-based order. We are also deeply concerned about the potential annexation of more Ukrainian territory. The multilateral system, which has contributed greatly to global peace and security, is now being severely tested. At the same time, super-Power rivalry continues to sharpen. As we have seen in theatres from Europe to Asia this year, the risks of accident, miscalculation, confrontation and even outright conflict have escalated. The prospects for international cooperation have weakened considerably and the temptation to resort to unilateralism has become even stronger.
But the need for concerted global cooperation has never been greater or more urgent, given the range of transnational challenges that all of us are confronting today. Our recovery from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) remains uneven and fragile. In fact, the risk of a future and even more deadly pandemic has risen. The global economy is entering a period of higher and prolonged inflation, and we are seeing higher interest rates all over the world. Energy prices have soared, and it will become even harder to generate the resources that all of us need to address those long-term problems. Societies everywhere will have to grapple with greater internal division, disruption and polarization. Without that sense of cohesion, unity, trust or even an ability to agree on facts, the will and unity needed for societies to confront those existential challenges will be undermined severely.
The climate crisis is a clear and present threat. Our global commons, including water and biodiversity, are also deteriorating rapidly. Our global food supply is at risk. To make things worse, all those threats and crises are occurring concurrently, interacting with and compounding each other in a vicious circle. For instance, the Secretary-General has spoken of a triple crisis of food, fuel and finance. The impact of all those simultaneous crises on ordinary people and our livelihoods has been severe, all the more so in developing countries. We see this in the devastating impact of the floods in Pakistan and in parts of Africa.
The post-Second World War era of relative stability and prosperity has, unfortunately, come to an end. A new world order is being born and, as any obstetrician will tell you, the moment of delivery is actually the most dangerous. Will we have a more divided, less prosperous and less peaceful world? Or can we instead strengthen multilateralism and the United Nations to deal with the challenges of the future, uphold and strengthen the rules-based international system, and jointly harness the opportunities offered by new technologies: including digital technology, synthetic biology, customized health care and , of course, renewable energy? If we can do that, we can create a new era of peace and prosperity for everyone.
Singapore believes that the only way forward is to uphold the inclusive and rules-based multilateral system that has underwritten peace and progress for all of us since the Second World War. That is also why we worked with a cross-regional group of countries to establish the Forum of Small States (FOSS) in 1992. We started small, with only 16 countries. This year, we celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of FOSS. We now have 108 countries — a majority at the United Nations. We are all proud members. FOSS has always been a champion of the United Nations and rules-based multilateralism. It gives us a collective stake and a voice in the global commons, a means to safeguard our interests, and a system where we have sovereign equality and disputes can be settled peacefully, in accordance with international law.
Indeed, the profound importance of multilateralism and international law is precisely why Singapore has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The security and even the existence of Singapore — and indeed many other countries, especially small States — depend on the international community upholding the fundamental principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity. If we do not protect these principles, there is no basis for countries, big and small, to cooperate on an equal footing. Small States especially must not allow the world to regress to one where might is right.
While the rules-based multilateral system is not perfect, it is by far our best option in addressing transnational challenges and managing the global commons. This was exemplified by the pivotal adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 40 years ago. It brought order and predictability to the governance of our oceans and provided a universal legal framework in which all States can work together.
The geopolitical reality today makes it harder to forge consensus on such a framework, but as our experience with COVID-19 has shown, multilateral cooperation is the only way forward. Ultimately, we share one planet. Despite our differences, our destinies are interwoven and no one is safe until all of us are safe. This applies to pandemics; it also applies to climate change, the conservation of the oceans and all our other shared challenges.
Singapore will do our part. We are honoured that Ambassador Rena Lee serves as the President of the Intergovernmental Conference on an international legally binding instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond areas of national jurisdiction, which is negotiating a treaty under UNCLOS on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ). We call on all delegations to expedite the conclusion of a robust and future-proof BBNJ treaty.
There is much more we can do to re-energize and transform the United Nations-based multilateral system towards new realities and challenges. I commend the leadership of the Secretary-General in putting forth a bold and ambitious Our Common Agenda (A/75/982) report to do so. Let me focus on just three areas in our global commons where there is an urgent need to build resilience:
First is climate change and food insecurity, global health and pandemic preparedness, and digital transformation and cybersecurity.
