The people of Panama welcome the very
sound decision to elect Mr. Ali Treki to serve as
President of the General Assembly at its current
session. We are sure that he possesses the vision and
the leadership to guide the nations represented here
today.
 I should also like to thank the Secretary-General
for his tireless pursuit of dialogue in the interests of
peace, security and the peaceful coexistence of peoples
and brothers.
 Yesterday saw the conclusion of the Summit on
Climate Change. I congratulate all nations for their
collaborative efforts in confronting the global-warming
crisis. The beauty, resources and biodiversity of our
shared heritage are in peril.
 Global warming is the most serious symptom of a
crisis caused by the excessive exploitation of
resources. We must apply new formulas, change our
behaviour and learn to value our relationship with
nature. Our options are clear: we can talk or we can
act. If we do not act with global responsibility, the
consequences will be irreversible.
 Three million years ago, the Isthmus of Panama
emerged from the sea. We are one of the youngest
countries on Earth. As a result of our birth, a land
bridge was formed between North and South America
and constituted the narrowest stretch of land between
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Panama parted the
seas to unite continents, and generated a new global
network of ocean currents that transformed the climate
of the entire planet. The whole world changed when
Panama came into being.
 Today, all forms of life upon this planet are the
result of an evolutionary process that adapted to our
birth. The great African savannahs and deserts came
forth from these changes, and modern man evolved
from those new savannahs.
 Panamanians have always played an important
role for our neighbours and for the world at large. In
the next five years, it is our duty to demonstrate how
our economic and governmental model can serve as an
example for all who aspire to prosperity and progress.
 I am an entrepreneur, not a politician. I went into
politics to change how things are done. I am a simple
and direct man. I believe that time is very short and
very valuable. I will expand upon my experiences in
the private sector and put them to work in the public
sector.
 I was elected to the presidency with an
unprecedented mandate. Panamanians gave me a clear
mandate to deliver change to our country and build a
better Panama for all. We are placing the interests of
the people first and foremost, above personal or
partisan interests, because a country is more important
than a political party.
 I have selected the best people to work in our
Government without regard to their political
affiliations. I have plans for the nation. We want
capitalism which is based on opportunities and rewards
responsible entrepreneurs who show solidarity, but

21 09-52320

capitalism which also strongly demands responsibility
and solidarity from any old-fashioned entrepreneurs
who do not satisfy those two criteria.
 We formed this Government during a crisis. Less
than a year ago, we saw the collapse of the
international financial framework. The global
economic model was forever changed. Our guiding
light is the improvement of our peoples’ quality of life.
That is why, during the first 100 days, we increased the
salaries of all public officials and distributed $100 per
month to senior citizens over the age of 70 who do not
have a pension and require economic aid.
 We will be building a modern new metro in
Panama, and it will be the largest employment
programme in the history of the country after the
expansion of the canal currently under way.
 We have launched a construction project for low-
cost housing which will not only provide a safe roof
over the heads of thousands of Panamanians, but will
generate jobs at difficult times during a crisis.
 The promises we have made meet the demands of
our people. But beyond that, they are part of the plan
we need to boost our economy.
 America is a recently populated continent, and
Panama was the bridge across which the first native
Americans crossed to South America. They built great
cultures and civilizations such as those of the Incas and
the Chibchas. When the Spanish arrived, they made our
country into the commercial hub of their colonies.
When Panama separated from Spain, the first railroad
in the world between the Atlantic and the Pacific was
built, and that in turn led to the construction of our
canal. Today, Panama is the gatekeeper of the global
economy.
 We are a small country, with less than 3.5 million
inhabitants, and services represent more than 75
per cent of our gross national product. The United
States dollar is our currency. We have a solid banking
and financial centre which is very conservative and
strictly regulated. The Colón Free Zone is the largest in
the hemisphere, thanks to the most important
commercial maritime route in the world, and this
makes us the most efficient logistical hub in the
Americas.
 We shall soon begin the construction of a third set
of locks to expand the capacity of the Panama Canal,
thereby opening an important gateway for international
trade.
 Panama is an ideal place to invest, to establish
enterprises and also to live. We will be transforming
Panama into the Hong Kong or the Dubai of the
Americas. Within the new Panama-Pacific Special
Economic Area, labour and immigration laws are
welcoming and flexible. Throughout our national
territory, there are fantastic incentives for investors.
Our spirit of service and open door policy make
Panama an enjoyable, exciting place of true
opportunities.
 And despite the crisis Panama is growing. Talent
and creativity, social assistance, infrastructure and
investment in human capital will allow us to weather
the storm.
 Panama was born to serve the world. Everyone is
more than welcome in Panama. We are open for
business.
 We believe in free trade as a tool to improve
people’s lives. We want to do business with all nations
and have signed free trade agreements with our
strategic partners. We have already signed one with the
United States. To be ratified, it just needs one small
“push”, and I believe that President Obama will deliver
that push very shortly.
 In Panama, we are proud of our history and our
heritage, our freedom of expression and thought, our
freedom to determine our country’s direction, and our
tradition of peace.
 Peace is the best sentiment that any country or,
indeed, the whole planet can have. Peace brings with it
tranquillity, stability and growth. There is absolutely
no reason why neighbouring peoples should offend one
another, because no one wins and we all lose. The
children of Bolívar share the same history and the same
challenges. We have the same blood in our veins. We
are a single nation. Here, anyone who attacks, attacks
only himself. Anyone who retaliates, retaliates against
himself. Anyone who bears arms does so against
himself. Because here we are all siblings.
 Weapons of war bring poverty. They steal the
bread from our mouths and the future from our
children. These weapons are not necessary, and at the
end of the day they solve nothing. Let us sit down
together, for there is nothing that we cannot solve
together. There is nothing like peace. And peace is

