Cameroon

**MR PRESIDENT,** I am honoured to deliver before this august Assembly the full statement which H.E. Paul Biya, President of the Republic of Cameroon and Head of State, has authorised me to present on his behalf. I quote: “Allow me first and foremost to once again extend my warmest congratulations on your election as President of this 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Your accession to this high office is a source of pride for your country, Cameroon, for Africa, and brings satisfaction to the international community. I wish to express our deep gratitude to the Member States that supported your candidacy, especially those in Africa that unanimously designated you as the candidate of our continent. I commend the work and accomplishments of your predecessor, Ambassador Dennis Francis of Trinidad and Tobago, who successfully and with dedication led the work of the 78th session of the General Assembly. I also take this opportunity to reiterate Cameroon’s support for and appreciation of the Secretary-General, Mr António Guterres, who, despite the numerous contingencies currently facing our world, tirelessly dedicates himself to advancing the ideals, objectives, and principles of the United Nations Charter and promoting the influence of our shared Organisation. **Mr President,** You have chosen to place at the heart of this 79th session’s General Debate the theme of ‘Rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity: accelerating action on the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals towards peace, prosperity, progress and sustainability for all’. This theme, it must be emphasised, reflects the urgent need for collective action in a difficult and complex international environment, marked both by challenges and opportunities. Among the challenges, we must acknowledge that our common home—the planet Earth—is the victim of extreme climate disruption, threatening the physical survival of certain countries, forested areas, and coastal zones across different regions of the world. Torrential rains and the resulting devastating floods, as witnessed in recent months in Africa, Europe, and Asia, as well as heatwaves and landslides, are the most visible manifestations, affecting some countries more severely than others. Today, climate-displaced persons are as numerous as refugees and internally displaced people fleeing war. This is no longer a theoretical concern, but a painful daily reality in many places. We have, however, agreed on a set of measures to combat these scourges, notably through the Paris Agreement and various subsequent commitments. Cameroon, a State Party to the Paris Agreement and home to a significant portion of the Congo Basin rainforest, spares no effort in seeking appropriate solutions, in concert with neighbouring countries, to the current global climate crisis. Accordingly, it issues an urgent call for the full and unimpeded implementation of the jointly agreed measures contained in the Paris Agreement. Unfortunately, the financial and technological means that underpin the implementation of this agreement have thus far been mobilised only sparingly. **Mr President,** In addition to the climate crisis, there are ongoing and new conflicts and hotspots of tension that spare no geographic region—Sahel, Sudan, Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine, to name the most prominent. Such a situation fuels an arms race, including in outer space, in the seas, and in the oceans. It also contributes to the increasing use of small arms and weapons of mass destruction. Furthermore, it raises the spectre of potential recourse to nuclear weapons. This situation generates geopolitical tensions, various rivalries, and mistrust among States, posing a serious threat to international peace, security, and stability. If urgent action is not taken, we could soon be compelled to relive another dark chapter in humanity’s history, as was the case in the early 20th century. For Cameroon, it is vital that this trend be reversed as swiftly as possible. We must do so to free ourselves from war and its scourges, thereby safeguarding future generations in line with the ideals of the founding fathers of the United Nations. My country remains convinced that recourse to dialogue, consultation, consensus-building, preventive diplomacy, and the establishment of confidence-building measures must always prevail in order to guarantee lasting peace in our world. To this end, we must proceed with reforming the Security Council to ensure that it continues to fully perform its original mandate as the principal organ responsible for maintaining international peace and security. Given that Africa remains, to this day, the only continent without a permanent member on the Council, it is both imperative and urgent that this injustice be rectified and that our continent be equitably represented as a rightful stakeholder within this important body. This requires the allocation of two permanent seats with veto power and two additional non-permanent seats. **Mr President,** When we adopted the document titled *The Future We Want* as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030, we committed ourselves to a decisive battle against underdevelopment. Four years ago, during the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, we made new commitments, reaffirming that the SDGs are our roadmap, and that