It is a great honour for
me to represent my country here at the United Nations.
In recent years, the world has witnessed Georgia’s
unwavering transformation to freedom, democracy
and economic development. We have experienced
tremendous advances, and occasional challenges, on
our journey to a fuller and more open democracy. We
are a vastly stronger nation than we were 20 years ago,

and we are a much stronger nation than we were just two
years ago. While we have made significant progress in
a few short years, we are still a young democracy, and
much remains to be done.

I am fortunate to be part of a new generation
of Georgians who grew up in the years following
the Cold War. My entire life is one of being part of
remarkable change. Our tremendous progress is due to
the commitment of the Georgian people to democratic
values and their embrace of international cooperation.
Because our democratic transformation has been so
hard, we do not take anything for granted. To paraphrase
President Kennedy: we do not do these things because
they are easy, we do them because they are hard. During
difficult times, the Georgian people took to the streets
in peaceful protest and made their voices heard at the
ballot box to ensure that our democratic path continued.
I want to express my sincere admiration for the people
of Georgia and for their energy and commitment to
securing our democratic progress.

I would also like to express my gratitude to
the international community, our partner countries
represented in this Hall and international organizations,
especially the United Nations, for supporting Georgia
and listening to the Georgian people. Despite all the
challenges that we have faced, the citizens of Georgia
are full of hope. The support from the international
community and international organizations continues
to play a crucial role in Georgia’s progress. On behalf
of the people of Georgia, we thank them. Georgia’s
success is their success. Georgia’s journey is a testament
to the good work done by the United Nations and our
international partners.

In the past two years, we have taken concrete steps
to break the vicious cycle of Government corruption,
impunity and an economy that benefited only a few.
We have created a true democracy with a system of
governance that is more open, more transparent and
more accountable and that upholds the rule of law. We
have established a social compact that rewards work
and enterprise, while offering support for those in need.

As recognized by various international
organizations, the Georgia of today is another world
compared to that of two decades ago, or even just two
years ago. Every sector of our country has advanced
dramatically, from health care and education to the
economy and the rule of law. We are now at the dawn
of a new day for Georgia. Our democratic institutions
are stronger. Our foreign policy is making us more
secure. Our growing economy is working to benefit all
Georgians.

We are strengthening and consolidating Georgia’s
democracy. The parliamentary, presidential and
municipal elections held in Georgia during this two-
year period are truly something to celebrate. Because
Georgia’s democracy was hard-won, there is no going
back. The Georgian people will hold the Government
accountable at the ballot box. My Government must
earn every vote by serving the people faithfully and by
achieving progress for the country.

We are strengthening democratic institutions and
establishing stronger checks and balances. Our new
Constitution decentralizes executive power and creates
greater accountability at all levels of Government. Our
Parliament now functions as a true legislature. Laws
are proposed, debated and amended. Committees hold
hearings and question ministers. The old rubber stamp
has been thrown away. We now guarantee the protection
of human rights through a new human rights strategy
and action plan. In addition, we are equally proud to
have enacted a new anti-discrimination law that extends
the protection of human rights to all Georgian citizens.

We have restored the rule of law by establishing an
independent judiciary and by instituting more rights for
defendants. We have ended impunity by Government
officials and torture and abuse in our prisons. All
Georgians are now equal before the law. No one is above
the law. Everyone will have the benefit of a judicial
process that meets the highest international standards.

We are committed to building truly strong,
independent and high-quality media. The media, like
civil society, are essential to a strong democracy. While
I may not always agree with what the media say or
write, I will always fight to make sure that they have
the right to the freedom of speech.

Such reforms will benefit all citizens of my country.
Our goal is to unify our society through the rule of law
and democracy. Our commitment to aligning more
closely with the United States and Europe goes hand
in hand with our commitment to continued democratic
transformation. The United States is a key strategic ally
of Georgia. The relationship between our countries at
all levels of Government has never been stronger.

Increased Euro-Atlantic and European integration
is our way of returning to the family of European

nations, with whom we share a history, a culture and,
most important, common values. Our new Association
Agreement with the European Union and our steadfast
movement towards NATO membership form the
foundation for that relationship and provide an umbrella
for greater engagement. As German Chancellor Angela
Merkel said at this very rostrum, there is no development
without security and no security without development
(see A/65/PV.5). Our Association Agreement is the
master plan for the gradual establishment of European
political, economic, social and legislative norms and
standards. My country has embarked on a demanding
path of wide-ranging reforms. We will deliver on our
commitments.

I believe that Georgia’s democratic transformation
can serve as a model for other countries in the region.
Today, we pledge to share our experience with nations
going through similar transitions. As we deepen our
European and Euro-Atlantic integration, we are also
becoming a truly open and globalized economy. We
are making important investments and reforms to
unlock the full potential of the Georgian economy
and the Georgian people. From universal health care
to investments in clean energy, Georgia is becoming
a twenty-first-s we pursue those reforms, we seek to
implement the United Nations development agenda
beyond 2015. We have become a leader in sustainable
development, taking the outcomes of the United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development seriously.
We are ready to work together with the international
community to define a post-2015 development agenda
that is inclusive and people-centred. That agenda
will address the need to achieve economic stability,
sustained economic growth, the promotion of social
equity and the protection of the environment. At the
same time, we are committed to enhancing gender
equality, women’s empowerment and equal employment
for every Georgian.

The future belongs to the next generation, so the
protection and development of our children to achieve
their full potential must be based on greater investment
in their education.

A top area of concern for Georgia is the issue of
internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees. There
are hundreds of thousands of IDPs in Georgia as a result
of Russia’s military aggression. Yet Georgia is still
taking in refugees from other conflict-torn regions.
Sadly, the sources of new refugees are increasing, not
decreasing, especially in the light of current conflicts
in Ukraine and the Middle East.

We are also doing everything we can to help
our friends in Ukraine by providing humanitarian
assistance, political support, technical help — such as
sending doctors and medicine — and serving as a safe
refuge for children affected by the conflict. We are also
helping them implement reforms and strengthen their
democratic institutions. The ongoing developments
in Ukraine tear at our hearts. We strongly support
Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. We
hope that the recent peace treaties will put an end to
the military operations once and for all and mark the
beginning of an irreversible peacemaking process.

The international community has spoken with
increasing support every year for the right of return
by adopting the General Assembly resolution on the
“Status of internally displaced persons and refugees
from Abkhazia, Georgia, and the Tskhinvali region/
South Ossetia, Georgia”. It is essential that the General
Assembly continue to retain this humanitarian issue
on the agenda and support the rights of the forcibly
displaced with strength and conviction.

I should now like to address my brothers and
sisters in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. I say to my
dear brothers and sisters, I dream of the day when we
shall all live together in peace and prosperity. We are
committed to the path of reconciliation and restoring
Georgia’s full territorial integrity and sovereignty. We
must work to find a way for them to participate in our
success, including the benefits of our new European
Union Association Agreement.

I also call on the Russian Government to fulfil
its obligations under the 2008 international ceasefire
and join in the search for peace, prosperity and
reconciliation. Our history and our values are a source
of strength. When combined with our strategic location,
this allows us to offer something unique to the world
and serve as a driver of peace and security.

Beyond our borders, we aim to contribute to global
security as a supplier of security, not just a consumer.
My country’s dedication to becoming a security
contributor to the world is evident in our aspirations
for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, which are
the main pillars of Georgia’s foreign policy. Building
on the achievements of the past two years, my country
has made significant progress that reinforces our path
to eventual NATO membership. The historic NATO

Summit reaffirmed that Georgia will be a member of
NATO in the future, and our people remain committed
to this ultimate objective. As a result of the decisions
taken at the Wales Summit, NATO will significantly
increase Georgia’s integration and provide tangible
cooperation initiatives that will increase Georgia’s
capabilities and overall security.

We are the largest non-NATO contributor to the
International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan
(ISAF), and we are committed to taking part in the post-
ISAF mission. From the operation’s outset, our troops,
including medical personnel, staff officers and training
instructors, will be ready for deployment. We also plan
to contribute to institution-building in Afghanistan.

We stand with our allies in combating all forms of
terrorism and organized crime, anywhere in the world.

We are also proud to contribute to the European
Union’s efforts under the Common Security and
Defence Policy to build peace and security worldwide.
In that context, as the second-largest participant, a
Georgian battalion and a light infantry company have
already started a mission under the EU-led operation in
the Central African Republic.