09-52320 22

what all countries of the world should be pursuing until
it is achieved.
 I would like to talk here about our sister country
of Honduras, and the need for it to return to the rule of
law, which is necessary for its well-being and that of
Central America. That is why we are closely following
the reconciliation in Honduras.
 The San José accord constitutes the best method
for formulating a consensus Government that can
oversee new elections and guarantee a peaceful return
to democracy. Let us allow the Honduran people to
solve their destiny and future with one another. We
Panamanians have the utmost trust in the Honduran
society’s capacity for reconciliation.
 Nothing is stronger than words, either spoken or
written, and through dialogue we understand one
another, to paraphrase the poet. Communication is the
best conduit for cultures, education, ethnicities, history,
religions and politics. In Panama, we are a melting pot
of races, nationalities and ideologies that, through
communication and mutual respect, has created a
diverse society with common interests. That is part of
our idiosyncrasy and is what makes us who we are.
 Tolerance is the secret to the coexistence of
peoples. Nuclear tests make us all nervous, and living
in a state of alert only serves to increase tensions
between nations whose relations are already less than
stable. That is why we live in constant fear and
mistrust, which has a significant impact on dialogue
between us.
 In Panama, we respect the use of science as a tool
for human development, but we reject its use as a front
to conceal nuclear proliferation and the production of
weapons of mass destruction.
 A challenge to global peace and security lies in
the war on drug trafficking, money-laundering and
arms trafficking. Because it is a crossroads, Panama is
used by organized crime for drugs and arms trafficking.
But we are declaring our own war. We have become an
active partner with Mexico and Colombia in the battle
against narco-terrorists. Alongside President Uribe and
President Calderón, we are committed to strengthening
the ties of cooperation, so that Panama can be an active
source of intelligence.
 The many efforts and improvements that Panama
has achieved in this field have been recognized in
reports by the Financial Action Task Force on Money
Laundering and the International Monetary Fund.
Panama has information exchange agreements with
39 countries to combat money-laundering and the
financing of illicit activities.
 Drugs are not good business. Those who dedicate
themselves to them are destined to jail or the cemetery.
They have no future.
 Mr. Nasheed (Maldives), Vice-President, took the
 Chair.
 Everyone knows Panama as a banking centre, as a
place to do business, and because of our canal. But in
fact, we are nature’s best-kept secret in the world.
Tourism is our new passion. Panama City has the
highest concentration of migratory birds on the planet.
We are the hub for America’s flying species. The Gulf
of Chiriquí has the greatest biodiversity of any spot in
the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. Forty percent of our
national territory is protected. This includes over
1.5 million hectares of uninterrupted forests between
Chagres and Darién.
 Our national parks have been declared biosphere
reserves and world heritage sites, as has the island of
Coiba, a natural jewel where they are still discovering
new species and where whales from the Arctic and
Antarctic meet to give birth to their calves.
 Over 1,000 islands and coral reefs beautify our
seas, and we are framed by over 2,500 kilometres of
coastline, many of them as pristine and untouched as
when Christopher Columbus first arrived in the
Americas.
 But the very best resource we have is our people.
We are a multiethnic and friendly people. Our
indigenous peoples of the comarcas are an example of
resistance to mistreatment at the hands of nature and
cultural assimilation.
 All the countries represented in this Hall have
their own wonders that the entire world admires. We
must unite to protect and conserve our beauty,
resources, biodiversity, world heritage and, first and
foremost, our peoples.
 I am an eternal optimist. I see my country,
Panama, providing more jobs for its men and women. I
see a middle class that keeps growing and earning
more. I see new technologies spawning unprecedented
economic growth. I see the first country in the world
with free internet access for all its citizens.

23 09-52320

 I see Panama with better health care, better
education, better transportation, and with families that
are happier and more unified. We Panamanians can do
anything we dream of. And if each and every one of us
achieves our dreams, we will have a better world.
 In the five years ahead of us, we are going to
dream big. Our best days are yet to come.
 If I had to describe Panama in just a few words, I
would say we are a country and a people full of
surprises. Panama will amaze you, and Panama will
amaze the world.


As I did
four years ago (see A/60/PV.6), I once again extend the
greetings of the people and the Government of the
Eastern Republic of Uruguay to this forum, which is
the most broadly representative body of today’s world.
 Those of us here are aware of the contrasting
realities of the present world; we are conscious that
never before has humanity simultaneously been offered
so many possibilities and faced so many threats as is
the case today. We know that we cannot be indifferent
to or be paralysed by those possibilities and threats;
nor are we disposed to be, but what are we doing to
dissipate the threats and take advantage of the
opportunities presented by this reality? Surely not
everything we would like to or that we deem necessary,
and perhaps not all that we are capable of.
 Concerning this task, the Eastern Republic of
Uruguay once again reaffirms its unwavering respect
for international law, which is the greatest guarantee
for the sovereignty of peoples and their peaceful
coexistence. We also reiterate, first, our firm rejection
of the threat of the use of force or of its use, of
terrorism, drug trafficking and all types of violence and
discrimination. Secondly, we repeat our determined
support for a peaceful solution to conflicts, to the
sovereign equality of States, to non-intervention in the
internal affairs of States, to the self-determination of
peoples, to international cooperation in economic and
social matters, and to multilateralism that also includes
free trade, because protectionism is to commerce as
authoritarianism is to democracy.
 Thirdly, we reiterate our steadfast commitment to
the advancement and protection of human rights,
because they constitute the ethics of liberty and
democracy and are aspects of the dignity that we need,
much as we need the air we breathe almost without
being conscious of it.
 Fourthly, we repeat our unwavering responsibility
in the protection of the environment as a human right
and as a fundamental aspect of achieving truly
sustainable development.
 As Americans, we feel it is our ethical duty and
political responsibility to reiterate in this global forum
that, first, we reject the institutional rupture in the
fraternal Republic of Honduras, and we demand the
immediate restoration of constitutional order and the
restoring to their posts of the authorities democratically
elected by the Honduran people. Secondly, we will
persevere in the effort to achieve an American
integration without exclusions or exceptions or
embargoes, such the one imposed on Cuba, one without
first, second or third class members. We are all
Americans, and equals.
 Without actions following, postulates are sterile.
Uruguay is one of the main troop contributors to
United Nations peacekeeping operations. The
difficulties that this peacekeeping system is going
through are due, among other factors, to the growing
demand for missions, their equally growing complexity
and the effects of the global economic crisis on the
funding for these operations. Far from discouraging us,
they stimulate us to bolster and coordinate efforts with
other Member States and the United Nations
Secretariat to collaborate in stabilizing the areas
affected by conflicts, in the protection of the civilian
population, institutional strengthening and the
promotion of bases for economic and social
development of affected countries. Similarly, our
staunch rejection of terrorism is not incompatible with
cooperation among States in the fight against it while
maintaining absolute respect for international law and
human rights.
 Uruguay is among the countries that are
signatories to the widest range of human rights
conventions, and on the occasion of the treaty-signing
ceremony for the present period, Uruguay will sign the
Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, becoming one
of the first signatories to that important international
instrument. Uruguay is also party to the main
international conventions in the sphere of the
environment and sustainable development.
 As is well known, Uruguay receives significant
investments that contribute to its industrial
development, but it also exercises rigorous control over
their environmental quality, applying its internationally
recognized regulations, demanding the use of the best

