It is an honour to
lead New Zealand’s delegation this year. The opening
of the General Assembly’s new session is the best
example there is of the capacity of the United Nations
to bring us all together. Our discussions here will be
wide-ranging, but inevitably settle on two main issues:
global security and sustainable economic development.
We want to make our world safer, more secure
and more prosperous. These goals will require strong
collective action with a focus on practical outcomes.
New Zealand is seeking every opportunity to
contribute. We are a young, small and fair-minded
country. We depend upon a United Nations that is
effective and credible.
New Zealand takes pride in its diversity. In
addition to our indigenous Maori population, we are a
mix of people from Europe, Asia and the Pacific. Our
links with Europe are built on history and tradition.
Within Asia, we are developing ever-stronger economic
and security relationships. Our future is closely tied to
both of these regions. We have an equally strong focus
on our closest neighbours in the South Pacific. New
Zealand is a Pacific country. Auckland is the largest
Pasifika city in the world, and a number of Pacific
countries have more citizens living in New Zealand
than at home.
The security and development of the region is
New Zealand’s constant preoccupation. It is a matter of
grave concern that the South Pacific is second only to
sub-Saharan Africa in terms of lack of progress
towards the achievement of some of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs). We want to see the
MDGs achieved, and we want to see the wider Pacific
prosper through good governance and sustainable
economic development. That is why New Zealand is
increasingly deploying our development resources
within its region, since that is where they are most
needed and where they can be most effective.
The development challenges in the Pacific are
extremely complex, with vulnerable economies and
challenging environmental circumstances. New
Zealand has increased and will continue to increase our
overall level of development assistance, despite
challenging times for our domestic economy. A higher
percentage of that larger budget will be focused on our
region.
But money alone is not enough; aid effectiveness
and donor coordination are vital. Progress will also
depend on good governance within the region.
Next year we will mark the fortieth anniversary
of the Pacific Islands Forum, the central body for
regional engagement in the Pacific, which held its first
meeting in New Zealand in 1971. We will welcome
leaders from around the region back to New Zealand
next September to celebrate our achievements over
40 years and to take stock of the challenges we must
face in the future.
The past year has reinforced the need for better
disaster management. Just three weeks ago, residents in
Christchurch woke to the most destructive earthquake
in New Zealand in 80 years. Miraculously, there was
no loss of life, but the damage runs into billions of
dollars and people’s lives and livelihoods were
affected. Significant aftershocks are still affecting the
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population. But less than a month after the earthquake
hit, roads and buildings have been repaired, tourism
infrastructure is at almost full capacity, and people’s
lives are being rebuilt.
Others have not been so lucky. The earthquakes
in Haiti and Chile and the recent flooding in Pakistan
are reminders of the devastating scale of such disasters.
The Pacific has been hit hard, too. This month will
mark the first anniversary of the Pacific tsunami that
took the lives of 184 people in Samoa, American
Samoa and Tonga.
These events and others demonstrate the
importance of disaster preparedness, management and
recovery. New Zealand’s experience with major
earthquakes has taught us how to mitigate risks,
enforce strong building codes, and implement effective
recovery plans. But there will be lessons we should
learn from this recent experience. We will work with
the United Nations system, non-governmental
organizations and other international agencies to
ensure that those lessons are shared and help others to
prepare.
While development and disaster management are
crucial to our quest for a safer world, underpinning
both is security. Peacekeeping is a key responsibility of
the Organization. Indeed, it is its peacekeeping
operations that shape perceptions of the United Nations
for many people around the world.
New Zealand is committed to supporting global
security and United Nations peacekeeping. That is why
we have been engaged in peacekeeping and peace
support operations since the 1940s. New Zealand’s
soldiers, police, engineers, corrections and customs
officers, doctors and other personnel are today
involved in 12 operations that span the globe from
Africa, Afghanistan and the Middle East to Asia and
the Pacific.
One of the clearest examples of New Zealand’s
commitment to the principles of collective
responsibility is through the United Nations effort in
Timor-Leste. Since 1999, New Zealand has been a part
of every United Nations mission that has served in
Timor-Leste. We have played a major role in the
United Nations-sanctioned international military
operations that restored order there in 1999 and again
in 2006. Over 6,000 New Zealanders have served in
Timor in the past decade — a significant undertaking
for a country of only 4.4 million people.
Of course, helping ensure peace and stability in
our region alone is not enough. New Zealanders are
among those who have been affected by terrorism,
killed in the attacks that took place just a few blocks
away from here in September 2001, and more recently
in Bali, in London and in Jakarta.
The need to respond decisively to those who
perpetrate such atrocities is a key reason why New
Zealand has led the provincial reconstruction team in
Bamyan, Afghanistan, since 2003. We have redeployed
our special forces to work alongside the Government of
Afghanistan and the international community to ensure
that that country does not return to being a safe haven
for Al-Qaida. We must address the conditions in which
terrorism thrives. We are increasing our development
spending in Bamyan and recently placed the Provincial
Reconstruction Team under civilian leadership for the
first time.
