First, I echo
previous speakers in warmly congratulating Mr. Ali
Abdussalam Treki, of the Socialist People’s Libyan
Arab Jamahiriya, on his election to preside over the
General Assembly at its sixty-fourth session. I am
confident that under the able stewardship of Mr. Treki,
a veteran of the United Nations, the Assembly will
make significant progress on many critical issues of
common concern.
Our tribute also goes to Mr. Miguel d’Escoto
Brockmann, of Nicaragua, who successfully presided
over the General Assembly at its sixty-third session.
Everyone is concerned today about the
considerable challenges that our world confronts,
challenges such as the current global economic and
financial crisis, climate change, food and energy
insecurity, and the threats of terrorism and the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. I hope
that in its deliberations the Assembly will come up
with new ideas to cope with those global challenges.
There is no doubt that the present global
economic and financial crisis will go down in history
as a landmark case of world economic meltdown. This
global crisis has clearly undermined the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs). While the developed
countries have more possibilities and resources to cope
with the slowdown, the developing countries have
suffered the most, with huge losses of national income,
as their economic growth is expected to fall sharply
due to a drastic reduction in exports, which they have
largely depended on, falling investments, rising
unemployment and so forth.
In order to help mitigate the impact of this
economic and financial disaster on developing
countries, we should do everything possible to get the
Doha Round negotiations back on track for a
successful conclusion in order to break down barriers
to trade, improve market access, particularly in
agricultural goods, and reduce agricultural subsidies.
In this regard, Cambodia greatly appreciates the
commitment that the Group of 20 (G-20) made in
Pittsburgh, just two days ago, to “bringing the Doha
Round to a successful conclusion in 2010”. At the same
time, the Monterrey Consensus should be invigorated
in order to help developing countries to alleviate
poverty and meet the MDGs.
Under these terrible circumstances, we warmly
welcome the G-20’s commitment, made in London in
April 2009, to address the impact of the global
financial crisis with the injection of $50 billion to
support social protection, boost trade and sustain
development in low-income countries, and with an
additional $6 billion concessional and flexible
financing over the next two or three years for social
protection, including through investing in long-term
food security in the poorest countries.
Today, everyone in the world is increasingly
concerned about climate change, which is another very
serious threat to humanity. Global warming has
triggered more and more frequent cyclones, typhoons,
extreme floods and droughts. Our planet is now
confronted, more than ever, with increasing natural
disasters. The worsening impact of climate change has
now reached an alarming level everywhere around the
planet. The shrinking of the Arctic summer sea ice
should be an alarm signal for everyone that global
warming is inexorably advancing, and with perilous
speed.
South-East Asia, according to the Asian
Development Bank (ADB), will be the most affected
region. Its vulnerability to climate change is largely a
result of its geography, with low-lying nations and long
coastlines. The negative impact of climate change on
farming in South-East Asia would seriously jeopardize
the production of rice and other agricultural products,
and consequently would have ripple effects on food
security, as South-East Asia is one of the world’s most
important rice crop regions.
Based on the estimate by the ADB, the total cost
of loss in agricultural production and other negative
aspects of climate change would be equivalent to as
much as 6.7 per cent of the region’s gross domestic
product compared with the 2.6 per cent loss estimated
for the world as a whole.
Cambodia is essentially an agrarian country, with
the livelihood of more than 80 per cent of its
population depending on farming. Therefore, it is very
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vulnerable to weather-related disasters. Fully aware of
that danger and the serious consequences of climate
change and global warming for the well-being,
livelihoods and development of peoples around the
world, Cambodia has been assuming its share of
responsibility in the matter of global warming since
2003.
We have made the utmost effort to implement the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change and the Kyoto Protocol by promoting Clean
Development Mechanism projects and implementing
our National Adaptation Programme of Action on
climate change.
We have also launched a major campaign of
reforestation all over the country; more than 49,000
hectares of trees have been planted. We have also
banned timber exports.
In this context, Cambodia warmly welcomes the
recent United States initiative to engage with the lower
Mekong basin countries by sharing with the Mekong
countries its best practices and experience on climate
change and flood and water resource management. At
the same time, the Mekong countries and Japan are
now looking into an approach for the future to achieve
sustainable development of the Mekong basin
potential, with better respect for the environment of the
mighty Mekong River.
Furthermore, Cambodia commends the recent
promise of the Group of Eight (G-8) at its summit in
July to work towards an 80 per cent reduction in
heat-trapping pollution by 2050. Nonetheless, since
climate change is evolving steadily with time, we may
question whether the pledged reduction can match the
speed of global warming. I believe that the
industrialized countries, which produce 80 per cent of
the greenhouse gases, should share greater
responsibility and take more drastic and urgent
measures to reduce emissions of those deadly gases.