39 09-52179

available technologies, and practising effective control
in the field over environmental impacts. Uruguay is
also responsible, transparent and reliable as regards
investment for sustainable development.
 In the era of globalization, it is not only the
economy that has to be globalized. Peace, freedom,
democracy, justice, dignity and the welfare of the
people must be globalized as well. The countries
represented here, each according to its respective
identity, are working towards that end, as is Uruguay.
Faced with the impossibility of discussing the vast
system of policies and actions that are involved in that
task, I will mention just two that Uruguayans wish to
share with the international community, because they
concern the needs, hopes, rights and responsibilities of
all humankind.
 Our country has taken a firm commitment as
regards tobacco control policies, both at the
international level through its ratification of the World
Health Organization Framework Convention on
Tobacco Control, and at the national level through the
implementation of policies for the improvement of the
well-being of the population. In 2006, Uruguay became
the first smoke-free country in the Americas and the
seventh in the world.
 This is no insignificant matter when one takes
into account that, according to the World Health
Organization, smoking is the leading avoidable cause
of death worldwide. It is an epidemic that annually
causes more than 5 million deaths throughout the world
and more than 1 million in the Americas. Five million
deaths a year are far more than those caused by
alcoholism, traffic accidents, AIDS, illegal drugs,
murder, suicide and the H1N1 virus combined. When
we add up all the deaths caused by these pathologies,
we find that the number of tobacco-related deaths is
greater still. If the current trend continues, over the
next 20 years tobacco-related deaths will double in the
world and triple in our region, and in particular in the
poorest countries.
 Given that tobacco smoke does not affect
smokers alone, in a study published in 1985 the
English epidemiologist Richard Doll maintained that
being in a room with a smoker for one hour a day is
100 times more likely to cause lung cancer in a
non-smoker than spending 20 years in a building
containing asbestos.
 Our delegation at the United Nations sponsored
and promoted resolution 63/8, whose implementation
will allow us to have, at least in this environment, a
smoke-free United Nations. It represents partial but
auspicious progress in the fight against this epidemic.
 In May 2007, a year after becoming a smoke-free
country, Uruguay set out on the path to becoming a
country with equal-opportunity access to information
technologies. We are achieving this by means of the
Ceibal project, also known as “one laptop per child”,
which consists, precisely, in providing each student and
teacher of our public primary school system with a free
computer and access to the Internet. By the end of this
year, we will have provided a prototype to each of the
301,143 students and to 12,879 teachers in the
country’s 2,064 public elementary schools. This may
seem like a small number, but it should be recalled that
Uruguay has only some 3 million inhabitants.
 The project is open to students with learning,
motor or visual disabilities, who receive computers
especially designed for their needs. Private schools are
not excluded from the programme and can take part by
purchasing the prototype for a modest sum. The Ceibal
project is completely funded by the Uruguayan State,
which allocates funds not only for acquiring and
preparing the prototypes, but also for their maintenance
and the continuity of the programme.
 The Ceibal project is much more than simply the
provision of computers and is therefore worth much
more than its price. Its true worth lies in developing
intelligence, introducing deep changes in teaching and
learning, offering equal opportunities in access to
information from childhood on — because equality is
not a right for adults alone — and providing the
information and knowledge indispensable to becoming
a member of society and thus ensuring its proper
functioning.
 At the beginning of this address, I stated that if
the United Nations raison d’être is to improve what we
are as human beings, the Organization must be capable
of improving itself as a system. But the United Nations
is those who comprise it — we ourselves. Uruguay
reaffirms its commitment to the United Nations reform
process. The process that began at the 2005 Summit,
which saw the creation of two new structures within
the Organization — the Human Rights Council and the
Peacebuilding Commission — should be completed
with consideration for those issues whose practical

09-52179 40

implementation is pending or behind schedule with
respect to the goals we have set.
 Michel de Montaigne taught us that there is no
greater destiny for human beings than seeing to the
business of being human. Almost five centuries later, it
is fitting to remember the teachings of that great
Renaissance humanist. It should not, however, be
remembered solely as something of the past; we should
embrace it as a task of the present and put it into
practice, or at least try. I believe that there is no other
option if we really wish to survive as a species and to
improve as human beings. I also believe that, if we all
make a responsible attempt, we shall achieve it. In that
conviction, intention and confidence, I greet the United
Nations on behalf of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay.