Our willingness to serve shoulder to shoulder with
our allies is not the only way Georgia is serving as a
global security provider. We are also taking a rational
approach to reducing regional tensions and preventing
conflict.

Let me be clear, Georgia will never sacrifice its
territorial integrity and sovereignty. However, we will
continue to look for pathways to reconciliation with our
brothers and sisters in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

We Georgians want a good relationship with
Russia, but never at the expense of our sovereignty and
independence, which we fought so hard to achieve. To
that end, we are pursuing a new approach, different
from that of our predecessors, in dealing with Russia.
We are pursuing a two-track engagement strategy
based on our being a responsible, pragmatic and
constructive neighbour. On the first track, we started an
unconditional dialogue with Russia on the resumption
of trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian relations.
On the second track, we have continued to seek a
peaceful settlement of the August 2008 war and the end
of Russian occupation of Georgian territory, based on
the fundamental principles of international law.

The first track has produced significant results
and has helped reduce tensions between Georgia and
Russia. Trade has reopened and Georgian exports to
Russia have increased over 300 per cent. People-to-
people exchanges have also increased dramatically.
We are coexisting more calmly as neighbours. This
approach has also increased stability in the entire South
Caucasus region.

However, Georgia’s efforts to reduce tensions and
extend an olive branch to Russia have not been met
with the same spirit of cooperation. We have taken
every constructive step. Now it is time for the Russian
Government to stop the occupation and start on a path
to lasting peace.

My country is committed to using its strategic
location to connect Asia, Europe and the Middle East,
thereby expanding trade from one end of Eurasia to
the other. The reopening of the Silk Road is one of
the greatest achievements brought about by the end of
the Cold War. The Silk Road region accounts for two
thirds of the world’s population and 60 per cent of its
gross domestic product. If its potential is fully tapped,
it will become a key force for the expansion of trade,
the development of new energy resources and supply
chains and the promotion of cultural exchanges. To
fully unlock that potential, the international community
must redouble its efforts in three key areas: trade and
transport, energy, and people-to-people contacts.

We have deepened cooperation with Turkey, China,
Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan and Afghanistan to integrate transportation
corridors and open new routes that will bring goods
from Asia to Western Europe in record time. Energy
resources are a key driver of Silk Road economic
development and integration.

We support a key route for Caspian Sea oil and gas to
travel to Europe. Last year, the Shah Deniz Consortium
announced a massive expansion of the South Caucasus
Pipeline through Azerbaijan and Georgia, which
will bring 16 billion cubic metres of new natural gas
to Europe and Turkey and thousands of new jobs to
Georgia. Several days ago, I was in Azerbaijan to break
ground and lay the first segment of that new pipeline.
The expansion will lead to approximately $2 billion in
new investment by the Consortium in Georgia alone. Of
course, that will result in Georgia receiving significant
quantities of natural gas to improve our economic
development and security.

Clean, renewable energy can also be a driver
for regional energy cooperation. In Georgia, we are
utilizing our massive hydropower resources to become
a carbon-neutral country and to export renewable
energy to our neighbours. The potential of the region
is great, but more is needed to turn such potential into
reality. Georgia is ready to use its location as a strategic
crossroads and to do its part to fully revitalize the Silk
Road. To that end, I intend to establish a Silk Road
forum in 2015, and in Georgia we plan to launch an
annual high-level meeting of all States and international
organizations that are interested in the future of the Silk
Road. The forum will discover new ideas for enhancing
cooperation in the fields of transport, energy, trade and
people-to-people contacts across the Silk Road. The
forum will move beyond discussion to action.

In conclusion, let me reaffirm that I am so very
confident that our best years are ahead of us, and
that our worst are now part of history. I am confident
that Georgians have come together to move our
nation forward and to fulfil the promise of a strong,
independent and free, great Georgian nation. Working
together, there is no limit on what Georgia, the region
and the world can achieve. I look forward to seeing
many present here today in Tbilisi.


It is indeed a great
honour and pleasure to participate in this General
Assembly debate at its sixty-ninth session on behalf
of the Government and people of Tuvalu. I extend my
congratulations to Mr. Kutesa on his election to the
presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth
session. We wish the Assembly success under his able
guidance. I also wish to thank the outgoing President,
Ambassador John Ashe, for a successful sixty-eighth
session. Likewise, I applaud Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon, the Secretariat and all the specialized United
Nations agencies and staff for their tireless efforts and
energy.

Let me also note for the record Tuvalu’s sincere
congratulations to the people and the new Government
of Fiji under Prime Minister Bainimarama for the
successful holding of general elections. In the same
vein, we also congratulate New Zealand on its
successful elections.

Through the United Nations, we have worked
diligently to deliver on the noble visions and principles
enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. Our
shared goals are world peace, security and prosperity.
Tuvalu celebrates its thirty-sixth anniversary of
independence next week on 1 October, and we remain
committed and proud to be a Member of this great
body. We must applaud the achievements of the United
Nations.

But we should not be over-congratulatory. Tuvalu
also feels the sadness of the loss of lives and the suffering
of fellow human beings from crises the world over. The
losses resulting from terrorism, poverty, environmental
degradation — especially climate change — and Ebola,
along with the loss of lives owing to political conflicts
in Syria, Israel, Palestine, the Middle East, Ukraine and
many other regions of the world, are most disturbing,
even for distant countries like my own Tuvalu in the
Pacific. Tuvalu shares in the grief of those people. We
in the United Nations must work harder to address the
root causes of such crises. We support the ongoing
reform efforts in the United Nations, and in particular
we urge the reform of the Security Council through an
expansion of its permanent and non-permanent seats
and its agenda, in order to include climate change as a
Security Council issue.

As we go on, though, one question stares us right
in the eyes. Do we leaders really care? And do we mean
what we say here at the United Nations, in this great
Hall? Recently a kindergarten class in Tuvalu asked me
this question: “Do we have a tomorrow, and can you,
as Prime Minister, save us?” Reflecting on how this
body can help respond to those fundamental questions
gives me mixed feelings. We are indeed encouraged by
the momentum of some strong leadership on climate
change, as was displayed at the Climate Summit earlier
this week.

But we are also discouraged by the lack of concern
displayed most conspicuously by the deniers of climate
change, including some of our neighbours in the Pacific.
Tuvalu believes that the United Nations must not be
distracted by them. We must remain committed to
turning the momentum of the political leadership set in
motion this week into real action for a more collective,
strategic and pragmatic response to world crises. We
must walk the walk, as well as talk the talk, on every
front of our human crises if we are to ensure global
peace and security.

We have talked a lot in the United Nations about
designing sustainable development goals and a post-
2015 development agenda. The tentative goals and
targets identified are reflective of a membership that is
seeking the same high aspirations and honourable goals
as those enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations,
namely, a world of peace, security, opportunity and
prosperity. The United Nations must remain universal
and relevant in bringing the real issues and events into
focus and keeping the attention of the global community.
It should be more responsive and understanding of the
diverse circumstances and needs of its membership
and the importance of contextualizing its strategic
activities, taking into account the variable and special
circumstances of each Member. It must also improve
its presence in all countries, particularly in vulnerable
States like Tuvalu.

We must also heed the lessons of the world
financial crisis, which reversed some of our hard-
earned development advances related to the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs). Those global realities
affect even remote, small island countries like Tuvalu,
and can further exacerbate their vulnerabilities.
The new sustainable development goals, with better
accountability and transparency measures, must provide
economies, big or small, with the capacity to address
vulnerabilities and ensure sustainability. They must
also help to improve the means of implementation and
create governance mechanisms that are inclusive and in
which the voices of all countries and all stakeholders,
including local Governments and authorities, are heard
in decision-making.

The dedication of 2014 as the International Year
of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) is much
appreciated. At the beginning of this month we
congregated in the beautiful and tranquil island of the
independent State of Samoa for the Third International
Conference on Small Island Developing States, which
concluded with an outcome document outlining the
Small Island Developing States Accelerated Modalities
of Action, or Samoa Pathway, and with the creation
of many constructive partnerships aimed at addressing
the special needs and circumstances of SIDS.

While Tuvalu acknowledges and greatly appreciates
the support of the United Nations membership, and
the exemplary leadership of the Samoan Government
and people, leading to the Conference’s huge success,
we also believe that the ultimate measure of success
for SIDS is the delivery of tangible action on the
ground, reflecting and accommodating their unique,
special case. It is urgent that we seriously consider
the proper integration of the SAMOA Pathway and a
special window for SIDS into the post-2015 sustainable
development agenda of the United Nations, and into
all other programmes in the United Nations and its
specialized agencies, in order to achieve their effective
implementation, with particular attention to simplified
access to climate change financing for small island
developing States.

