Our world continues
to change in profound ways. Technological advances
have accelerated globalization, bringing diverse
challenges and new agendas. The magnitude of today’s
threats requires holistic solutions with a multilateral
approach. No one country, however powerful, can meet
them on its own. Nations of the world need to work
together to forge a coordinated approach. It is a shared
responsibility, and the problems will be solved
successfully only through effective collaboration.
To meet the challenges, a vibrant institution that
is up to the task and responds to the imperatives of our
time is required. Sixty-five years ago, the world
created the United Nations as the legitimate authority
for our collective peace and security. International
cooperation and solidarity formed the bedrock of its
existence. To this day, the United Nations provides the
only viable framework and legitimate authority for
acting globally to address issues that transcend national
borders.
As a world institution, the United Nations needs
to pay attention to its ability to offer itself as a safe
place, not just for its traditional stakeholders — the
Member States — but also for international
organizations, the business community and civil
society. Partnerships with those sectors of society are
an important vehicle through which the United Nations
helps the development of individual countries, and they
allow our Organization to achieve, in large measure,
the key objectives of its mission.
Our Organization is not without shortcomings,
and that is why we must constantly redefine its role
and adapt it to respond to the needs of the world that it
exists to serve. That is why, with regard to Security
Council reform, Samoa has not wavered over the years
from its principled support for an expanded Council in
both the permanent and non-permanent memberships.
The economic and political liberalization has changed
the contemporary geopolitical realities and landscape,
and the therefore enlargement of the Security Council
in both categories is essential for true multilateralism
and for the Council’s integrity and credibility.
Equally vital is the ongoing reform to give
prominence to the General Assembly as the truly
deliberative and representative body in the global
decision-making process, giving voice and
representation to all Member States, irrespective of a
country’s wealth and might. That was the basis for
Samoa becoming a Member of this world body over
30 years ago.
The threat of climate change is grave, having dire
implications for global peace and security. It threatens
to intensify existing drivers of conflict in a way that
could roll back development across many countries.
The causes of climate change and those responsible for
them, the multifaceted threats it poses and the solutions
to mitigate and adapt against its negative impacts are
well documented and duly validated by science and
real life experiences.
A new climate change instrument is currently
under negotiation. Progress has been painfully slow,
which contradicts the gravity and urgency of the
problem. Sadly, vested national interests are taking
precedence over concern for a global and just solution.
Intransigent positions are being advanced to force
concessions and to frustrate progress. For a privileged
few, their fortunate geographies and resource
endowments may persuade them to feel that climate
change is not an urgent priority and that they can
afford to wait out the negotiation of a legally binding
climate change agreement for as long as it takes.
There is no such luxury for island nations, which
paradoxically are at the front line of the destructive
impacts of climate change but are least responsible for
its causes and often least able to respond and adapt.
Indeed, for some island nations, climate change
threatens their very existence and survival as sovereign
States.
With the stakes so high, climate change is
unquestionably an immediate and urgent priority for
the world. It would be a big mistake for any country to
think otherwise. Similarly, it would be unhelpful to
view climate change simply as an environmental issue.
Climate change is cross-cutting and endangers
economic and social development, with serious
implications for the peace and security of our
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communities, whether its impact is national or
transborder.
Any new climate change treaty, no matter how
ambitious, comprehensive and binding, will be
ineffectual without full membership and the
participation of all United Nations Member States,
especially those with the obligation to participate.
Inaction should not be blamed on the absence of
solutions to reverse the impacts of climate change but
rather on the unwillingness of some countries to be part
of a unified global solution.
The much publicized fast-track funding
announced in Copenhagen to meet the adaptation needs
of the most vulnerable countries has become a best-
kept secret. Information on how much of the pledges
have been honoured and disbursed, and to whom, has
been scarce. When available, the information is vague
and seems bereft of coordination. Yet the fast-track
resources were commitments made at the highest
political level, in recognition at Copenhagen of the
pressing need for an interim measure to help the most
vulnerable countries avert further harmful effects of
climate change, pending the conclusion of a negotiated
agreement.
The uncertainty as to the legal form, content and
completion date of a new treaty makes it a moral
imperative for the promised fast-track resources to be
made available without delay and with clear, simplified
guidelines to ensure that the intended recipients do
indeed secure assistance.