On behalf of my
delegation I congratulate Mr. Ali Treki on his election
as President of the sixty-fourth session of the General
Assembly. I am sure that his wisdom and experience
will guide us as we address the challenges on the
global agenda. I would like to pay tribute to the
important work of your predecessor Mr. Miguel
d’Escoto Brockmann. He led the Assembly’s sixty-
third session through complex discussions and
extensive investigations in a spirit of responsibility and
good faith. I also take this opportunity to commend the
Secretary-General and his staff for their continued
dedication in overseeing the ongoing efforts for
improving the working methods of the Organization
and its interaction with Member States.
 The world continues to face many challenges,
both traditional and new. Whilst traditional challenges
to international peace and security persist, we also
have to cope with non-traditional threats such as
pervasive poverty, deadly diseases, increased
frequency and intensity of natural disasters and
environmental degradation. Added to those challenges
are the energy, food, financial and economic crises, all
of which are hampering the realization of the
Millennium Development Goals by the target date of
2015.
 Our growing interdependence in today’s world
only strengthens the understanding that current
challenges transcend national borders and therefore
require concerted action and responses from the
international community. The United Nations therefore
remains the central forum for addressing global issues,
and we continue to advocate effective multilateralism
not as an option but as a necessity.
 In this regard we deem it indispensable for the
United Nations to continue its reform efforts. This
should include meaningful reform of the Security
Council, to make it more effective and responsive to
today’s challenging world. Of equal importance is
strengthened cooperation within and between regional
groups. We should continue to promote and pursue
intensified channels of political dialogue between
regional groups in reaffirming our shared commitment
to multilateralism.
 In this spirit, my country participates in regional
and interregional endeavours to strengthen political,
economic, cultural and social cooperation and
integration. I would like to highlight the importance of
the United Nations as an effective agent in advancing
multilateralism and emphasize the need for it to
strengthen its role of consultation and coordination
with regional organizations.
 The urgency of the threat posed by climate
change requires the same degree of multilateral
engagement as has been demonstrated in areas ranging
from the fight against the uncontrolled spread of illicit
small arms and light weapons, the fight against
international terrorism and the effort to control
HIV/AIDS, on the one hand, and peacekeeping and
peacebuilding, the advancement of women and the
protection of human rights, on the other.
 We express our appreciation to the Secretary-
General for convening the recent Summit on Climate
Change to garner the necessary political support to
“seal the deal” in Copenhagen. Suriname expects an
agreement in Copenhagen with ambitious mitigation
and adaptation targets. We expect the commitments
necessary to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases in
appropriate quantities and to support adaptation in
developing countries. Countries that are historically

23 09-52470

responsible for the current emissions of greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere should take the lead in this
area.
 In the spirit of common but differentiated
responsibilities, we look forward to appropriate
mitigation efforts by developing countries. As a high-
forest low-deforestation (HFLD) country, Suriname
will continue with its efforts to manage its forests
sustainably. In this way we aim to keep and improve
the climate-stabilizing capacity of our standing forests.
We attach great importance to the establishment of a
future forest carbon-mitigation regime providing
positive incentives to HFLD countries. In this regard
we call your attention to the report of the Informal
Working Group on Interim Finance for Reducing
Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation
(REDD). This report estimates that, if financing of
€15 billion to €25 billion is available for the 2010-
2015 period, a 25 per cent reduction in annual global
deforestation rates will be achievable by 2015. In this
regard we call upon institutions and fellow Member
States to support United Nations REDD+ efforts in
recognition of the beneficial potential of tropical
forests in mitigating climate change.
 Suriname has emphasized its support for the
promotion of dialogue among civilizations and the
culture of peace in various international forums,
especially through the full implementation of the
Global Agenda and Programme of Action for Dialogue
among Civilizations, as well as the Declaration and
Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace
(resolutions 56/6 and 53/243, respectively).
 Our democracy serves as an illustration of our
quest for peace, security and development. Various
ethnic groups with different multicultural backgrounds
and religious traditions have come a long way in
coexisting and cooperating in a harmonious and
peaceful way. This engagement is reflected in the
political representation of our administration. It is
within this atmosphere of democratic values, of high
levels of religious and ethnic tolerance, that we are
building a society that can prosper and engage with the
region and the world beyond. In order to achieve
international peace, security and development,
cooperation should be based upon constructive and
respectful dialogue. This dialogue should be guided by
a spirit of tolerance, acceptance and trust among
religions, peoples and cultures. Only with mutual trust
and understanding will we be able to overcome
international tensions.
 The Secretary-General recently emphasized the
importance of education for development. Education
has always been the foundation of economic
opportunity and prosperity. Knowledge and advanced
skills are critical tools for enhancing every country’s
economic potential, growth and standard of living. This
is why we have to join our efforts to improve the
capacity of countries to adopt, disseminate and
maximize technological advances. Improved
international cooperation aimed at creating better
educational systems will help developing countries
progress faster towards achieving the Millennium
Development Goals, particularly those related to all
levels of education, health and gender equality.
 The promotion and protection of human rights are
among the most effective strategies for eliminating
inequalities between social groups and within and
between countries, and Suriname therefore remains
committed to the promotion and protection of all
human rights.
 With regard to what is called the supreme
international crime — namely, the crime of
aggression — Suriname expresses the hope that a
decision on the elements of crime will be taken very
soon. The upcoming Review Conference of the Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court, to be held in
Uganda next year, should therefore address this issue
seriously.
 For more than 60 years the United Nations has
been able to build confidence and understanding
between Member States and help keep global peace.
My delegation reiterates its commitment to
development, respect for human rights and
international peace and security. We will continue to
engage in constructive dialogue aimed at contributing
to a better future for all.


At the outset, the Government and people
of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines take this
opportunity to extend deepest condolences to the
people of the Philippines and the Socialist Republic of
Viet Nam for the lives tragically lost in the wake of
tropical storm Ketsana. Our thoughts, prayers and
solidarity are with them as they grapple with that
catastrophe.
 It is with great pleasure that we welcome
Mr. Treki to the leadership of the General Assembly at
its sixty-fourth session. His experience and abilities are
well known and respected, and he has our full support
in the coming year. Indeed, we in Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines are particularly pleased that the presidency