The graduation criteria and their application to
least-developed countries (LDCs) require proper
scrutiny and review, because they are mostly not
relevant to the characteristics of SIDS. A small island
developing State may achieve a high per capita gross
national income and a high human development index,
but it will always be a small island developing State;
one cannot graduate from the natural constraints and
environmental vulnerabilities of being a small island
developing State. Recognizing the call made in the
SAMOA Pathway and given the ambiguity surrounding
the recommendations for Tuvalu’s LDC graduation,
Tuvalu seeks further deferral of that graduation until
a thorough assessment and review of the application
of LDC graduation is done, taking full account of the
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s

recent Least Developed Countries Report 2013 and
other studies dealing with Tuvalu.

With Tuvalu’s 24 square kilometres of land
juxtaposed against 900,000 square kilometres of the
Pacific Ocean, the sea has always been our people’s
lifeline to food and economic growth. As a custodian of
the Pacific Ocean, Tuvalu fully supports a sustainable
development goal on oceans, as we do the Palau
Declaration on oceans issued by the leaders of the
Pacific Islands Forum. We call on the United Nations
to honour the health of the oceans, because they are
the Earth’s life-support system. To that end, we also
support the commencement of negotiations towards an
implementing agreement under the law of the sea that
can better protect the oceans.

The seriousness and urgency of the need for action
to combat climate change have been reaffirmed, not only
by the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change but also by world leaders,
and was strongly echoed by youth leaders this week
in this very Hall. What more do we need to hear to
stop the denial of the need for action against climate
change? In Tuvalu, we are experiencing unprecedented,
life-threatening effects of climate change. As a low-
lying country with an elevation of barely two or three
metres above sea level, like our fellow atoll island
nations of Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, the Maldives,
Tokelau and all other small island developing States,
Tuvalu is finding that its security and survival, and
the future and human rights of its citizens, are being
seriously compromised. We cannot continue along that
path.

The Secretary-General’s Climate Summit, held
earlier this week, which, on behalf of Tuvalu, I was
honoured to co-chair with the President of Bolivia, gave
us yet another opportunity to hear from young people,
women and community leaders on the front line of the
impacts of climate change from every region of the
world, including my own Pacific region. Their message
from the front line is simple, loud and clear: leaders of the
world, do it! Save us!

Time is running out, and it would be grossly immoral,
extremely irresponsible and even illegal to pretend that
we did not hear the alarms and voices of those who are
suffering at the forefront of climate change. Tuvalu
highly commends the Secretary-General for his strong
leadership and welcomes the annoucements made by
those Heads of State and Government who contributed
to actions against climate change during the Summit.
We commit to building on that momentum and that of the
recent SIDS meeting up to the Lima meeting later this year
and onwards in Paris in 2015.

Tuvalu fully supports a stand-alone sustainable
development goal on climate change. We urgently need
a commitment from all countries to supporting a new
climate change protocol, to be concluded in Paris in 2015.
We must urgently address climate change in a legal and
forward-looking manner. Otherwise, our post-2015 agenda
will be meaningless and many will be left behind. We
therefore urge all parties to work urgently to negotiate a
new protocol, to curb greenhouse gas emissions and to
keep the average temperature rise well below 1.5°C. The
protocol must include loss and damage and insurance
mechanisms for SIDS against climate change and must
provide adequate and accessible financing for adaptation
support to SIDS, such as Tuvalu.

There is no time for half-measures, such as we
witnessed in Copenhagen in 2009. It is also critical that
the new Green Climate Fund and the other existing climate
change funds be adequately resourced and that access by
SIDS be simplified for expedient action on the ground.

We all must step up and commit to reducing our
emissions and to supporting those who are vulnerable. As
for my own country, despite our negligible greenhouse gas
emissions, we are committed to employing 100 per cent
renewable energy for our electrification by the year 2020.
We are already well on the way to achieving that target,
thanks to the generous support of international partners,
including the European Union, Japan, New Zealand, Italy,
Austria, the United Arab Emirates, the International
Union for Conservation of Nature and the International
Renewable Energy Agency. Tuvalu is also a party to the
Majuro Declaration.

Tuvalu has made steady progress towards the
achievement of its MDGs, with strategic complementary
assistance from the donor community. We have designed
a road map for development to move forward from the
MDGs, and to the sustainable development goals in
general. We have adopted and implemented national
policies on financial management, women and gender
development, people with disabilities, young people and
the protection of families, as well as on other sectors of
national priority, such as climate change, energy, food
security, fisheries, information technology, health care,
education and outer islands development. Much needs to
be done in order to properly deliver on those policies. We

are committed to doing that. We call for support from our
international partners through mutual partnerships with us
in Tuvalu.

The future we want is one of inclusiveness, where all
partnerships are important. The Government of Tuvalu
reiterates its position that the economic, commercial and
financial embargo against Cuba runs counter to the need to
promote dialogue and to fulfil the purposes and principles
of the Charter of the United Nations, which calls for
solidarity, cooperation and friendly relations among all
nations.

Tuvalu also fully supports Taiwan’s meaningful
participation in United Nations specialized agencies and
mechanisms, including the World Health Organization,
the International Civil Aviation Organization and the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change. We recognize the cooperative spirit shown by
Taiwan in its involvement in the post-2015 development
agenda dialogue. We recognize the need to include
Taiwan in the global fight against climate change. We also
recognize Taiwan’s role as a regional peacemaker. Taiwan
supports scholarships and capacity-building for experts,
students and officials from Tuvalu and many developing
countries.

Finally, I want to say the following in clear and
unambiguous terms. We are at a turning point for the
future of small island nations such as Tuvalu. We can
create MDGs and design sustainable development goals
but, unless there is a global commitment to those goals,
particularly against climate change, we will have failed
humankind. Unless we stop greenhouse gas pollution, we
will have failed future generations. The future is ours to
create. Let us be bold. Let us take heed of the strong and
loud message from those on the front line that we have
heard here in this very Hall. Let us be seen as the ones
that created a future for all — a future that includes saving
human beings and saving the children of Tuvalu. For if we
save Tuvalu, we save the world.


On behalf of the
Republic of Kazakhstan, I would first like to congratulate
Mr. Sam Kutesa on his election to the presidency of
the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth session. We
offer him our best wishes and full support. We also
extend our special gratitude to Mr. John Ashe for his
able leadership of the Assembly and his commitment
to finding solutions to pressing international problems.

The world today is undergoing a major upheaval.
The global instability we face is a crisis of the global
economy, of international law and, in a broader sense,
of a lack of vision for our world’s future. To our deep
regret, it seems that not all States yet recognize their
full responsibility for the fate of their neighbourhoods
and the world as a whole. Instead of well-thought-
out, viable solutions, we are witnessing a disturbing
escalation of problems, drawing in more countries and
making our shared hopes of peace and stability ever
more distant.

Rivalry among the major Powers over perceived
spheres of influence, markets and control over
the production and transit of energy resources has
increased. Tensions are on the rise, and the dangerous
and unacceptable belief in the right of power in world
politics has strengthened. As a result, we are witnessing
a renewed arms race and the use of military force to
impose and extend influence. Unilateral actions and
double standards are destabilizing the international
situation, exacerbating tensions, inciting ethnic
and religious strife and threatening the security of
other States. In today’s confusing media space, it is
impossible to distinguish lies from truth. This dire state
of global affairs, rising tensions and mistrust between
States is undermining the efforts of the United Nations
and entire international community to bring about a
peaceful solution to any crisis by lawful means. It is
also deeply worrying to see the established architecture
of international law being dangerously eroded.

What is even more perilous is that radical
movements and extremist forces are skilfully
exploiting the resulting uncertainty and instability in
the international system. We are particularly concerned
about the continuing violence in the Middle East and
Africa and the growing threats posed to some Asian
countries. We extend our deepest condolences to the
citizens and Governments whose civilians have been
senselessly killed during the violence.

The situation in Ukraine is of special concern to
Kazakhstan. The impact of the crisis now extends not
just beyond the borders of Ukraine, but beyond the
entire region. Kazakhstan supports peaceful initiatives
aimed at the speedy de-escalation of the conflict,
including the Minsk peace agreements. The ceasefire
must be used to implement the peace plans of President
Poroshenko and President Putin. These give hope for
the eventual stabilization of the situation in Ukraine.
We should also be concerned that the crisis in Ukraine
has led to mutual sanctions being imposed by countries
that together make up 60 per cent of the world’s gross
domestic product. That will certainly have a damaging
effect on global development and economic growth.