Between now and the conference in Cancún,
States parties should move beyond rhetoric and commit
to reaching an agreement, as a minimum, on those
building blocks of the Bali Action Plan where
negotiations have reached a level of maturity and
convergence on agreed compromises. We cannot
continue to defer making the hard decisions. We need
to reclaim the credibility of the process. Every day of
indecisiveness disproportionately increases the risks to
vulnerable countries that are experiencing more
frequent and severe climate change impacts.
We cannot afford to leave Cancún empty-handed.
Concrete results must be achieved, not only to give our
people confidence that there are substantive responses
to protect against climate change, but at the same time
to strengthen our belief that our United Nations can
deliver a legally binding agreement.
Our global security is at risk. Terrorism
transcends international borders in its attack on
universal values. Like other international threats,
terrorism is an area of mutual concern that demands a
collective response. Terrorist acts committed under
whatever pretext are deeply deplorable and should be
strongly condemned. Those who find self-glorification
in the atrocious crimes that they commit should not
expect any sympathy or be provided safe havens to
hide.
The non-proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction and the risk of their acquisition by
terrorists, criminals and others should continue to be a
top priority of the United Nations. Nuclear terrorism is
one of the most challenging threats to international
peace and security. A world without nuclear weapons is
a safer, more secure and prosperous place to live.
We have heard from this podium of the renewed
efforts of the major nuclear-weapons Powers to restart
the reduction of their nuclear arsenals. That is
encouraging, but we believe that the only absolute
guarantee against the use and threat of use of nuclear
weapons is through their total elimination. In that
connection, we are comforted by the announcement of
the United States Government earlier in the year that it
was moving towards ratification of the Pacific region’s
nuclear-free-zone treaty.
The peacekeeping work of the United Nations
contributes, in large measure, to the stability of
countries and regions where it has a presence. It is one
of the Organization’s growing and most visible
mandates and has the full support of my Government.
Samoa’s policewomen and policemen are serving side
by side with officers of other contributing countries in
peacekeeping missions in Timor-Leste, the Sudan and
Darfur. In our Pacific region, we continue to honour
our commitment to the Regional Assistance Mission to
Solomon Islands, under the aegis of the Pacific Islands
Forum, through our police contingents.
Samoa welcomes the recent initiative, brokered
by the United States, for direct negotiations between
the leaders of Israel and Palestine to advance the two-
State solution, with the nations of Israel and Palestine
living alongside each other in peace and security. We
remain hopeful that with the genuine support and
understanding of other leaders in the region, this will
not be another missed opportunity.
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This Wednesday marks the first anniversary of
the tsunami that devastated my country, resulting in a
heavy loss of life, injury and destruction of property.
Life will never be the same for the survivors and those
who lost loved ones. However, a sense of normalcy has
returned and stability has been re-established.
With the generous support of our development
partners, the reconstruction phase is progressing well
and the families and villages affected have been
resettled on higher ground inland, away from the coast.
The necessary infrastructure and utilities for the new
settlements are well on their way towards completion.
The progress achieved would not have been possible
without the kindness and understanding of Samoa’s
development partners and the international community.
Of significant importance to Samoa in its efforts
to reinvigorate the economy following the dual impacts
of the tsunami devastation and the financial crisis is the
recent Assembly resolution (resolution 64/295)
granting Samoa three more years, to 2014, to put in
place a transition strategy to guarantee the
sustainability of its economic performance after its
graduation from least developed country (LDC) status
in that year. Samoa’s post-tsunami experience and the
passage of the consensus LDC resolution are important
demonstrations of the close and warm relations that my
country enjoys with United Nations Members.
At the bilateral and personal level, my
Government has already acknowledged the timely and
tremendous support of all who contributed during the
emergency and in the recovery and rebuilding phases
in the aftermath of the tsunami. The United Nations
membership was similarly thanked when our LDC
resolution was adopted. Nevertheless, on behalf of the
people and Government of Samoa, I would like here in
the General Assembly to again convey our sincere
appreciation to all our development partners, including
Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the People’s Republic
of China, the European Union, the United States of
America, our Pacific neighbours, the United Nations
and its related and specialized agencies, and others too
many to mention for their generosity and kindness to
Samoa. We are very grateful.