At
the outset, it is my pleasure to congratulate the
President of the Assembly on his election to preside
over the sixty-third session of the General Assembly
and to wish him every success. We also wish to thank
his predecessor, Mr. Srgjan Kerim, for his successful
presidency of the Assembly during the previous
session.
We should also like to express our appreciation
for the important and outstanding role of the Secretary-
General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, in
support of the purposes and principles of the Charter of
this Organization.
More than a year ago, the world witnessed the
emergence of new international challenges and perils
that hinder and disrupt efforts to achieve sustainable
development in numerous countries, especially
developing countries, and in particular the least
developed among them. Most significant among those
perils are the rise in the cost of food, basic
commodities and energy, as well as climate change.
The danger of those challenges lies in their global
impact; their effects transcend national borders. No
barrier or artificial restraint can withstand them. They
will cause the international community to backslide
significantly in achieving the Millennium Development
Goals. Indeed, we have begun to see the negative
effects of those threats in the African continent, which
has achieved no significant progress in the eradication
of poverty and hunger or in the struggle against such
dangerous infectious diseases as AIDS and malaria.
Instead, these challenges have exacerbated the
suffering of most African States.
Those challenges, alongside such dangers to
security as terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of
mass destruction and human rights violations, pose a
serious threat to international peace and security, and
meeting them will require prompt, collective, united
and firm action under the umbrella of the United
Nations and its various agencies. We must also remain
firmly committed to the agreements and conventions
that we have signed and ratified, and implement
transparently and honestly the resolutions we adopt in
international meetings and conferences.
While the State of Kuwait supports the reforms
that have been adopted in our international
mechanisms, the ongoing changes in and
transformation of the world order and the emergence of
new problems and challenges call for continued reform
and the restructuring of many United Nations bodies to
accompany those changes and improve their
performance. In that regard, we reiterate our demands
for necessary improvements in the working methods of
the Security Council, including greater transparency in
its work and an expansion of its membership pursuant
to standards and controls to ensure equity in its
representation and efficiency in the performance of its
duties and responsibilities in the maintenance of
international peace and security. Such reform must also
take into consideration the legitimate demands of Arab
and Islamic countries and the aspirations and interests
of small States.
The State of Kuwait is pursuing its efforts to
achieve economic and social development and to
improve the living conditions of Kuwaiti citizens and
alien residents. Kuwait has made good progress in
implementing the commitments and resolutions of the
2005 World Summit. It has achieved all the
Millennium Development Goals, including those on
education and health, and advanced the role and
empowerment of women in society. Furthermore, in
carrying out the wishes of His Highness Sheikh Sabah
Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Amir of the State of
Kuwait, to transform Kuwait into a regional financial
and business centre, the Kuwaiti Government has taken
numerous important decisions and adopted new
policies with a view to restructuring the national
economy and consolidating trade and investment
activities so as to provide an investment atmosphere
08-51851 30
conducive to attracting national and foreign capital
investment in such vital economic sectors as energy
and infrastructure.
The State of Kuwait has spared no effort in
continuing to provide development assistance to
developing countries, particularly the least developed,
through its official and non-official institutions. That
consistent approach of Kuwait’s foreign policy
emanates from its conviction that strengthening the
economies of the developing countries and helping
them fulfil their development goals will be beneficial
to all. It will broaden the horizons of partnership,
cooperation and solidarity and consolidate the global
economic and trading systems.
Since its establishment in 1961, the Kuwait Fund
for Arab Economic Development has provided grants
and loans to finance infrastructure projects in
developing countries. The gross total amount disbursed
in grants and concessionary loans by the Fund since its
establishment in 1961 is over $12 billion and has
benefited more than 100 countries.
The State of Kuwait continues to meet its
financial obligations to international financial
institutions and specialized international agencies in a
full and timely fashion. The Government of the State of
Kuwait decided in December last year to allocate
10 per cent of all its contributions and donations to
disaster-affected countries to specialized international
organizations and agencies working in the field.