Now more than ever, the world needs to come
together to find an alternative model to solving
problems, based on equal partnership, broad dialogue,
mutual respect and tolerance among all stakeholders. We
are confident that the Charter of the United Nations and
the fundamental principles of international law provide
the basis for this model. The role of the United Nations

must remain pivotal and primary, while bringing States
together and providing global leadership based on the
equal participation of all Member States in the process.

The dynamics of our world today and the forecasts
of what the future might hold must prompt world leaders
to look beyond narrow national interests and to exercise
the highest degree of judgement and political will. What
is at stake is nothing less than saving our civilization
from destruction. This is not an exaggeration or
overstatement. It is the harsh and threatening reality.

We are seeing a fundamental change in the structure
of geopolitical, geo-economic and transnational
relations. What is emerging is a polycentric system
of international transactions. Within that framework,
nobody has the right to determine global and regional
processes unilaterally. No country has exceptional
rights or advantages. To help adjust to this emerging
new multipolar world order and promote the widest
possible involvement in identifying the way forward,
in 2012 the President of Kazakhstan proposed the
G-Global initiative. It seeks solutions based on five
principles, namely, a strong preference for evolutionary
rather than revolutionary policy change; the crucial
importance of justice, equality and consensus; the
promotion of global tolerance and trust; the need for
global transparency; and, finally, the encouragement
of constructive multilateralism. Unfortunately, the
decisions taken in the wake of the global financial
crisis by the Group of Twenty and the Group of Eight
have proved to be insufficient because they were not
all-inclusive in their elaboration.

Kazakhstan therefore encourages Member States
to use the G-Global platform for dialogue to help draw
up plans — developed by all and acceptable to all — to
prevent future global crises. We have already embarked
on that process through the Astana Economic Forum,
which resulted in a draft anti-crisis plan offered to the
United Nations. We believe that the plan should be
taken up by the General Assembly and the Economic
and Social Council and given serious consideration.

At the forty-seventh session of the General Assembly
in 1992, President Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan initiated
the convening of the Conference on Interaction and
Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA). Like
the G-Global initiative, CICA emerged from the firm
belief that international progress could come about
only through strong and effective partnerships, built in
the spirit of solidarity among all countries, regardless
of their political and economic development. CICA has
become an effective multinational forum for enhancing
cooperation and promoting peace, security and stability
in Asia. Kazakhstan supports the initiative of China, the
country that chairs CICA currently, for a new security
concept for Asia based on the principle of common,
comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable regional
security. That will enable us to consolidate CICA in the
near future and transform it into the Organization for
Security and Development in Asia.

Two weeks ago, the General Assembly held an
informal meeting to mark the International Day against
Nuclear Tests. We are pleased that all those present
expressed their determination to bring about a world
without nuclear-weapon testing and, ultimately, without
nuclear weapons. That is an issue close to the hearts
of the people of Kazakhstan, who have witnessed and
continue to live with the terrible legacy of nuclear
testing. That is why we proposed 29 August as the day
to raise awareness of this important issue, and why
President Nazarbayev has launched the Abolish Testing:
Our Mission Project, a global education campaign on
the perils of nuclear testing.

The closure of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test
Site and the renunciation of the world’s fourth-largest
nuclear arsenal — both inherited from the Soviet Union
upon our independence — were defining moments
for our nation, and the starting point for the peaceful
foreign policy we pursue today. Strengthening the
global non-proliferation regime has remained one of
the most important priorities of Kazakhstan’s foreign
policy. The signing in May of the Protocol to the
Treaty on a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central
Asia — the Semipalatinsk Treaty — by the five
permanent countries on the Security Council marked
a major moment for nuclear security in our region.
We now urge the “nuclear five” countries to ratify the
Protocol as soon as possible. We strongly encourage
all stakeholders to uphold the provisions of Treaty on
the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the
cornerstone of the non-proliferation regime, and to work
towards the early entry into force of the Comprehensive
Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

We share the objectives of the proposed convention
on the general and complete prohibition of nuclear
weapons. Again, we call on all Member States to adopt
the universal declaration on a nuclear-weapon-free
world. That would serve as the first step towards the
adoption of the convention.

Reaffirming our commitment to the principle
of the equal right of all countries to access nuclear
technology for peaceful purposes, Kazakhstan stands
ready to host the international bank of low-enriched
uranium under the auspices of the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). We also support an
early political and diplomatic solution with respect
to Iran’s nuclear programme, on the basis of strict
compliance with the provisions of the NPT and IAEA
regulations. Kazakhstan helped break the deadlock
in the negotiations by hosting the first two rounds of
resumed talks in Almaty last year. We welcome the
latest 5+1 talks and strongly hope an agreement can be
reached in November.

We, together with the entire international
community, are alarmed that terrorist groups are
creating quasi-State entities to fight legitimate
Governments and sow enmity and hatred. Religious
extremism and separatism are fuelling a rise in
terrorism, transnational crime and the illegal trafficking
of narcotics. Kazakhstan was a sponsor of resolution
2178 (2014), on foreign terrorist fighters, because we
believe that the fight against international terrorism
demands a long-term comprehensive approach.

We also strongly believe that interreligious and
interethnic harmony are essential prerequisites for
peace and security. Kazakhstan, a diverse nation of 130
ethnic groups and many different faiths, has worked
hard to build a culture of tolerance and respect. We have
sought to promote those values internationally through
the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional
Religions, an event that has taken place every three
years since 2003. The Congress and its participants
have unanimously renounced violence and pledged their
support for continued interreligious dialogue among
leaders of Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism,
Hinduism, Taoism and many other faiths. Just last week,
a preparatory meeting of religious representatives for
the fifth Congress, to be held in Astana in 2015, issued
a statement condemning extremism, violence and
terrorism conducted in the name of any religion.

Kazakhstan initiated the suggestion that the period
2013-2022 be proclaimed as the International Decade
for the Rapprochement of Cultures. Greater dialogue
and the exchange of ideas between different cultures
greatly enhance international security.

The situation in Afghanistan in the wake of the
recent elections and the ongoing withdrawal of the
coalition forces is a matter of importance for the wider
security of Central Asia. We congratulate President-
elect Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai and the people of
Afghanistan on the completion of the electoral process.
We look forward to close cooperation with Mr. Ghani
and Abdullah Abdullah as they form, and work together
in, the National Unity Government.

Economic development is key to Afghanistan’s
re-emergence as a peaceful and prosperous nation and
good neighbour in Central Asia. Kazakhstan fully
supports Afghanistan’s integration into the region’s
expanding network of trade, energy and transportation
links. We have taken practical steps to assist in the
rehabilitation of our neighbour. The Government of
Kazakhstan has allocated almost $3 million for the
construction of social infrastructure and has provided
more than $17 million in humanitarian food assistance.
We are spending $50 million to train approximately
1,000 Afghan students in Kazakhstan universities. The
first civilian students will soon successfully complete
their education in Kazakhstan and join the peaceful
reconstruction process in their home country.

It is clear that we in Central Asia face a number
of challenges that endanger stability not only in
specific countries but in the entire region. There
is regrettably little sign that those problems will
disappear in the near future. That is why the United
Nations and the international community need to
work more purposefully in Central Asia. Accordingly,
Kazakhstan’s call for the establishment of the United
Nations regional hub in the city of Almaty is highly
relevant. The United Nations plays an invaluable role
in addressing natural and man-made disasters and
assisting countries in their sustainable development
through the coordination of the activities of national,
regional and international actors. We believe that, with
the focus on humanitarian assistance and development,
the regional United Nations hub in Almaty would
complement the work of the United Nations Regional
Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia in
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. The presence of those two
regional United Nations entities would cover a very
broad range of challenges faced by countries in our
vast region, including Afghanistan. Of course, the
Government of Kazakhstan stands ready to offer its
full support in establishing and developing the hub.

Sustainable development is central to Kazakhstan’s
ambitions for the future. We commend the United
Nations and the Secretary-General for convening
the action-focused Climate Summit a few days ago.

Within our borders, we are working hard to achieve our
national plan to make the transition to a green economy
and have recently adopted voluntary commitments to
reducing greenhouse gas emissions under the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
A national system for greenhouse gas emissions
trading has already been put into operation. We are
also determined to support sustainable development
globally.

