Papua New Guinea

On behalf of the people and the Government of Papua New Guinea, I join previous speakers in congratulating you, Sir, on your election as President of the fifty-seventh session of the General Assembly. Your election to the helm of the Assembly shows the high esteem in which the international community holds you and your country, the Czech Republic. I take this opportunity to express my delegation's sincere appreciation to your predecessor, Mr. Han Seung-soo of South Korea, for his outstanding stewardship of the work of the fifty-sixth session of the General Assembly. I also wish to place on record my Government's deep appreciation to the Secretary- General, His Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan, for his continuing strong leadership and immense diplomatic skill in dealing with many pressing international issues which confront us today. Papua New Guinea welcomes and congratulates the newest State Member of the United Nations, Switzerland, and looks forward to the accession to membership of the Democratic Republic of East Timor. Papua New Guinea acknowledges the political will and wisdom shown by all parties — the Republic of Indonesia, Australia, Portugal and the United Nations — in respect of East Timor. We also praise the people of Switzerland for their collective decision to formally join the United Nations. With the election of a new Government in my country, our Prime Minister, The Right Honourable Sir Michael Somare, recently made a nationwide address detailing some of the challenges facing our economy and what is required to put it back on the path to recovery. He identified specific areas and sectors where remedial measures are needed. Domestically, our capacity to meet these challenges and worthy goals is lacking. The problem is further exacerbated and our capacity further undermined by poor governance, incompetent economic management, a rise in corruption, and diminished public confidence in political leadership and in the fundamentals of representative government. The new Government of Papua New Guinea is determined to chart a new course by addressing these problems. There have been specific initiatives taken to enhance trade, investment and economic prospects. The Pacific countries members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Island Group of States (ACP), together with the African and Caribbean member States, are now in the process of pursuing negotiations with the European Union for possible economic partnership agreements. Recently, I announced the direction of our Government's foreign policy focus. I stated that the 27 policy must be underpinned by the development and strengthening of core relations in the Asia-Pacific region. We intend to consolidate relations with our close neighbours and give more emphasis to the promotion of trade and economic cooperation, investment, and education and training. As a small island developing country, and as an affected member of the global village, my country fully endorses the declarations and plans of action adopted at recent world conferences. We believe that international conferences such as the Doha, Monterrey and Johannesburg summits and their plans of action are blueprints to resolve many of the pressing global challenges and needs, including poverty eradication; sustainable development; environmental degradation and climatic changes; and social ills, including HIV/ AIDS and other preventable diseases. They also echo the voices of the majority of the world's population living in poverty and struggling to overcome the biggest challenge of all — how to survive. These declarations and plans of action are a further amplification of the historic Millennium Declaration and its Development Goals, signed by all our heads of State and Government in September 2000. The challenge is to forge new global partnerships for change — partnerships in which both developed and developing countries join together to address the issues that the global community will face in this new millennium. These partnerships also include international financial institutions, intergovernmental organizations, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and civil society. These partnerships will be necessary if the shared hopes of humanity for peace and security, sustainable development and a better way of life for all are to be realized. Papua New Guinea has been faced with an internal conflict in our province of Bougainville for the last decade. Like all previous Governments, the current Government will continue to address the continuing peaceful resolution of this conflict as a matter of priority. Papua New Guinea would like to take this opportunity to express its appreciation to the United Nations for its role in resolving this crisis. The conflict has, in fact, involved substantial commitments of personnel and funds by the United Nations, neighbouring countries and Governments, including our own. I would like also to place on record our appreciation to the Governments of Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Vanuatu for contributing financial and manpower resources to the Regional Peace Monitoring Group to restore peace and security to the island. In addition, on the recommendations of the Secretary-General, and in close cooperation between the Papua New Guinea Government and the Bougainville parties, the Security Council approved the expansion of the role of the United Nations Political Office in Bougainville in monitoring and assisting in the arms collection, storage and disposal, under the new Bougainville Agreement. I am happy to report that the first and second stages of the arms disposal programme are progressing well; however, more remains to be done. Our partners from Australia, New Zealand, the European Union, Japan, and the United Nations Development Programme continue to provide resources for restoration and development work. A number of non-governmental organizations, including churches and the Red Cross, have also been active. Changing the world from a system of relations between imperial Powers to a partnership between sovereign States through decolonization is among the greatest achievements of the United Nations in the last century. The process will not be completed, as it must be, until the remaining 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories have exercised their inalienable right to self- determination. Our Organization should continue to monitor developments in New Caledonia, Tokelau and the other 14 Non Self-Governing Territories on the United Nations decolonization list, on a case-by-case basis. Neither small size nor remoteness nor population density should be allowed to qualify or limit the exercise of this inalienable right. The Pacific Islands Forum Leaders' Meeting, held last month in Fiji, once again reaffirmed its support for this principle. The Pacific Islands Forum Group, with the exception of Australia and New Zealand, comprises of small island countries that are custodians of the largest ocean space. This ocean is rich in natural marine 28 resources. The countries of the region, however, have limited human, financial and technological capacities to control, manage, and secure those resources for the benefit of our current and future generations. The recent Pacific Islands Forum adopted the Pacific Islands Regional Oceans Policy, which aims to ensure the future sustainable use of our oceans and their resources by our island communities and external partners. The Pacific Islands peoples have not received their equitable share of the benefits resulting from the tapping of natural resources within their vast ocean space. For example, statistics showed that, in the year 2000, the value of fishery in