Climate change remains the most pressing challenge confronting humankind today, as we have seen from the more frequent occurrences of extreme weather events and the devastation that they have wrought the world over. We need a sustained and ambitious global response. The continued commitment of all countries to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the Glasgow Climate Pact is absolutely critical. We also need to step up cooperation in the transition to net zero. That will, in fact, be the biggest socioeconomic transformation since the industrial revolution. Both will require considerable economic restructuring, technological breakthroughs, investments and behavioural changes. The United Nations-led multilateral system will be key in pulling everyone together to row in the same direction and not leave anyone behind.
Singapore, as a small, low-lying and alternative-energy disadvantaged island nation, is especially vulnerable to climate change and rising sea levels. Singapore’s impact on global emissions is infinitely small, but we take our climate action obligations very seriously. We have just raised our climate ambition to achieve net zero emissions by or around mid-century. A comprehensive strategy to green our economy is taking shape, and we will raise carbon taxes progressively from 2024.
We will do our part to build a comprehensive green finance ecosystem and facilitate the regional journey to net zero. We are supporting industry efforts to build the infrastructure for a voluntary carbon credit market in Asia. We are also building capabilities in environmental risk management in the financial sector and providing grants to defray the costs of green and sustainability- linked loans and bonds.
An adjacent issue is food insecurity. Climate change, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have all exacerbated the threat to our food security. According to a United Nations report, as many as 828 million people were affected by hunger last year; that is 46 million more than in 2020 and 150 million more than in 2019. We must reverse this negative trend. First, we need to ensure that food supply chains remain open and operate smoothly. Secondly, we must pursue innovation and leverage technology to adapt to new challenges — for example, working together to develop climate-resilient food systems, while developing the necessary precautions on food safety. There is much scope for multilateral cooperation on capacity-building and the development of global norms and standards.
Next, it is essential to build a more robust global health architecture to protect our future generations. After COVID-19, there will be other pandemics and major health emergencies. In my view, COVID-19 was perhaps a dress rehearsal for a worse pandemic to come. We must be better prepared to predict,
prevent, detect, assess and respond to pandemics in a coordinated and effective fashion in the future. We have a collective responsibility to rectify the longstanding underinvestment in pandemic preparedness, amongst other global public goods.
Singapore has supported multilateral initiatives to strengthen the global health security system. We will continue to support the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility, and we have contributed to the establishment of a financial intermediary fund for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, hosted by the World Bank.
Lastly, we must enhance international cooperation to harness the opportunities of the digital revolution. Digital transformation does not take place in a vacuum. It must be navigated in the context of intersecting issues: geopolitical tensions, technological bifurcation, cybersecurity threats and the digital divide. The world has made significant progress in development by operating on a single, shared technology stack. Interconnectedness and interoperability brought us together, lowered costs and spurred innovation, competition and the cross-fertilisation of ideas.
But if we fractured our world and our technology stack, all that good work and the speed of progress and innovation will slow significantly. We need an open and inclusive global framework to harness and optimize the opportunities of digital transformation, while effectively addressing its challenges. A zero- sum, exclusionary and bifurcated approach benefits no one. An erosion of trust and an atmosphere of confrontation will only breed more cyberthreats and malicious cyberactivities. We must also ensure that all States, particularly small States, developing and least developed countries benefit from the digital revolution and are not left further behind.
Singapore fully supports the Secretary-General’s proposal for a global digital compact, which has received strong support from Member States. We are honoured that Ambassador Burhan Gafoor serves as Chair of the Open-Ended Working Group on security of and in the use of information and communications technologies. The consensus adoption of the Working Group’s first annual progress report in July was a welcome sign that multilateralism is alive and well and can still deliver meaningful progress on the global commons, even in these difficult times.
In conclusion, this is a moment when multilateralism must be defended and fortified. Our responses to these myriad opportunities and challenges must remain rooted in the foundational tenets of multilateralism, especially including adherence to the United Nations Charter and international law. I remain an optimist in these difficult times and believe that we are actually on the cusp of an era of profound technological breakthroughs, one that will equip humankind with unimaginably powerful new tools.
It is in the world’s interest and in our own long-term national interests to set aside our differences, address the challenges of the global commons and harvest the emerging opportunities provided by new technologies. Ultimately, as Member States, we have as much responsibility to each other and to our citizens to work together and to improve, adapt and strengthen the multilateral system that we have so painstakingly built over the past 77 years, so that our people — all people — can lead better, more secure, more peaceful and happier lives.