In 2017, Astana will host the international
specialized exhibition Expo 2017 on the theme “Future
Energy”, which will promote best practices in the
field of sustainable energy. We will provide support to
representatives of around 60 developing countries to
take part in Expo 2017.

Kazakhstan, in conjunction with the Economic and
Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, is launching
a project on the installation of biogas systems in nine
small island developing States of the Pacific, which will
help local communities produce electricity. At the same
time, Kazakhstan and the United Nations Development
Programme are developing a training programme in
the sectors of oil and gas, agriculture and medicine for
countries in Africa, Oceania and Latin America and the
Caribbean.

As the largest landlocked country in the world,
Kazakhstan attaches great importance to the upcoming
second United Nations Conference on Landlocked
Developing Countries, to be held in Vienna in
November. The meeting aims to review and build on
the Almaty Programme of Action in order to produce a
new road map for landlocked developing countries that
takes into account the challenges and threats that have
emerged since the Almaty plan was first developed,
over a decade ago.

In 2015, we will finish construction of the
Kazakhstan section of the Western Europe-Western
China International Transit Corridor, which offers the
shortest route from China to Europe and reduces transit
times by up to 10 days, making it four to five times
shorter than the sea route through the Suez Canal. By
2020, we expect the volume of freight traffic on the
corridor between China, Central Asia, Russia and
Europe to reach 33 million tons annually.

The construction of new rail routes is also bringing
our region together as never before. This December,
we plan to open the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran-
Persian Gulf railroad, which will carry up to 10 million
tons of cargo a year and allow us to increase our wheat
exports five-fold. Another rail route, Uzbekistan-
Turkmenistan-Iran-Oman-Qatar, which was first
agreed in 2011, will also greatly increase international
transit capacity for our region.

As the Assembly knows, Kazakhstan is a candidate
for a non-permanent seat on the Security Council for
the period 2017-2018. Its election would be a major
step for our country, which has never before served on
that body. Our extensive engagement in international
affairs, including chairing key regional organizations,
such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation,
has given us the experience necessary to discharge that
important responsibility. We believe that the priorities
and challenges of our region should be represented in
the Security Council, and Kazakhstan is ready to play
that role.

We are a peaceful, stable and fast-developing
country, with a reputation for impartiality and for taking
an effective, balanced approach, with a strong focus
on international cooperation, conflict prevention and
mediation. Overall, we are confident that we can fully
contribute to the maintenance of international peace,
security and development, as well as the improvement
of the Council’s working methods.

Only by working together, in a partnership in
which all States Members of the United Nations are
truly equal, regardless of their level of political and
economic development or geographic location, can we
achieve peace and security for all — a peace that is free
from fear and violence and meets the needs of future
generations.

I would like to end by quoting Nelson Mandela,
who said:

“People respond in accordance to how you relate to
them. If we approach them on the basis of violence,
that’s how they’ll react. But if you say we want
peace, we want stability, we can then do a lot of
things that will contribute towards the progress of
our society”.


In this year
2014, proclaimed by the General Assembly as the
International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian
People, Israel has chosen to make it the year of a new
war of genocide perpetrated against the Palestinian
people. It is the year in which the Assembly, on behalf
of the countries and peoples of the world, conveyed
the world’s yearning and determination to make a just
peace that would achieve freedom and independence
for the Palestinian people in their State of Palestine
alongside Israel. The occupying Power has chosen to
defy the entire world by launching its war on Gaza, in
which its jets and tanks brutally destroyed lives and
devastated the homes, schools and dreams of thousands
of Palestinian children, women and men and, in reality,
destroying any remaining hopes for peace.

I addressed the Assembly on similar days in 2012
(see A/67/PV.12), when I cautioned that the colonial
occupying Power was preparing a new Nakba against
the Palestinian people. I appealed to the Assembly then
to prevent a new Nakba and to support the establishment
of a free and independent State of Palestine. I returned
to the Assembly Hall two months later (see A/67/PV.44)
as Palestine was healing its wounds and its people were
burying their beloved martyred children, women and
men after yet another war waged then against the Gaza
Strip. On that day, I stated that there was certainly
not a single person in the world who needed the loss
of the lives of thousands of Palestinian children in
order to confirm that Israel insisted on occupation. The
international community also did not need thousands

of deadly raids and tons of explosives to remind it that
there was an occupation that must end and a people who
must be freed.

Again today, we find ourselves full of grief and
bitterness, raising the same long-standing conclusions
and questions after a new war, the third in five years,
waged by that racist occupying State against Gaza,
a small, densely populated and precious part of our
country. The difference today is that the scale of
that genocidal crime is larger. The list of martyrs,
especially children, has grown, as hs the number of
the wounded, the disabled and the dozens of families
who have been completely decimated. The difference
today is that approximately half a million people have
been displaced from their homes. An unprecedented
number of homes, schools, hospitals, public buildings,
residential buildings, mosques, factories and cemeteries
have been destroyed — the Israelis pursued their
vengeance against our young even into the cemeteries.
The difference today is that the devastation caused by
that recent aggression is unmatched in modern times,
as confirmed by a witness, the Commissioner-General
of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for
Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

The latest war against Gaza constituted a series
of absolute war crimes, carried out before the eyes
and ears of the entire world, moment by moment. It
is inconceivable that anyone today could claim not to
grasp the magnitude and horror of the crimes. No one
can support Israel’s right to self-defence without regard
for the fate of the thousands of victims of our people.
No one can ignore the simple fact, upon which we
insist, that the life of a Palestinian is as precious as the
life of any other human being. Ignoring the facts on the
ground cannot erase such facts. We must also assume
that no one can continue to wonder why extremism is
rising and why the culture of peace is losing ground
and receding, while efforts to achieve it are collapsing.
And yet we continue to believe and hope that this time
no one will try to help out the occupation by supporting
its impunity and its attempts to evade accountability
for its crimes.

Here, today, in the name of Palestine, I affirm that
we will not forget or forgive, and we will not allow war
criminals to escape punishment. Before the Assembly,
I affirm that the Palestinian people will hold fast to
their legitimate right to defend themselves against the
Israeli war machine and to resist Israel’s colonial, racist
occupation. At the same time, I want to affirm that not
for one moment will our grief, trauma and anger make
us abandon our humanity, our values and our ethics. We
will always maintain our respect for and commitment
to international law, international humanitarian law
and the international consensus. We will maintain the
traditions of our national struggle established by the
Palestinian martyrs, to which we have been committed
since the start of the Palestinian revolution in early
1965.

In the midst of a torrent of massacres and the
turmoil of vast destruction, we saw the peoples of the
world gather in huge demonstrations on the streets of
many cities to announce their condemnation of Israel’s
aggression and occupation and their support of freedom
for Palestine. We also saw how an overwhelming
majority of countries around the world declared
themselves for the same noble position and rushed to
give our people all kinds of support and assistance.
And we saw a qualitative and quantitative expansion in
the activities of the international grassroots boycotting
campaign against Israel’s policies of occupation,
apartheid and colonial settlement, especially among
academic, cultural, student and youth groups. In the
name of Palestine, we pay tribute to all who chose
to stand with human values and demanded freedom,
justice and peace. All of those manifestations of true
solidarity constituted an important message to those
who faced genocide in Gaza, helping them to feel that
they were not alone.

The recent war confirmed on the ground the
essence of what the Israeli Government had been saying
behind closed doors in negotiations. It came after long,
difficult negotiations held over more than eight months
under the auspices of the United States and through the
efforts of President Barack Obama and his tenacious
Secretary of State, John Kerry. We engaged in that
endeavour and with the American Administration’s
efforts with open minds and in good faith and a positive
spirit. We laid out firm positions based on resolutions
of international legitimacy. We genuinely respected
all our commitments and understandings. Even as we
watched the ongoing and escalating Israeli violations,
we exercised incredible self-restraint, silencing our
cries and tending to our own wounds in order to give the
American efforts the best possible chance for success.

However, as usual, the Israeli Government missed
no opportunity to undermine the chances for peace.
Throughout the months of negotiations, settlement
construction, land confiscation, home demolition,

killing and arrest campaigns and large-scale forced
displacement in the West Bank continued unabated. The
unjust blockade of the Gaza Strip was tightened. The
occupation’s campaign specifically targeted the city of
Jerusalem and its inhabitants, attempting to artificially
alter the spirit, identity and character of the Holy City
and focusing on Al-Aqsa Mosque while threatening
grave consequences. At the same time, armed gangs
of racist settlers persisted in their crimes against the
Palestinian people and their land, mosques, churches,
property and olive trees.

