UN General Assembly
2023

Australia welcomes the leadership of the Prime Minister of Barbados. Mia Mottley. And we are looking at how we can partner on the Bridgetown Initiative. With 22 of our 26 nearest neighbours being developing countries, we want to contribute to a region where all our countries and peoples can thrive. Therefore, we have instituted a new development policy and rebuilt our official development assistance programme with nearly 1.7 billion additional Australian dollars over five years, providing for ongoing growth over the long term. And we have re-channelled $3 billion of our International Monetary Fund special drawing rights allocation to support vulnerable countries. Therefore, today I call on all developed countries to increase their re-channelling of special drawing rights to boost concessional longterm investment critical to resilience-building and disaster response.