09-53165 20

has moved from Nicaragua, a country touched by the
Caribbean Sea, to a continent that is the ancestral home
of the vast majority of our citizens. We have, in
essence, kept the presidency within our extended
family. We trust that he will continue the exemplary
work of his predecessor, Father Miguel d’Escoto
Brockmann, who fearlessly and tirelessly championed
the role of the “G-192” in addressing global
challenges.
 We face many challenges within our international
community, but at their most basic, the majority are
symptomatic of a single underlying issue: a struggle by
the powerful to cling to their dominion long after the
legitimate bases of their power have faded. We find
ourselves in a world governed by outdated norms and
assumptions, and our failure to adapt has wrought
disastrous consequences on our peoples.
 In his welcome and inspiring maiden statement to
the General Assembly last Wednesday, our esteemed
brother and friend President Barack Obama of the
United States correctly identified the challenges to our
multilateral unity as “rooted in a discontent with the
status quo” (see ). We wholeheartedly agree
and endorse that assessment.
 It is a discontent with the status quo of a 63-year-
old Security Council, which continues to administer
our collective security unchanged and impervious to
the logic of a new world. It is a discontent with the
role, effectiveness and mandate of the 65-year-old
Bretton Woods institutions, which were created in a
bygone era to address bygone circumstances. It is a
discontent with a 49-year-old blockade on the noble
people of our neighbour Cuba, the continued illegal
application of which is illogical when viewed through
the prism of geopolitics, economics or
humanitarianism, and can be successfully explained
only by reference to narrow local political
considerations.
 It is a discontent, even, with the stagnation of
efforts to change the status quo in other critical
respects: the eight years of unresolved negotiations of
the Doha Development Round, the 12 years of the
toothless commitments of the Kyoto Protocol, and the
seven years of unfulfilled Monterrey Consensus
promises to achieve a 0.7 per cent of gross national
product for official development assistance, a full 40
years after this modest percentage was first mooted.
 Through it all, the geopolitical status quo
remains. The structural bases of international
interaction are distressingly similar to their decades-
old antecedents. Those structures were forged in the
fires of World War II, hardened in the frost of the Cold
War and entrenched by the legacies of colonialism and
exploitation. But World War II has long since ended,
the Cold War is relegated to history books, and the
reach of formal colonialism continues to recede. The
structures spawned by those historical episodes are no
longer valid.
 Our discontent is born not only of stagnation but
also of exclusion. Although we have a seat in this
hallowed building, it is often the seat of a spectator in a
historical drama. The directors and actors script history
not in the General Assembly, but in other rooms and
locales, without our input or knowledge. In many
significant ways we are attendees, rather than
participants, on the international stage.
 We are in the midst of a global financial and
economic crisis of unparalleled depth and scope. Saint
Vincent and the Grenadines played no part in the
reckless speculation and corruption that precipitated
this crisis, yet the people of our country are hard hit by
its effects. Our tourism industry is suffering,
remittances are shrinking, foreign direct investment is
scarce, and the spectre of unemployment is a real and
gathering regional threat. However, we are actively
excluded from the solutions to this problem.
 Last week, we learned that the Group of 20
(G-20) anointed itself “the premier forum for our
international economic cooperation”. Saint Vincent and
the Grenadines is not a member of the G-20, nor were
we consulted on its ascension to the ranks of arbiters of
our economic fate. While there is an undeniable logic
to a small group of the world’s largest economies
meeting informally to thrash out matters that affect
only their own large economies, the logic fades in the
face of a crisis that has spread rapidly and
comprehensively to every corner of the globe.
 Additionally, the G-20 faces a serious legitimacy
problem. Aside from the Group’s being non-inclusive
and unofficial, many of the countries at that table
represent the champions of the financial and economic
orthodoxies that led the world down the rabbit hole to
its current economic malaise.
 Further, the G-20’s recent self-congratulatory
pronouncements of “mission accomplished” in the

21 09-53165

midst of this economic upheaval are of cold comfort to
the suffering peoples and countries of the world. While
the G-20 may claim that its actions have “worked”, and
claim a “sense of normalcy”, the people of Saint
Vincent and the Grenadines and our Caribbean region
are under no such illusions. The invisible hand of the
market is still clasped firmly around the throats of poor
people and the developing countries of the world. We
see none of the so-called green shoots that populate the
fantasies of discredited economic cheerleaders.
 Indeed, the seeds sown by this crisis may produce
the strange and bitter fruit of increased poverty,
suffering and social and political upheaval. The crisis
itself, with its disproportionate impact on the poor, will
only widen and deepen the yawning gap between
developed and developing countries.
 It is not merely the economic crisis against which
the people of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
continue to struggle heroically. Today, we face the
triple threat of being globalized, climatized and
stigmatized. We have already been globalized by the
World Trade Organization (WTO) out of our trade in
bananas, which, until very recently, was the engine of
our economic growth. We are on the verge of being
climatized out of our reliance on tourism as its
development substitute, as climate change wreaks
havoc on our weather systems, intensifies our
hurricanes, destroys our coral reefs, damages our costal
infrastructure and erodes our beaches.
 Now, we face being stigmatized out of our
transition into financial services, as the G-20, the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development and other non-inclusive bodies seek to
scapegoat and root out so-called tax havens in a
pathetic effort to cast a wide and indiscriminate net of
blame across a swath of legitimate and well-regulated
countries’ development efforts.
 We note the irony of hearing these paternalistic
prescriptions from the same countries that are unable to
stem corruption and mismanagement within their own
borders, where corporations recklessly squander
trillions of dollars and a single buccaneer investor can
make $50 billion — an amount greater than the
combined annual budget expenditures of the entire
Caribbean Community subregion — disappear into thin
air.
 The unholy trinity of exogenous assaults on our
development prospects posed by globalization,
climatization and stigmatization cannot be ignored, nor
can the security threats engendered by the illicit trade
in firearms and narcotics. We in Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines find ourselves unfortunately located
between the supply of and demand for these poisons
and weapons, and their deleterious effects rip holes in
our cohesive social fabric. The Caribbean, which
produces not one single firearm or one single kilo of
cocaine, is awash in drugs and guns, and is now the
subregion with the world’s highest per capita murder
rate.
 Our plight cannot be ignored. Indeed, we are
heartened that the United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime, which inexplicably ended its presence in our
region, has now seen fit to reconsider its decision to
cede the Caribbean to drug cartels and murderers. We
hope that it represents a genuine and generous
recommitment to our regional challenges.
 As a small archipelagic State, we, more than
most, are affected and threatened by the ravages of
climate change. We, more than most, recognize the
critical importance of a meaningful, measurable and
enforceable global compact on climate change.
However, we do not simply want to “seal the deal” at
Copenhagen, as posited by the sloganeers of the United
Nations. We want to seal the right deal, the just deal,
and the deal that ensures our continued survival. We
most emphatically will not seal a suicide pact that will
assure the elimination of small island States and our
way of life.
 The Alliance of Small Island States has recently
issued a declaration that contains what we consider to
be the essential contours of any meaningful agreement
on climate change. We trust that our blameless position
on the front lines of climate change fallout will be
considered and respected in the global effort to seal the
deal. We cannot, as in the case of the world economy,
be excluded in any way from the solutions to a problem
that so fundamentally affects us.
 The theme of exclusion is equally applicable to
our friends in Taiwan. The United Nations and its
specialized agencies must find ways to ensure the
meaningful participation of the 23 million people of
Taiwan. Just as their economic strength has merited
inclusion in the WTO and the universality of global
health challenges have logically compelled their
participation in the World Health Assembly, so too
should the global reach of climate change merit their