Again as usual, the Israeli Government failed
the test of peace. It breached an agreement with the
United States Administration regarding the release
from the occupation jails of a number of Palestinian
prisoners, who we continue to insist should all be
released. When confronted with simple questions
during the direct negotiations or through the United
States mediator, Israel had no hesitation in revealing
its true positions. It refuses to end the occupation of
the State of Palestine that began in 1967; rather it seeks
to continue and entrench it, rejecting the Palestinian
State and refusing to reach a just solution to the plight
of the Palestine refugees. That is the Government of
Israel’s official position. At best, the future it proposes
for the Palestinian people consists of isolated ghettos
for Palestinians on fragmented lands, without borders
or sovereignty over its air space, water and natural
resources, under the subjugation and control of the
racist settlers and the army of occupation; at worst, it
is a totally abhorrent form of apartheid. Some of the
Israelis say they are for two States. Where is the State
of Palestine? This is what they intend for the State of
Palestine.

Israel confirmed during the negotiations that it
rejects making peace with its victims, the Palestinian
people. All of this has been carried out along with
an attempt to brand the conflict as a religious one
against a background of increasingly rampant racism
in Israel’s political and media discourse, as well as its
entrenchment in the school curriculum and a series
of laws and practices in favour of the occupation and
its settlers. This culture of racism, incitement and
hatred was glaringly apparent some months ago in
an appallingly despicable crime committed by fascist
settlers, who abducted Mohammed Abu Khdeir, a
young boy from Jerusalem, burned him alive and killed
him.

This brings me to another fact of history. Over the
years, the occupying Power has pursued a policy aimed
at deliberately weakening the Palestinian National
Authority in order to undermine it and make its role
irrelevant. The occupation has targeted our relentless
efforts to establish the foundations for the kind of
State of Palestine that we want — a sovereign and
independent State living in peace and building bridges
of mutual cooperation with its neighbours, respecting
its commitments, obligations and agreements and
strengthening the values of citizenship, equality,
nondiscrimination, the rule of law, human rights and
pluralism.

We want a State that deepens Palestine’s enlightened
traditions of tolerance, coexistence and non-exclusion,
strengthens the culture of peace, promotes the role
of women, establishes an effective administration
committed to the standards of good governance, and
cares for the needs and interests of its people. The
occupation struck, and continues to strike, a blow at
this effort because our quest is the antithesis of Israel’s
settlement policies, and because Israel seeks to destroy
Palestine’s chance of creating an independent State
within the framework of the two-State solution.

When our efforts to end the internal division
through national dialogue succeeded a few months ago
and we prepared to restore the unity of our land, nation
and institutions, we formed a national-consensus
Government and began a process that was to lead to
presidential and legislative elections. All countries
around the world welcomed this achievement, with
the exception of Israel, which has constantly sought to
fragment our land and our national unity.

Where do we go from here? The idea that one can
simply return to the past patterns of actions that failed
repeatedly is naive at best and, in any case, wrong.
For it ignores the fact that it is no longer acceptable or
possible to repeat methods that have proved futile, or
to continue with approaches that have repeatedly failed
and that require comprehensive review and radical
correction.

It is impossible — I repeat, impossible — to return
to the cycle of negotiations that failed to deal with
the core of the Palestinian question. There is neither
credibility nor seriousness in negotiations in which
Israel predetermines the results via its settlement
activities and the occupation’s brutality. Nor is there
meaning or value in negotiations in which the agreed

objective is not ending the Israeli occupation and
achieving the independence of the State of Palestine,
with East Jerusalem as its capital, on the entire
Palestinian territory occupied in the 1967 war. Moreover,
negotiations that are not linked to a firm timetable for
the implementation of this goal have no value. The time
has come to end this colonial occupation.

Palestine refuses to have the right to freedom of its
people, who suffer terrorism at the hands of the racist
occupying Power and its settlers and remain hostage
to Israel’s security conditions. The Palestinian people
are actually the ones who need immediate international
protection — a protection they are seeking through
international organizations. They are in need of the
security and peace that they more than any other people
are denied. And the children of Palestine are worthy
of the world’s efforts to ensure that their childhood,
dreams and lives will not once again be destroyed. It is
time for the chapters of this renewed, ongoing tragedy
to be closed.

Those who were uprooted from their warm homes,
good land and beautiful country in Al-Nakba 66 years
ago, who were pushed into the misery of exile to live
as refugees, and are now being forced into new waves
of expulsion or onto ships of death on the world’s seas,
need assurances. They need to be assured that they
will not be displaced from their homes again, that their
homes will not be destroyed again, and that they will
not spend their lives waiting for the outbreak of a new
war. Is it not time for this long tragedy to end?

We will not forever accept demands to prove our
good intentions by making concessions at the expense
of our rights, to remain silent as we are killed and our
land is stolen, and to understand the conditions of
the other party and the importance of preserving its
coalition Government, while its occupation becomes
more entrenched. We are exhausted by the additional
tests that we must undergo to prove our efficiency,
competence and eligibility to earn our natural, simple
right to live a normal life; our inherent right to expect a
stable and ordinary tomorrow and to dream about more
beautiful days; and the right of our youth to plan their
future safely with peace and freedom prevailing over
our land, like other peoples of the world. The time has
come for a genuine and ust peace to prevail in the land
of peace. As I have said more than once, we are the only
people in the world that remain under occupation.

All the Arab countries and ourselves have
constantly warned about the disastrous consequences
of the continuing Israeli colonial occupation and the
denial of freedom and independence to the Palestinian
people. We have repeatedly pointed out that allowing
Israel to act as a State above the law without being held
accountable or punished for its policies, aggression
and defiance of the international community’s will
and legality has provided fertile ground for, and an
environment conducive to, the growth of extremism,
hatred and terrorism in our region.

Confronting the terrorism that plagues our region
by groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
and others, which have no basis whatsoever in the
tolerant Islamic religion or humanity, and whose
members are committing vile and heinous atrocities,
requires much more than military confrontation. The
matter is of the utmost urgency and requires much
more than condemnations and declarations of positions,
which are of course necessary. What is needed, first and
foremost, is a comprehensive, credible strategy to dry
up the sources of terrorism and eradicate its roots in all
political, intellectual, economic and social spheres in
our region. It requires the creation of solid foundations
for a practical consensus rendering the fight against
all forms of terrorism everywhere a collective task to
be undertaken by an alliance of peoples, nations and
civilizations. It requires, as a priority, ending the Israeli
occupation, that in its practices and perpetuation,
constitutes an abhorrent form of State terrorism and a
breeding ground for incitement, tension and hatred.

At a time when we are still suffering from the horrors
of war, we face a formidable challenge to reconstruct
what has been destroyed by occupation. This is the third
time we are attempting to rebuild after the destruction
inflicted on us by the occupation. We greatly appreciate
the fact that next month, at the invitation of the Arab
Republic of Egypt and the Kingdom of Norway, the city
of Cairo will host an international conference on relief
and reconstruction for the Gaza Strip. Our Government
will present comprehensive reports to the conference
on the losses the acts of aggression have inflicted on
various sectors of society, and it will provide details
of plans and programmes to be rapidly implemented
in the Gaza Strip, aimed at meeting immediate relief
needs and the requirements for reconstruction, in full
coordination with and under the supervision of the
relevant United Nations agencies and bodies.

Just a couple of days ago, the Palestinian faction
emphasized its support for Gaza in order to facilitate

reconstruction. While we reiterate our appreciation and
gratitude to all the countries and organizations that
hastened to help the Palestinian people both during
and after the war, we are confident that brotherly and
friendly countries will not waver in their support for
the plans and programmes we will present, and that
the conference will have practical results that can meet
the expectations and needs of the victims of this act of
aggression.

We reaffirm here that the chief prerequisite for
the success of all these plans and efforts is an end
to the despicable ongoing Israeli blockade that has
suffocated the Gaza Strip for years and turned it into
the largest prison in the world for nearly 2 million
Palestinian citizens. At the same time, we affirm our
commitment to and the importance of consolidating
the ceasefire through the negotiations being conducted
under the auspices of Egypt. However, in order to avoid
a repetition of the cycle of war and reconstruction every
two or three years, it is imperative that we focus on
the fundamental issue and starting point, which is that
Gaza’s suffering will never be completely over until
the occupation is ended and the State of Palestine’s
independence achieved.