the Central and Western Pacific was in excess of $2.5 billion per annum, but the Pacific countries earned a meagre $66 million in licensing fees. This situation needs to be reviewed and changed. More than 80 per cent of Papua New Guineans live in rural villages, where they depend directly on the land, rivers, lakes and sea for their livelihood. Our National Constitution commits the nation to conserve, use, and develop the rich variety of the country's natural resources for the common good and benefit of future generations. Papua New Guinea has therefore spoken out strongly and worked actively on a wide range of environmental issues. Like other members of the Pacific Islands Forum, Papua New Guinea is firmly committed to the Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States. We strongly urge its full implementation. Papua New Guinea, together with other small island developing States, continues to reiterate deep concerns about the adverse impacts of climate change, climate variability and sea-level rise, particularly with regard to the small, low-lying islands that are already experiencing extreme hardships. We will therefore continue to stress the urgent need for the developed countries to take a strong lead in the reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. Consistent with this, Papua New Guinea has signed and ratified both the United Nations Climate Change Convention and the Kyoto Protocol. We believe that the Kyoto Protocol paves the way forward for Annex I countries to fulfil their commitments under the Climate Change Convention. We urge those parties to translate their legally binding targets into concrete actions for the reduction of their gas emissions. We welcome the support for the Kyoto Protocol by Japan, the European Union and, more recently, China and Russia. We urge the United States and Australia to join the global efforts towards addressing this issue, including ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. Pacific Forum island leaders also reiterated continuing serious concerns over the shipment of radioactive materials through the region. They called on those States engaging in these activities to accept full responsibility and liability for compensation for any damage that may result, directly or indirectly, from the transport of radioactive material through the region. Global warming has brought an increase in the number of cases of diseases like malaria in the higher- altitude regions of our country. This is still a major threat to Papua New Guinea, particularly in the most populous region — the highlands. Papua New Guinea is not immune to the HIV/ AIDS epidemic, and tuberculosis is again on the rise, so there is an urgent need to find preventative measures for these diseases. In this regard, we welcome announcements by the Governments of Japan and the United States, among other, that they would set aside substantial financial resources for eradication programmes in developing countries. Papua New Guinea concurs with the recent calls by the international community to reform and restructure the charters and mandates of the two Bretton Woods institutions: the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. These two institutions must realign their policies and focus more on development and poverty eradication, rather than on the reconstruction of economies. Their lending policies should be made more lenient and flexible in assisting the developing countries, including small islands, landlocked and the least developed countries. The ultimate goal must be to transfer resources into the hands of the needy, the marginalized and the ostracized of society, so that they can take pride in the ownership of the outcomes of new initiatives taken in their own countries. The way forward was agreed to under the Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island States and Agenda 21 and in the recent conferences on landlocked developing 29 countries and the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries in Brussels. I must however underline that to date, we have observed a lack of effective implementation of both the Barbados Programme of Action and Agenda 21. There has also been little or no increase in the international aid and development assistance given to the developing countries to build necessary infrastructure, human resource capacities, and other basic needs. This, in our humble view, has to change if the developing countries, especially the small island developing States, landlocked and the least developed countries are to attain sustainable growth and development. There is an urgent need to reform and restructure the United Nations General Assembly and its subsidiary bodies and agencies, as well as the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council, so as to reflect the recent dynamics and changes. The Security Council should be reformed and expanded in both categories, permanent and non- permanent. It must take into account the interests of both the developed and developing countries. Although we are encouraged by the general positive signs of progress towards resolving conflicts and securing peace in several regions of the world, Papua New Guinea remains concerned at the continuing conflict in the Middle East. We believe violence will not resolve the conflict. We call on both Israel and the Palestinian leadership to come to the negotiating table to discuss outstanding issues with the view to resolving the conflict peacefully. It would be remiss of me if I did not make mention of the fact that 11 September 2002 marked the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks in the United States of America. The Government and people of Papua New Guinea express to the Government and people of the United States, and the families of the victims drawn from many countries, our sympathy for the tragedy and suffering of just a year ago, when terrorism struck this great city of New York and Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. Though distant from this tragic event, we share in the deep sorrow felt around the world, and in the admiration of the extraordinary bravery and sacrifice of so many who engaged themselves in the rescue efforts. Our thoughts are with those who continue to mourn. Papua New Guinea joins with all the freedom loving nations and peoples of the world in condemning terrorism in all its evil forms. Terrorist attacks can never be justified. Terrorism, in which the lives of the most innocent and vulnerable are so senselessly taken, must be especially condemned. Papua New Guinea fully endorses and supports all efforts towards the effective implementation of the United Nations Security Council resolution 1373 (2001). You concluded your opening address to this Assembly, Mr. President, by appealing to Member States to focus on what we have in common — and especially our desire to live in a peaceful and secure world where the values and principles expressed in the United Nations Charter are honoured. Papua New Guinea shares your vision and the confidence that underpin your address. If the nations of the world — with our great diversity — focus on what we have in common, we will build and secure a better world, one in which the benefits of economic development are shared, and one in which the marvels of modern science and technology, including modern medicine, are harnessed for the common good of humanity. But none of these things can be achieved without a genuine and lasting peace. In conclusion, I want to reaffirm Papua New Guinea's firm commitments to what I have outlined and reiterate that global, regional and local partnerships in promoting sustainable development is the key to addressing the challenges that confront the world today.