We are a young, imperfect and vibrant democracy, an oasis of peace, tolerance and freedom. Since we gained independence in 2002. our democracy has evolved, alive and dynamic. The Economist magazine’s Democracy Index rates Timor-Leste as the most democratic country in South-East Asia; the organization Reporters Without Borders, in its most recent World Press Freedom Index, places Timor-Leste in tenth place worldwide in terms of press freedom.
We are a multicultural, multi-religious, multilingual and multiethnic society. With humility, we continue to build a country open to the world, tolerant and free from hate and violence. Our practicing Catholics, representing 98 per cent of the population, live in harmony with our Protestant and Muslim brothers and sisters. Timor-Leste has no political violence or tensions or crimes based on ethnicity or religion. We have no domestic organized crime or armed robbery.
Despite a significant reduction in poverty, multidimensional poverty remains high, at 45.8 per cent, and even higher among children. Lifting our people out of extreme poverty, food insecurity, neonatal mortality.
stunting and child malnutrition, and providing child and maternal care are some of the challenges that we are determined to face head on over the next five years. For that reason, child malnutrition and access to pre-school education are two of our main priorities. In collaboration with UNICEF, the Government intends to implement an intersectoral early childhood development policy to promote investments in the first years of life and build a solid foundation for social and human capital.
We have a high and unacceptable incidence of domestic violence. UN-Women recognizes. however, that Timor-Leste is taking significant steps in implementing international legal and policy frameworks, including the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Security Council resolution 1325 (2000). to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.
We are an observer State in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with the right to participate in all summits of Heads of State and Government, ministerial meetings and senior officials and technical meetings. In the 20 years since independence and the 10 years since we formally requested membership in ASEAN, most economic and social indicators show significant progress, including in life expectancy, which was less than 60 years in 2002 and is now at 70. and a reduction in poverty and infant mortality. From 21 doctors in 2002. we now have more than 1.200. In 2002. the capital had partial electric coverage, while the rest of the country did not enjoy that privilege. Currently, power is available in 96.1 per cent of our territory.
We are very grateful for the unanimous decision of ASEAN leaders to grant observer status to Timor-Leste, a pathway to membership and a comprehensive support package to continue training our staff and diplomats.
We do not depend on outside help and are eternally grateful to those who helped us in our times of greatest need. We finance our own national budget from the returns of a sovereign wealth fund invested in United States Treasury Bonds and global financial markets, with an annual return of over 9 per cent.
Timor-Leste is an active member of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries and is a co-founder of the international g7+ group, which was established in 2010 in Dili, has a membership of 20 conflict-affected countries and is currently chaired by Sierra Leone.
Global crises such as pandemics, climate change, the war on Ukraine and the resulting geopolitical fragmentation have disproportionately impacted already fragile and conflict-affected countries. They have always felt the brunt of every global crisis. On the other hand, those countries are the least responsible for those crises. The incidence of extreme hunger, poverty and humanitarian crises caused by wars, climate change and geoeconomic fragmentation is increasingly concentrated in fragile and conflict-affected countries.
Armed conflicts proliferate and economic and social conditions are worsening in countries around the world, but we seem to have forgotten the children of the tragedies of Myanmar. Afghanistan. Yemen. Syria. Palestine and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The growing tensions among regional and global Powers are eroding the potential of our collective security institutions at a time when we face existential challenges. We cannot accept incomprehensible anachronisms, such as the embargo imposed on the Cuban people, the continuing impasse in the Western Sahara conflict and the blatant disregard of United Nations resolutions on the two-State solution for Israel and Palestine.
On and off. we hear about the need to reform the Security Council. Academics concoct an expanded Security Council, regurgitating ideas for a more representative body reflecting today’s demographics, which is in itself an almost surreal task, bearing in mind that leaders up to the present have not ended the nuclear arms race, remained the biggest arms merchants of death, led in the desecration of Mother Nature, failed to help the poorest out of poverty, and have not shown the wisdom to write off the debt incurred by countries of the poorer South, a burden caused by loan sharks from Western commercial banks.
Children living in conflict zones continue to come under attack on an alarming scale. Recent years have seen an exacerbation of children’s vulnerability to grave violations.