During the past two weeks, Palestine and the Group
of Arab States have been working intensively with the
various regional groups in the United Nations to prepare
for the introduction of a draft resolution on the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict for adoption by the Security Council
and to advance efforts to achieve peace, which we still
believe can be accomplished through international
legitimacy. This endeavour reaffirms our commitment
to achieving a just peace through a negotiated solution
and a diplomatic and political effort through United
Nations bodies. It is inspired by and based fully on the
spirit and provisions of the many resolutions that have
been adopted in the General Assembly and the Security
Council, laying the foundations for a lasting solution
and a just peace. There is nothing new here. All of these
are previously adopted resolutions.

This endeavour hopes to correct the failure of
previous efforts to achieve peace by affirming the
goal of ending the Israeli occupation and achieving
a two-State solution for the State of Palestine, with
East Jerusalem as its capital, over the entire territory
occupied in 1967, alongside the State of Israel, and with a
just and agreed-on solution to the plight of the Palestine
refugees on the basis of resolution 194 (III), with a
specific time frame for implementing those objectives,
as stipulated in the Arab Peace Initiative. There must
be a time frame. That will be linked to the immediate
resumption of negotiations between Palestine and Israel
in order to demarcate the borders, reach a detailed and
comprehensive agreement on all final status issues and
then draft a comprehensive peace treaty between us and
them.

We are confident that this endeavour will enjoy the
full support of those who are committed to ensuring that
our country will not witness new wars and atrocities,
who wish to support a campaign to combat terrorism,
who believe we must act expeditiously to rectify the
historical injustice inflicted by the Nakba on the people
of Palestine, and who wish to see peace prevail in the
land of monotheistic religions. The adoption of that
draft resolution will affirm that this year the Assembly
is striving to realize the International Year of Solidarity
with the Palestinian People, who will continue to be
steadfast in their struggle and will rise brave and strong
from the rubble of destruction. As our poet Mahmoud
Darwish has said, we are infected with the incurable
disease of hope, and we love life if we are given a
chance at it.

There is an occupation that must end now. There is
a people who must be freed immediately. The hour of
independence of the State of Palestine has arrived, and
I believe you are listening for it.


It gives me great pleasure
to begin this address with warm congratulations to His
Excellency Mr. Sam Kutesa on his election as President
of the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth session. I
also wish to congratulate His Excellency Mr. John Ashe
on his inspiring leadership of the Assembly at its sixty-
eighth session.

This year, we marked the 100th anniversary of the
First World War. Our forefathers in 1918 called that
War the war to end all wars, because they knew, as we
know today, that no society can aspire to development
and a better way of life without peace. At that time,
many Seychellois people gave their lives to defend that
ideal. Despite being one of the smallest nations in the
world, geographically far removed from the centres of
power and of conflict, our people have always known
that we cannot be at peace if the world is not at peace.
I take this opportunity to salute those who made the
ultimate sacrifice in those turbulent times of 1914 and
those islanders who showed that no matter how small
we may be, we can make a meaningful contribution.

However, the turbulent events that have unfolded
before our eyes during the course of 2014 have shown
very clearly that the world is not at peace. The heinous
and murderous acts of global terrorist activities in
recent weeks remind us of the increasing threat posed
by terrorism and of the pain that it brings to innocent
victims. That is coupled with a multiplication of
regional conflicts and instability within States.

In order to build peace, we must reinforce our
commitment to multilateralism through the United
Nations, while also ensuring that we accord the highest
priority to more inclusive and effective development.
In that context, I commend the President for placing the
discussion in this year’s general debate under the banner
of “Delivering on and implementing a transformative

post-2015 development agenda”. Seychelles takes
pride in having achieved most of the Millennium
Development Goals and continues to impart greater
impetus to ensure that the remaining challenges are
effectively dealt with by 2015.

For small island developing States (SIDS), the
sustainable development goals are essential to allow
for the implementation of development transformation.
We must recognize that the current development
framework of the majority of development institutions
is still not favourable to the development of SIDS. Most
development gains are still assessed ultimately through
gross domestic product (GDP) per capita measurements,
which do not adequately identify the threats to human
development or the opportunities that exist, especially
for small island States.

Seychelles warmly welcomes the outcomes of
the Third International Conference on Small Island
Developing States, held in Apia, and would particularly
like to thank the Government and people of Samoa for
their leadership in establishing a platform for action to
support the development of SIDS.

Seychelles has championed three priorities that are
outcomes of that conference. The first is the need for a
vulnerability index to be used as a more effective tool
for addressing the development needs of SIDS than
GDP per capita. The second is the need to address the
debilitating debt of SIDS through innovations, such as
debt for climate change adaptation swaps. The third
priority is the need to build opportunities for SIDS
on the basis of their strengths, not their weaknesses;
hence, the need to support a blue economy approach,
whereby SIDS can better utilize their oceanic potential
and whereby we can be large-ocean nations.

Those three priorities are not specific only to
SIDS. The development challenges of SIDS highlight
the deficiencies of the development framework for
all developing nations. A vulnerability index allows
us to target those areas that place our societies at
risk. An effective vulnerability index adopted by
the United Nations will allow us to better target the
diverse needs of SIDS, least developed countries and
landlocked countries, as well as States threatened by
desertification or those most prone to natural disasters.
It is an inclusive view of development.

Ownership of the blue economy also widens
development perspectives for our whole planet. It is
high time that we realize the immense potential of
our oceans. We cannot apply the principles of a green
economy and of sustainable development without
recognizing that we are applying them in a blue world,
for over 70 per cent of our planet is covered by oceans
and seas. For developing nations, the ocean is a shared
opportunity. It is therefore essential that we address
our oceans, and the challenges therein appropriately,
through a stand-alone sustainable development goal on
oceans.

The right to development belongs to us all. True
development is therefore not only about economic
growth or the total wealth that a country can create.
It is about the constant improvement that we need for
the well-being of people. It is about being able to build
a future for our children based on shared opportunity.
In that vein, I reiterate the call that the international
community not spare any effort in helping the nations
of West Africa to overcome the Ebola pandemic, which
is a health issue of international concern. Ensuring
that the affected communities have access to the right
medical support will save lives not only in West Africa
but across the world. Ebola is not just an African
problem. It is a global problem.

We also remain preoccupied by the conclusions of
the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change. That is why SIDS have
continuously underlined the scientific research being
conducted on climate change, which shows that a
warming of even 1.5°C will have a negative impact
on all countries, even if islands are on the front line.
However, the science also tells us that we still have a
window where we can act decisively and effectively.

A legally binding agreement that sets a course for
increases of no more than 2°C is achievable, but all
countries, large or small, must make it happen. It is not a
subject that we can leave aside to take up later, to debate
at a later date. We call on all partners to ensure that
the upcoming Conference of the Parties to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,
which will meet in Lima, sets the stage for concluding
a meaningful and legally binding agreement in Paris in
2015.

I would also like to reiterate the importance
of fulfilling commitments to jointly mobilize
over $100 billion annually by 2020 for the full
operationalization of the Green Climate Fund, which

should be capitalized as soon as possible. I also
underline the importance of ensuring that the most
vulnerable, in particular SIDS and African nations,
have access to the appropriate resources as quickly
as possible. Further, we call for SIDS to be part of the
decision-makers on issues of climate change and to be
allocated a permanent seat on the Executive Committee
of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and
Damage associated with Climate Change Impacts.

Seychelles will also continue to advocate for a
solution to the debt trap in which many of us, especially
SIDS, find ourselves. A solution that Seychelles
has brought forward in partnership with the Nature
Conservancy, an international non-governmental
organization, is proposals for debt-for-adaptation
swaps. SIDS are often constrained in their development
because of large debt-to-GDP ratios. Transferring
that debt into climate change adaptation projects
will address the SIDS need for greater flexibility in
addressing their development challenges while also
making a real impact in terms of building climate
change resilience by creating marine protected areas,
not only locally, but globally. That concept will also
allow for the application of climate change funding in
order to achieve leverage for adaptation projects while
reducing financial barriers for small island developing
States.

(spoke in French)
Faced with the challenges of security, transnational
crime and extremism, the United Nations requires
significant reform and must rise above its divisions
to help build a world in which human beings can live,
wherever they are, in dignity and free from want and
fear. More than ever, it is necessary to encourage the
search for collective solutions to address all sorts of
phenomenon that undermine the balance of our world.

That is the sense that guides every action of
my country. Seychelles is indeed ready to meet the
challenges of the twenty-first century in a spirit of
openness and dialogue with all peoples, for a world
of peace and human brotherhood. We are working in
Africa, particularly in the Indian Ocean, with a view to
the region becoming one of shared peaceful, democratic
and prosperous development.