09-53165 22

meaningful participation in the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change.
 The interconnected networks of global air travel
and our shared safety concerns similarly mandate the
participation of Taiwan in the International Civil
Aviation Organization. The Government and people of
Taiwan have advanced a reasonable and responsible
policy of engagement to usher a new era in cross-strait
relations. The international community can and should
encourage and reward this fledgling rapprochement
with meaningful participation in the relevant
specialized agencies.
 Any cursory analysis of the excluded and the
included, of the discontented and the defenders of the
status quo, will quickly reveal that many current
inequities are rooted in our colonial history and that the
struggle for geopolitical balance and inclusiveness is
indeed the last struggle of decolonization as we, the
former colonial territories, remain excluded from the
inner sanctums and power structures that were
established by and for the colonizers in a time long
since passed.
 On 27 October this year, Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines will celebrate its thirtieth anniversary of
independence. However, we recognize that
independence is a process, not a one-time event. Our
independence journey continues today. Thirty years
after gaining formal independence, we retain the Queen
as our Head of State, and our highest judicial appeals
travel from our shores to the United Kingdom to be
decided by Her Majesty in Council. While we cherish a
special, modern and respectful relationship with the
United Kingdom, we do not intend to tarry on colonial
premises a moment longer than is necessary.
 Even as we wage a wider war of attrition against
geopolitical colonialism, our citizens are preparing to
vote on a new and home-grown constitution that will
break the chains of outmoded dependence and place
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines firmly on its two feet
as a truly independent republic. This new proposed
constitution, the product of six years of open,
transparent and inclusive public consultations, is
testament to the political maturity of our people and to
the value of locally tailored solutions to externally
imposed impediments.
 In a similar manner, our brothers and sisters in
the developing world, including Cuba, the Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela, Turkey, Mexico, Malaysia,
Iran, Libya, Brazil and many others, have forged new
links and bonds of friendship, cooperation and
solidarity with our country that go beyond historical,
geographical or colonial linkages. We value these
friendships and partnerships as important additions to
our traditional and treasured allies in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Taiwan, Canada and the
European Union.
 Just as our myriad bilateral friendships and
partnerships span geographic, economic and
ideological divides, so too must our multilateral
cooperation be inclusive and participatory. We can no
longer maintain the illusion of holding hands in
artificial solidarity across the moats and turrets of
structural and systemic inequalities. Modern
multilateralism cannot proceed on the bases of the
included and the excluded, of the political haves and
have-nots, nor can token assimilations of individual
developing countries serve to mask the necessity for
deep structural changes to existing power
arrangements.
 We urge our brothers and sisters who have gained
limited access to the halls of power to not only be a
voice for their excluded brothers and to not only
remember where they came from, but also to view
themselves as the tip of the spear, the thin edge of the
wedge that will use their newfound privileges to
dismantle these structures from within, even as we
continue to make our presence felt outside the citadels
of stasis and indifference.
 Psalm 118 of the Bible teaches that the stone that
the builder rejected shall become the cornerstone. We,
the poor and developing countries of the world, are the
stones that the builders of this body refused and
ignored. In rebuilding and revitalizing, either we will
become the cornerstones of this institution, or this
edifice of multilateral cooperation will crumble into
irrelevance and illegitimacy.
 Addressing the economic crisis, poverty and
development is not an academic exercise. Climate
change is not a theoretical event. Reform of global
governance is not a diplomatic parlour game. They are
the clear and present dangers of our time, and they
reflect the need for the real and inclusive participation
of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Caribbean and
the developing world. They represent also a need to
reflect and address our discontent with the status quo
perpetuated for far too long.

23 09-53165

 We stand now in the autumn of our discontent,
but, as Gandhi said, “Healthy discontent is the prelude
to progress”. The challenge of the discontented is to
rise above ancient animosities and artificial
balkanization to achieve the clarity of vision, unity of
purpose and political will to finally and successfully
storm the castles of stagnation and status quo and to
drive our peoples, our politics and our planet into a
new era of genuine inclusiveness, equity and
meaningful, people-centred progress.


I believe it is fair to say that we have just come
through an annus horribilis: a year marked by the
worldwide financial and economic crisis, the worst
since the Great Depression of 1929; by an increase in
hunger and poverty — we are speaking about some
100 million more people sinking into hunger and
chronic poverty due to the crisis, and more than
1 billion people suffering from hunger in 2009; by the
dramatic rise in unemployment — the International
Labour Organization (ILO) indicates that 50 million
workers are at risk of losing or have already lost their
jobs; by set-backs in the hard-won progress towards
the Millennium Development Goals; and by the
outbreak of a pandemic. It was also a year during
which questions about the relevance of the United
Nations and calls for an overhaul of international
governance grew ever louder.
 Accordingly, we see the need to take stock and
draw lessons, namely, to review the major challenges
the international community is confronting in terms of
development, human rights and the rule of law,
peacekeeping and security, disarmament and
non-proliferation and the fight against climate change.
And what better forum to discuss these issues than the
General Assembly of the United Nations?
 The economic crisis that hit the world a year ago
was even more devastating, as it took place while we
were still struggling to cope with, without having
overcome them, the food and energy crises, as well as
the acceleration, obviously, of climate change.
 I have just mentioned the particularly negative
impact of the crisis on the poorest. To face those
challenges, we need concerted action, coherent action,
global action, a true global partnership for
development, based on the shared responsibilities of
donors and recipients.
 My country will continue to assume its share of
responsibility by maintaining its efforts in terms of
official development assistance (ODA). Having spent
0.95 per cent of its gross national income on ODA in
2008, the Government that was elected in June 2009
has not only confirmed that it maintains the
quantitative target of 1 per cent of its gross national
income, but will also continue to insist on the
qualitative improvement of Luxembourg’s cooperation
in order to further increase efficiency, all of it in the