In Myanmar, unable to control the ground, the military pursues a scorched-earth strategy with the widespread use of aircraft and helicopters targeting civilians across the country. At least 3.000 civilians have
been killed and 17.000 people arbitrarily imprisoned, including legitimately elected leaders such as Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Timor-Leste condemns the invasion and the violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and the ongoing war. with its catastrophic consequences not only for the Ukrainian people, but also for the Russians and the rest of the world, with the disruption of global trade in grain and energy. We know from experience and history that wars are very seldom won on the battlefield, miscalculations and false pride prevail, and the war goes on for years and killings and utter destruction continue until exhaustion; only then do the sides involved decide to begin negotiations on a peace settlement. Why not talk now?
People living in fragile circumstances are already feeling the effects of climate change most severely. We need a new outlook on the climate and security nexus that will address the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation on peace and security and ensure that the quest for energy transition does not exacerbate the security situation in vulnerable and fragile countries.
Therefore, we propose a bold initiative that would seek to accelerate the just energy transition in fragile developing States that rely heavily on oil and gas production to prevent turmoil and unrest. The combined efforts of unlocking finance through debt alleviation, streamlining international finance at the lowest interest rates, and significantly increasing official development assistance will empower those nations to embark on projects that foster the development of clean industries, address the ongoing loss and damage related to climate change, and facilitate their efforts in greenhouse gas mitigation and adaptation to climate change. While initiatives to further the just transition exist, they do not pay enough attention to fragile or vulnerable States, least developed countries (LDCs) or small island developing States.
As a second priority, the initiative would pay urgent attention to the particular challenges faced by fragile States that are susceptible not only to fragility and vulnerability on their own but also where there is heightened risk when faced with any massive economic turmoil, which the green transition — if not handled carefully — could increase.
Thirdly, as the urgent need to transition to a low- carbon economy and clean energy accelerates, the initiative would seek to ensure that the quest for rare earth elements and critical minerals does not lead to further instability, promote weak governance or exacerbate local tensions or grievances in the countries where the strategic reserves of such elements and minerals are found.
The initiative seeks to create a brighter and more sustainable future for our planet and all its inhabitants. By facilitating the energy transition in small island developing States. LDCs and vulnerable nations, we aim to mitigate climate change impacts and preserve our shared global environment for generations to come. In the face of the agony of poverty and rising costs in the most impoverished countries, the super-rich chief executive officers of banks and creditor countries remain indifferent to calls for debt cancellation. I insist here that Banks and other credit institutions cancel this damned debt.
It would be a leap forward in international solidarity if all members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development were to allocate 1 per cent of their national gross domestic product to official development assistance (ODA). We would see positive effects on poverty rates, food security and access to basic health services, education, electricity, drinking water, sanitation, housing and social security, with multiplier effects on the diversification of economies, especially in agriculture.
We live in a universe full of dualities: an increasingly prosperous world whose wealth has increased by $30 trillion a year, according to Nobel Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi. but where the leaderships of the Group of Seven or the Group of 20 fail to reflect that in the fight against hunger, stunting and other forms of multidimensional poverty. We need to adopt a universal child benefit and a new ODA target for a fair share for children, particularly targeting children in fragile low- income countries.
Allow me to recall a story that is no longer part of our daily conversation — the story of three-year-old Aylan Kurdi. an innocent Syrian baby whose lifeless body washed ashore near the Turkish resort town of Bodrum in September 2015. How many of us are pained by the sight of children dying everyday of hunger and in ongoing wars? In centuries past, the Atlantic Ocean was the graveyard of African slaves, and those who survived the voyage built new countries with their sweat and blood. In the twenty-first century, the Mediterranean
Sea is the new graveyard of thousands of Africans, fleeing drought, extreme poverty and conflicts.
No one should fear the Chinese. Indian. European and American super-Powers. Rather, we should welcome the positive reality of global countries that share with us diasporas, cultures and interests in wellbeing or security that are deeply intertwined with our own. We can gain more from the free movement of people and goods than from building concrete walls. We all benefit from the impressive transformation of India into a global economic success story. India has an admirable track record of decades of practical solidarity with other developing countries, even during the early stages of its own development.
Equally we want to see prosperity in Europe. Japan. South Korea and Australia. But their continuing prosperity depends on peace and stability in the global South and on our markets, workforce and providers of the raw wealth that they process and re-export. But that unequal relationship has to change and will change only when we invest more in high-quality education and health care for our children and youth and when we invest more in science and technology.
We have the chance of the century to build a new partnership of equals between the super-rich of the North and us on the periphery, with a renewed spirit of mission around the global causes of nature and human survival. Failing that, we will sink together, rich and poor, the weak and the powerful.