The Indian Ocean region is grateful to the United
Nations, and the Seychelles once again thanks its
specialized agencies, as well as our various partners, for
the invaluable role each one has played and still plays in
the fight against maritime piracy, which has already had
a deep impact on our development plans. Statistics show
that today maritime piracy has declined, but that hardly
indicates that that threat has disappeared. Therefore,
we must remain vigilant, and we still need the support
of all to help dispel the profound aftereffects it has left
for our economy. Over the years, maritime piracy has
had serious repercussions on fishing, tourism, shipping
and port services. Seychelles continues to work in
harmony with all its partners, since any slackening in
the face of that unpredictable phenomenon could have
consequences.

The Seychelles is actively involved with partners
in our region and beyond to better target organizers
of cross-border trafficking in the Indian Ocean zone.
We have established a regional information centre that
allows better coordination between our region’s forces
and also aims to better manage the monitoring and
protecting of our shared maritime space against the
shared threats, whether piracy, narcotics trafficking or
illegal fishing.

In the same vein, the Seychelles will continue to
support the Security Council decision to strengthen
the United Nations-African Union partnership in
Somalia. It is a difficult task, for which I wish to
affirm our solidarity with the African and United
Nations staff involved. I take the opportunity to urge
the international community to continue supporting
efforts to restore peace and reconciliation in Somalia.
The international community must not lose patience
in view of the mixed results achieved so far. For our
part, we have taken action bilaterally and with regional
and multilateral partners to help Somalia strengthen its
capacities in areas such as fisheries management and
development. The United Nations must always show the
way and inspire the necessary efforts to bring together
the means necessary in the struggle and to coordinate
them with the States concerned.

Seychelles also expresses solidarity with all
African countries affected by conflict or instability.
We are committed to working together so that we can
build together, in the African Union, the transformative
Africa that we foresee through our 2063 strategy.

Seychelles, like all African countries, also
expresses solidarity with the Palestinian people, given
the challenges of the continuing conflict in the Middle
East, and we reiterate our wish for peace between the
two neighbouring States based on the 1967 borders.

We also take the opportunity to recall the
importance of lifting the economic embargo against
Cuba, an island country that depends on trade access to
better support its development, as all island States do.

All those problems and challenges justify the United
Nations remaining the leaven of international peace
and security, but also and especially the conscience
of humanity. Here I commend the Secretary-General,
Mr. Ban Ki-moon, for his remarkable work at the head
of our Organization at a time when human history is
facing enormous challenges. Indeed, much remains to
be done, but optimism remains, for the helm is in good
hands. The United Nations will effectively discharge its
mission if all the nations that gave rise to it, large and
small, provide it with the necessary means and entrust
it with the responsibility for carrying out actions in the
service of humanity. Seychelles, for its part, remains
ready to play its role to its full capacity, in this noble
and exciting mission.


I would like to congratulate you
warmly, Sir, on your assumption of the presidency of
the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth session, and to
assure you that the Tongan delegation will fully support
the crucial work ahead under your able leadership. I
would also like to thank your predecessor, Mr. John
Ashe, for his sterling conduct of the previous session,
especially his championing of issues relating to small
island developing States (SIDS). And I pay tribute to
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his exemplary
stewardship in advancing the commitment of the United
Nations to building a more peaceful and prosperous
world amid the diverse and complex issues it faces
today.

My delegation and I welcome the theme of this
year’s general debate, “Delivering on and implementing
a transformative post-2015 development agenda”,
and we look forward to the three high-level thematic
debates and the high-level event to be held next year.
As we work together to formulate a historic post-2015
development agenda, we are cognizant that we must be
ambitious and transformative in our approach in order
to ensure tangible benefits for our people. Responsive
access to financial resources is essential if we are to
cement the adoption of a meaningful development
agenda and its full implementation.

Tonga supports the consensus that the report of
the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development
Goals should be integrated into the post-2015
development agenda, with a global commitment to
eradicating poverty by 2030. The proposed sustainable
development goals on oceans, seas and marine
resources and climate change are woven intimately
and intricately into the fabric of the very survival of
Pacific small island developing States. Without them,
our joint aspirations for sustainable development and
economic growth will not be achieved, and we will
be left behind. The Small Island Developing States
Accelerated Modalities of Action Pathway, known as
the Samoa Pathway outcome document, was endorsed
by SIDS leaders and their partners earlier this month. It
is a blueprint for the sustainable development of small
island developing States for the next decade and should
therefore be integrated into the form and substance of
the post-2015 development agenda.

In order to guarantee harmony in our implementation
of the development agenda, Tonga agrees that each
country should take primary responsibility for its
own economic growth, social development and

environmental sustainability. However, that can be
fulfilled only with the active engagement of all relevant
stakeholders through genuine and durable partnerships.
We look forward to working together towards the
summit in September 2015 when Heads of State and
Government will adopt a post-2015 development
agenda that will be inclusive and people-centred. It
will be a historic event, adding further meaning to the
celebration of the seventieth anniversary of the United
Nations.

This year, the Pacific island leaders endorsed the
Palau Declaration on “The Ocean: Life & Future”,
which is concerned with charting a course to
sustainability. Tonga is a joint custodian of the Pacific
Ocean, whose natural resources form the bedrock of
economic, social and environmental development in the
Pacific islands. The well-being of the Tongan people
is therefore premised on the sustainable development,
management and conservation of the ocean and its
resources. The management of seabed exploration and
exploitation is an important facet of Tonga’s interests
in the oceans, and we have worked diligently through
the relevant institutions established under the United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)
to ensure that activity within the area located in the
Pacific Ocean is managed appropriately for the benefit
of humankind.

For the first time, Tonga sought election to a seat
on the relevant body established under UNCLOS, the
Council of the International Seabed Authority, and
was elected by acclamation by its member States.
This year, Tonga passed legislation related to seabed
mining activities within Tonga’s jurisdiction and under
the provisions of UNCLOS. We joined our Pacific
Island neighbours in supporting the call for launching
negotiations by September 2015 on an international
agreement under UNCLOS on the management and
conservation of the ocean and its resources, both within
our national jurisdiction and in areas beyond.

Tonga commends the Secretary-General’s initiative
in convening the recent Climate Summit as a forum
for world leaders to deliver bold announcements on
climate change mitigation and adaptation. In the spirit
of sustaining international cooperation, we support the
urgent call for States to address the adverse impacts
of climate change. The collective response will depend
on the outcome of the ongoing negotiations being
conducted through the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change. Nevertheless, it should
be based on the principles of equity and common
but differentiated responsibility, as enshrined in the
Convention. The principles and overall objective
espoused by the Convention must be fully observed
if the threat of climate change is to be effectively
addressed and overcome for our common benefit.

The Global Risks Report 2013 ranked Tonga as
the second most vulnerable country in the world to
natural disasters. That vulnerability was demonstrated
by our first category-5 cyclone earlier this year,
which devastated our central island group, displacing
thousands and resulting in millions of dollars’ worth
of damage. However, and fortunately, it caused only
one fatality. Today, that same central island group is
experiencing an unseasonable drought. Tonga has
used a whole-of-country approach — through its joint
national action plan on climate-change adaptation and
disaster-risk management — to establish a base from
which to move forward with adaptation measures. In
terms of mitigation, we are gradually reducing our
fossil-fuel consumption.

Tonga applauds the convening of the high-level
event on combating climate change, and it would like to
recall here that Pacific island countries were among the
first to raise the alarm on the implications of climate
change for security, both regionally and generally. In
that regard, we support the call to the Security Council
to reconsider its stance and to recognize the links
between climate change and international peace and
security. We also support the call to the Secretary-
General to appoint a special representative on climate
and security to research those links and report back to
Member States.

Tonga associates itself with those Member States
that have appealed for a meaningful approach, going
beyond the rhetoric, to reforming the Security Council
through an intergovernmental process in order to make
it more representative and inclusive. We also support
the request of Heads of State and Government in the
2005 World Summit Outcome (resolution 55/2) that
its goals include the important work of revitalizing
the General Assembly. That general reform process
must continue if we are to ensure greater efficiency,
representativeness and transparency throughout the
United Nations system as a whole, thereby enabling this
great institution to be better prepared to respond to the
realities we live with today.

Finally, for future generations to live in a better
world, we must work harmoniously to fulfil our

responsibilities and ask the Almighty to guide us
through our growing challenges.