In response to the suffering of many developing
countries in the difficult economic conditions resulting
from the increase in food and energy prices, the State
of Kuwait has established the Decent Life Fund, with a
capital of $100 million, to develop and improve
agricultural production in developing countries.
Kuwait has also announced the donation of
$150 million to the Fund, which was established at the
most recent summit conference of the countries
members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries, held in the sisterly Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia. That donation was earmarked for research
studies in the fields of energy, environment and climate
change.
The State of Kuwait continues to follow a
balanced oil policy that takes into consideration the
interests of consuming and producing countries alike
and seeks to maintain stable oil prices on the world
market. However, the unjustified rise in prices, which
is a source of concern, is caused by factors that are out
of the control of the producing countries. They include
speculation, additional taxes on fuel, and the failure to
build new refineries and to upgrade existing ones. The
ongoing impact of all of those factors has aggravated
the economic crises and led to rising rates of inflation
in the developing countries.
In that context, we express our deep concern over
the financial crisis in the world markets. We welcome
in that regard the bold steps and actions taken by the
United States Government to address the mortgage
crisis and to mitigate its negative effects not only on
the United States economy, but also on the economies
of other States around the world.
Achieving sustainable development in the Middle
East will depend to a large extent on the ability of the
countries of the region and the international
community to address security issues and challenges
that are a constant source of tension and instability. In
our desire to achieve peace, we call on the international
community now and in the future to help calm the
hotbeds of tension and instability.
Any genuine and serious desire to achieve a
comprehensive, just and lasting peace must adhere to
the relevant resolutions of international legitimacy, the
principle of land for peace, the road map adopted under
Security Council resolution 1515 (2003) and the Arab
peace initiative, leading to the attainment by the
Palestinian people of all their legitimate political rights
and the establishment of their independent State on
their own land. We reaffirm our full support for the
sisterly Syrian Arab Republic in recovering its
occupied lands. We also express our support for the
sisterly Republic of Lebanon as it pursues dialogue
between all Lebanese parties in implementation of the
agreement signed in Doha, capital of the sisterly State
of Qatar.
The State of Kuwait welcomes the progress
achieved by Iraq in combating terrorism. It commends
the Iraqi Government’s efforts and diligent endeavours,
whose fruit include an obvious improvement in the
security conditions in most Iraqi provinces. The State
of Kuwait hopes that those endeavours will continue
towards comprehensive national reconciliation and
consensus leading to a democratic, free, secure and
independent Iraq, living in peace with itself and its
neighbours and respecting its international obligations
and commitments.
31 08-51851
For its part, Kuwait will spare no effort in
supporting regional and international efforts to assist
Iraq in facing its security, political and economic
challenges, as well as its efforts to ensure its security,
stability, political independence, sovereignty and
territorial integrity, and non-interference in its political
affairs.
In that context, the State of Kuwait hopes that
contacts between the sisterly United Arab Emirates and
the friendly Islamic Republic of Iran will continue at
all levels in order to find a solution to the conflict over
the occupied islands of the Emirates in accordance
with the principles and rules of international law and
the policy of good-neighbourly relations.
While the State of Kuwait stresses the right of all
States to produce, develop and use nuclear energy for
peaceful purposes within the framework of the Treaty
on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), it
calls upon the friendly Islamic Republic of Iran to
pursue its cooperation with the International Atomic
Energy Agency in order to dispel the fears and doubts
about the nature of its nuclear programme. It also urges
Iran to address all other outstanding issues.
We call on the international community to
continue its efforts and endeavours to seek a peaceful
solution that would spare our region from crises or
wars that could undermine its security and stability,
and to deal seriously and without favouritism with any
country in the region not party to the NPT. That would
pave the way for declaring the Middle East a region
free from weapons of mass destruction of all kinds.
All the peoples of the world yearn to live a free,
decent life in a safe and stable world in which justice,
equality and a clean environment free of conflict,
diseases and catastrophes prevail. It is our collective
responsibility to lay the foundations for a new
partnership, based on fair and balanced rules of justice
and equality, in which each party would assume its
responsibilities and obligations to realize the
aspirations and hopes of our peoples.