09-52470 44

context of sustainable development integrating
economic, social and environmental issues.
 Luxembourg calls on all Member States to make
the necessary efforts to keep all the commitments that
were made together in this forum and that we have
reiterated at the Millennium Summit in Monterrey and
more recently in Doha.
 We must, however, learn the lessons provided by
this multidimensional crisis and contemplate a more
systemic reform of the existing multilateral system,
including the financial and economic architecture, and
adapt it to the current political and socio-economic
realities.
 As I stated in this forum in June at the
Conference on the World Financial and Economic
Crisis and Its Impact on Development, the United
Nations and its principal organs must be at the centre
of such a reflection. The Economic and Social Council,
which is the central mechanism for coordination and
the principal organ of the United Nations responsible
for economic and social issues, will have a particularly
important role to play in this regard.
 Luxembourg, which chairs the Economic and
Social Council this year, has assumed its
responsibilities in that regard and is working towards
full implementation of the various mandates entrusted
to the Council by Member States in the framework of
the international Conference.
 All these actions require a strong multilateral
framework based on sound legal rules that are binding
on all Member States. In times of crisis, unilateral
tendencies unfortunately tend to recur. While it is
important that representatives of the major economies
of the world meet to discuss common problems,
particularly the economic and financial crisis we have
experienced in recent months, such forums should not
and must not substitute for multilateral structures and
existing intergovernmental mandates.
 In order to retain the relevance of our multilateral
structures, they must be based on trust and cooperation:
trust between the citizen and the State, trust among
States themselves, whether they are from the North or
the South, rich or poor, and confidence of States in the
United Nations, which is our common good.
 It lies in our hands to assume our responsibilities,
to overcome our divisions, to move the thinking and
the decision-making forward, and to ensure
consistency. It lies in our hands to undertake the
necessary reform efforts required for a Security
Council that reflects, at last, the geopolitical realities
of today, and which is more representative, efficient
and transparent; for a revitalized General Assembly,
and for a stronger and more effective Economic and
Social Council. It lies in our hands to demonstrate the
continued relevance of our Organization and its
capacity to act and to formulate joint responses, global
responses and legitimate responses.
 In our globalized world, there is no turning away.
 We are all concerned, and the challenges we are
facing are of an ever-increasing complexity, including
in matters of peace and security. Yesterday, we
commemorated the sixtieth anniversary of the United
Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine
Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), an anniversary
that one would somehow have preferred not to have to
celebrate, for while it allowed us to express our
gratitude for the outstanding work done by that United
Nations agency in the service of the Palestinian people
on a daily basis, it is true, it is also synonymous with
failure. Sixty years later, the situation in the Middle
East remains unresolved.
 While we welcome that the new Administration
in the United States is determined to seek a solution
based on the coexistence of two States and a
comprehensive peace in the Middle East, and while we,
together with our European Union partners, are
committed to working actively with the United States
and other Quartet members, including, obviously, the
United Nations, to achieve this goal, at the same time
we deeply regret that Israel persists in its policy of
colonization.
 Mr. Shaheed (Maldives), Vice-President, took the
Chair.
 It cannot be repeated too often: the settlement
activity is not only illegal under international law, but
it is also an obstacle to peace. To continue colonization
is to persist in humiliating the Palestinians, in
dominating the Palestinian people. Without the clear
signal of an end to this policy, it is unlikely that serious
negotiations can resume.
 We fully support the intention of the President of
the United States to engage in negotiations, and we
will support him in this endeavour. Annapolis showed
that Israelis and Palestinians, when they are alone

45 09-52470

around the negotiating table, are not able to show a
level of commitment commensurate with the
fundamental problems, namely, Jerusalem, the question
of refugees and their right to return, security and the
issue of borders.
 We call on all parties to shoulder their
responsibilities and, through their actions, to establish
an environment conducive to the resumption of
negotiations to resolve the conflict. The end of
divisions among Palestinians and the intra-Palestinian
reconciliation that is centred on President Mahmoud
Abbas, who has demonstrated in the West Bank that
substantial progress in terms of security and
governance is possible, are just as much a part of this
as the adoption of confidence-building measures by
Israel and Arab countries or the simultaneous search
for solutions to the conflicts between, on the one hand,
Israel and the Syrian Arab Republic and, on the other
hand, Israel and Lebanon.
 In that context, I would also like to stress just
how urgent it is to find a sustainable solution to the
crisis in Gaza through the full implementation of
Security Council resolution 1860 (2009). An end must
be put to the untenable situation of 1.5 million
Palestinians living in a prison. Giving hope and
motivation to the Palestinian people is a basic human
obligation. Light must also be shed on the events in
Gaza, including the events following the release of the
United Nations fact-finding mission’s report, which has
just been published and which has brought shocking
acts to light. The credibility of the United Nations is at
stake in this matter.
 The credibility of the international community
too is at stake in a number of respects with regard to
the situation in Afghanistan. It is at stake as far as the
establishment and maintenance of peace and security is
concerned, but also in terms of preserving the rule of
law and respect for our fundamental values, ensuring
the economic and social development of the country
and combating poverty. That was the mandate given to
the United Nations back in 2001. It has become clear
that, eight years after the adoption of that mandate, the
progress made is still not enough. In the light of the
increasing number of bloody attacks carried out across
the country, the events surrounding the recent
presidential elections and the alarming figures in terms
of development objectives, public opinion is beginning
to wonder whether in fact we are not moving
backwards.
 There is no easy solution, but there is certainly no
alternative to our continued engagement in the country.
I would like to stress that, together with our European
Union and NATO partners, we will remain engaged
alongside the authorities and the people of
Afghanistan. There can be no question of abandoning
the people, who have been devastated by decades of
conflict and violations of their most basic rights. The
goal must be a stable and democratic State where all
forces, including the Taliban, recognize and respect the
rule of law and basic human rights.
 Another conflict area that has long been a source
of concern and where our hopes of lasting peace were
once again called into question in the past year is the
Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once again it is
civilians who must suffer the consequences. We are
seriously concerned about the crimes committed
against civilians, especially women and children.
 In that context I would like to welcome the draft
Security Council resolution that provides for concrete
follow-up to resolution 1820 (2008), on women and
peace and security. Luxembourg fully supports that
text. I also welcome the personal commitment of the
Secretary-General in the fight against sexual violence.
It is important that the United Nations system as a
whole address the phenomenon of sexual violence,
which is used increasingly as a weapon of war in
armed conflict even after hostilities have ended. It is
essential to strengthen efforts to prevent such acts from
happening and to bring to justice those who commit
those horrible crimes.
 While much remains to be said about the
challenges in terms of the maintenance of peace and
security, especially in the context of the current debate
on the future of peacekeeping operations — a debate
that I applaud — allow me to dwell for a moment on
the current encouraging developments in the field of
disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation.
 I welcome President Obama’s initiative to engage
the Security Council in a broader discussion of issues
pertaining to non-proliferation and disarmament,
beyond the specific area of issues related to sanctions.
As we are only a few months from the eighth Review
Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), it is
important that we demonstrate our determination to
carry out that task as regards the three pillars of the