their implementation is a matter of survival. As we approach the 2030 horizon that we set for ourselves, it is clear that the expected results are far from being achieved, as confirmed by various progress reports presented by the Secretary-General. As we noted earlier in the case of the Paris Agreement for the protection of the planet, the financial and technological means necessary for implementation are not fully mobilised. That is why Cameroon calls for renewed political will and more decisive action to overcome this situation. The new Doha Programme of Action for Least Developed Countries, the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for Small Island Developing States, the forthcoming agenda for Landlocked Developing Countries to be adopted at the Gaborone Conference in December, and the African Union’s Agenda 2063—with its second decade of priorities—and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), all constitute valuable frameworks for guiding and encouraging development in the poorest countries. These must be actively implemented if we are truly committed to ‘leaving no one behind’. In this regard, Cameroon has launched several major infrastructure projects in the fields of energy, transportation, communication and telecommunications, extractive and processing industries, and other sectors, with the aim of achieving emergence by 2035. Recovery and reconstruction plans, as well as humanitarian actions, have been put in place to address the special and pressing needs of populations, particularly in rural areas and those affected by the atrocities of the terrorist group Boko Haram in the Far North, as well as the sociopolitical crisis in the North-West and South-West regions. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere and strong gratitude to our bilateral and multilateral partners for their continued support of our national agenda for progress and development, and to invite them to continue honouring us with their steadfast support. **Mr President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,** The efforts deployed by developing countries cannot produce the expected results unless the global macroeconomic framework is reformed. That framework—let us recall—relies on institutions established after the Second World War, which have become obsolete. Their structure and functioning are largely responsible for the imbalances, dysfunctions, and inequalities that continue to hinder the full development of poor countries and the Global South. Cameroon thus joins the call and momentum for reforming the international economic and financial architecture. This call and movement concern, in particular, better representation of developing countries within these institutions, a fairer taxation system, appropriate monetary policy, more sustainable debt, a better-adapted energy transition, sound agriculture, managed industrialisation, and decent work. **Mr President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,** We welcome the holding here in New York on 22 and 23 September 2024 of the *Summit of the Future*, in which we participated, and above all the adoption of the related *Pact for the Future*, along with its two annexes on digital cooperation and future generations. This pact once again commits us to actively seeking peace, sustainable development, and human dignity through a series of concrete actions that require substantial means of implementation. We cannot shy away from these actions that could pave the way to the future we want, within a reinvigorated multilateralism rooted in the ideals, objectives, and principles of the United Nations Charter. This involves safeguarding the planet, consolidating peace, and establishing sustainable development, with the primary goals of eradicating poverty, ensuring shared prosperity, and fully respecting human rights centred on human dignity. Without firm political will and the means to actively implement the measures agreed upon in this Pact and its annexes, we risk failing to achieve the desired outcomes, thereby disappointing both present and future generations. At this stage, allow me to issue a call for all-out mobilisation to resolutely implement these provisions and disprove the sceptics who have lost faith in the United Nations. As our shared Organisation prepares to celebrate its 80th anniversary, let us equip it with the means to modernise, to respond effectively to the expectations placed upon it, to address today’s pressing challenges, and to keep alive the flame of a more humanistic international cooperation. **Mr President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,** We are living in an era of threats and challenges to peace and development, but also one of great opportunities. Thanks to the tremendous advances in science, technology, and artificial intelligence, we now have at our disposal the means necessary to act. It is up to us to overcome selfishness and act in solidarity with a sense of collective responsibility, so as to address together the challenges that no country can face alone. It is our duty to make good use of these means to ensure the well-being and survival of the planet and of humanity, today and tomorrow, through constant vigilance, awakened consciousness, and deep reflection within the international community on a more controlled globalisation.” **End of quote.** I thank you for your kind attention.