Governments around the world have just over
three months to craft a new treaty to deal with global
warming. It will be a historic treaty for generations to
come. The United Nations Climate Change Conference
to be held in Denmark in December could secure a
milestone plan to really slow down climate change for
the safety of all humankind. Therefore, Cambodia
believes that all countries and all actors should join
hands to reach an agreement in Copenhagen in
December. The international community has an
obligation to roll back global temperatures before it is
too late. The future generations of our children and
grandchildren are at stake.
I turn to the subject of food and energy security.
The sharp increase in oil prices last year prompted a
number of countries to turn to the production of
bioenergy crops as an alternative source of energy, thus
reducing the available cultivated land, while the
world’s population continued to grow day by day,
increasing demand for food. The combination of those
realities underlines the importance of a comprehensive
approach to tackle the planet’s food crisis.
The challenge we now confront is, on the one
hand, how to produce enough food to feed the growing
world population, and, on the other hand, how to
respond to the increased need for clean energy to save
the global environment and stop the advancing climate
change. The solution to this twin problem is to find a
balanced approach between food crop and bioenergy
culture, and to develop alternative energy sources to
meet the growing demand. We should avoid any short-
term solution to the energy problem that would have
harmful consequences for food security worldwide in
the long term.
Finally, Cambodia welcomes the outcome of the
G-8 meeting in L’Aquila, Italy, with the commitment to
mobilize $20 billion over the next three years to
support agricultural production in poor countries. We
hope that the commitment will be translated into
concrete and timely action.
In parallel to all the serious global challenges that
I have mentioned, there remain political and security
problems causing great concern. Terrorism is a threat
everywhere and has caused the death of innocent
people. To fight terrorism more effectively, we need
stronger and closer cooperation between the many
authorities concerned in order to face up to such
criminal acts against humanity. Moreover, some
countries with the capacity to produce nuclear weapons
have not yet signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT).
The dissemination of weapons of mass
destruction constitutes another massive, deadly menace
to humanity. In this context, Cambodia highly values
the call by United States President Obama on
23 September to “stop the spread of nuclear weapons
and seek the goal of a world without them”
(). Cambodia also warmly welcomes the
17 09-52592
Security Council’s resolve, expressed at its summit
(see S/PV.6191) on 24 September, “to seek a safer
world for all” (Security Council resolution 1887
(2009), first preambular paragraph).
Within the framework of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), we have the Treaty
on the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon Free Zone,
which is an important instrument to keep South-East
Asia free of nuclear weapons in order to ensure peace
and security in that part of the world. It is also a good
confidence-building mechanism, which needs to be
adhered to by all, especially the nuclear-weapon States.
In recent years ASEAN has actively encouraged the
nuclear-weapon States to accede to the Treaty, but
there has been no concrete result or effect yet. Here
also we appeal to all nuclear-weapon States to engage
more constructively with the Treaty.
I come now to the Korean Peninsula issue. We are
all concerned about the rising tension in that part of the
world, which can affect peace and security in the
region. Cambodia urges all parties concerned to
exercise the utmost restraint and re-engage in peaceful
negotiations in the six-party talks aimed at the early
denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. We should
call upon the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
to keep in mind that the six-party talks remain an
appropriate forum to contribute to the settlement of the
overall problem in the Korean Peninsula.
While talking about threats to international peace
and security, we should also keep an eye on the Middle
East situation. The never-ending cycle of violence of
the Israel-Palestine conflict must be broken. One of the
most pressing issues is to achieve a just,
comprehensive and sustainable solution to the problem
of Palestine in accordance with the legitimate rights of
the Palestinian people and the relevant Security
Council resolutions. Cambodia strongly urges all
parties involved to cease using military force and
violence, in order to foster a peaceful and lasting
settlement through the establishment of a State of
Palestine living side by side with the State of Israel in a
spirit of peaceful coexistence and close cooperation
between the two peoples.
Before concluding, I should like to say a few
words about United Nations reform. For many years
now, almost all delegations to the General Assembly
have voiced their demand for reform of the United
Nations. But when it was time to act a conflict of
interest arose. In my view, the reform of the United
Nations should be in the interest of peace, security and
development for the whole international community,
and not just the particular interests of a country. The
reform should also go beyond the restructuring of the
United Nations organs, in order to enable this world
body to engage itself more actively in revitalizing the
primary role of the United Nations in world affairs.