New Zealand is also strongly supportive of
peacekeeping reform. The expansion in peacekeeping
since 1990 has been dramatic. Never before has this
Organization deployed so many missions to such
complex environments. This expansion has opened up
discussion of the way the United Nations conducts its
peacekeeping operations. Clear and achievable
mandates are needed, progress needs to be better
monitored, and efficiency needs to be improved.
We are also contributing to United Nations efforts
to strengthen peacebuilding in practice, including the
need for better participation of women in
peacebuilding. Of course, the response of the United
Nations to crises has not always been successful. It is
for this reason that New Zealand has strongly
supported the responsibility to protect (R2P). We were
pleased to contribute to the proposed joint Special
Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide/R2P office and
look forward to the more comprehensive
implementation of R2P throughout the United Nations
system.
Effective pursuit of these goals — countering
terrorism and maintaining peace and security —
demands coordinated, collective action. The United
Nations is the best vehicle for that action. New Zealand
has been, and remains, proud to be a part of that
community of collective action. In line with that
commitment, New Zealand is seeking a seat on the
Security Council for the 2015-2016 term. In doing so,
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we will work with others here who want the world to
be a safer and more prosperous place.
This year significant gains have been made in
global disarmament. New Zealand welcomes the action
plan adopted at this year’s Non-Proliferation Treaty
Review Conference, the groundbreaking nuclear
security summit, and the entry into force of the
Convention on Cluster Munitions. These are tangible
and practical successes. But we still face some
significant challenges. New Zealand is concerned by
the continuing inertia of the Conference on
Disarmament. The Secretary-General’s High-level
Meeting on disarmament this morning was a valuable
step in acknowledging this problem and trying to find a
way forward.
As a country that prides itself on sustainable
development, New Zealand is also greatly concerned
about global environmental issues. As well as working
towards an outcome in Cancún, we are involved in
practical projects for addressing climate change. One
such project is the Global Research Alliance on
Agricultural Greenhouse Gases. Fourteen per cent of
worldwide greenhouse-gas emissions come from
agriculture. At the same time, there are projections that
world food production needs to increase by 50 per cent
in the next 20 years, and to double in the next 40 years,
to feed a growing world.
Clearly, we need a scientific breakthrough to help
meet the challenge of producing more food while
reducing emissions. New Zealand formed the Alliance,
which now includes more than 30 agricultural nations,
to find ways to address this problem. Scientists and
researchers are now linking up across the world to try
to balance the need for increased agricultural
production with the need to address climate change.
This is just one example of how countries can come
together to address climate change in a very real way.
When I was here a year ago, we were watching to
see whether the world would be able to climb out of
the global economic recession. Much progress has been
made and key economic indicators are generally
pointing in the right direction. The rapid and
coordinated international response, including by the
Group of 20, has been effective. The World Trade
Organization’s rules-based trading system has held up
well. But, like many countries, New Zealand is
frustrated that the conclusion of the Doha Development
Round still eludes us.
Over these last few days, especially in the context
of discussion of progress towards the Millennium
Development Goals, I have heard many fine words
spoken in support of the world’s disadvantaged. I take
this opportunity to remind those speakers and countries
that the single most effective step that could be taken
to advance the position of the world’s disadvantaged
would be to create a framework within which they can
trade themselves to a better future.
I want to strongly endorse President Obama’s
statement, made yesterday, that there is no viable
alternative to the resolution of conflict in the Middle
East other than two States, Israel and Palestine, living
side by side in peace and security. We believe that
direct negotiations, with both parties at the table, are
the only way to resolve the conflict. We congratulate
President Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu on
having the courage to negotiate in very difficult
circumstances. We ask that Israel heed the international
community’s unanimous call to extend the moratorium
on settlements and create the enabling atmosphere that
will allow direct negotiations to continue.
We also agree with President Obama that
resolution of the Middle East conflict is not just the
responsibility of Israel and Palestine. Countries in the
region especially, but also countries elsewhere, must
work towards Middle East peace. New Zealand, as a
friend of both Israel and Palestine, will play its part. I
recently visited the Sinai, where a New Zealand officer
has command of the Multinational Force and
Observers. I was reminded that there has been peace
between Israel and Egypt for more than 30 years, a
prospect once unthinkable. With the commitment of the
two parties and the support of the international
community, Israel and Palestine can enjoy the same
freedom from conflict. We all have a huge stake in
achieving that objective. Resolution of the Palestinian
question would tear out the fuse that threatens to ignite
conflict in the Middle East and beyond.
So today we add our voice to that of President
Obama and of others who believe that this dispute can,
and must, be solved. And we call on all Members of
the United Nations to lend their support to this process
in the critical weeks ahead.