UN General Assembly
2013

in the implementation of the Bougainville Peace Agreement and the successful scaling down of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands. We thank the United Nations, regional partners and the international community for their continued assistance in both instances. On international peace and security issues, Papua New Guinea remains concerned about conflicts and tensions in various regions of the world, including in the Middle East, North Africa, the Korean peninsula and the South China Sea. We urge all parties involved to defuse the situation through peaceful dialogue. We join the international community in condemning the use of chemical weapons in Syria and urge full compliance with the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention. We therefore commend the Security Council for adopting resolution 2118 (2013) with a view to dismantling and eradicating Syria’s chemical-weapons programme. Since October 2011, Papua New Guinea has been contributing to United Nations peacekeeping operations in the Sudan and South Sudan. Earlier this year, we became the 148th State Member of the United Nations to join the Special Committee on Peacekeeping