09-52470 46

NPT, the ultimate goal being a world free of nuclear
weapons.
 The same goes for the Comprehensive Nuclear-
Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), the other cornerstone of the
nuclear non-proliferation regime. As I said yesterday
during the meeting of States that have ratified the
CTBT, the call of the Security Council to sign and
ratify the CTBT and the commitment of President
Obama to do everything possible to ensure ratification
in the United States are crucial. The Treaty must at last
enter into force. We hope that those encouraging
developments will lead others to adopt a more
constructive attitude, with full respect for their
international obligations.
 Beyond non-proliferation issues, however, we
must not overlook disarmament itself. In that regard,
we certainly welcome the decision of the United States
and the Russian Federation to conduct negotiations to
conclude a new comprehensive agreement following
the expiry of the START II Treaty next December.
 Allow me as well to say a few words about an
issue that is also relevant in terms of security and
defence. I am referring to the welcome decision — in
my opinion, at least — by the United States
Administration to abandon the effort to put in place a
missile defence shield. It always seemed to me that the
way forward in that regard was not to adopt unilateral
measures, but to engage in discussion and cooperation
with our Russian partners with a view to ensuring our
common security.
 I cannot conclude without saying a few words
about climate change, which is perhaps the greatest
challenge to world prosperity in the long term. I would
like to take this opportunity to thank the Secretary-
General once again for convening the summit of
22 September. That resulted in political mobilization at
the highest level, which is crucial if we want to make
the Copenhagen Conference a success and set a new
course towards sustainable development and green
growth that reduces carbon emissions.
 The scientific evidence exists. It is now up to us
to respond with determination in facing those facts.
Developed countries will have to set the example by
agreeing to ambitious and higher than average targets
to reduce carbon dioxide by 2050. They must do so by
entering into binding legal commitments, including for
the medium term, in the context of an effective and
universal international regime to which countries
contribute on the basis of their capacity.
 Moreover, the issue of adaptation to climate
change — including also the financing of related
efforts, which will necessarily constitute an additional
expense — should be treated as a priority at
Copenhagen. Allow me to note in passing that the
disarmament efforts that I have just described should
free up financial resources that could be put to better
use in this regard.
 Meanwhile, together with its partners in the
European Union, Luxembourg has already committed
itself to reach the so-called 20-20-20 goal of increasing
energy efficiency in the European Union by 20 per
cent, increasing renewable energy by 20 per cent of
total energy consumption and reducing greenhouse gas
emissions by 20 per cent compared to 1990 levels.
Beginning several years ago, Luxembourg began to
systematically incorporate the issue of adaptation to
climate change in its development programmes.
 Climate change, however, will have an impact not
only on development, but also on the full enjoyment of
human rights and on the security of countries. I
therefore very much welcome the report produced by
the Secretary-General following the initiative taken in
that regard by Pacific small island developing States,
which addresses the full scope of the problem.
 Luxembourg remains firmly convinced of the
relevance of a multilateral approach in which the
United Nations is at the centre. We will continue to
base our policies and make our contributions with a
view to creating a world that is more just, more
peaceful and more prosperous, as enshrined in our
founding Charter. It is also because of this passionate
motivation to work towards a strong and effective
multilateralism that Luxembourg, a founding Member
of the United Nations, aspires to become, for the first
time, a non-permanent member of the Security Council
in 2013-2014.


Let me join previous speakers
in congratulating you, Sir, on your assumption of the
presidency at the sixty-fourth session of the General
Assembly. I should also like to extend Zambia’s
sincere appreciation to His Excellency Mr. Miguel
d’Escoto Brockmann for his able leadership during the
sixty-third session.
 The theme for this session provides us with an
opportunity to evaluate existing multilateral
approaches to address the challenges arising from
globalization. Those include threats to socio-economic
development and international peace and security.
There is a need to develop innovative approaches and
responses to those challenges, which include
HIV/AIDS and influenza A(H1N1), terrorism, climate
change, nuclear weapons and, more recently, the global
economic and financial crisis. In this globalized and
interdependent world, no country, however wealthy or
powerful it is, can resolve all those challenges single-
handedly. Common solutions are therefore required
through a strong United Nations.
 This session is taking place against the backdrop
of the adverse effects of the recent global economic
and financial crisis, which has spared no one. In my
own country of Zambia and in other African countries,
the economic growth achieved from 2000 to 2007 is
now declining as a result of the global economic and
financial crisis. We are faced with serious financial
constraints, lower commodity prices and weak external
and domestic demand for our products, high inflation
and rising unemployment. Manufacturing and
construction activities have also slackened. As copper
accounts for about 70 per cent of Zambia’s exports, the
effect of the collapse of international copper prices —
from $8,985 per metric tonne in August 2008 to $2,902
at the end of 2008 — has, among other things, resulted
in greatly reduced revenue collections.
 Zambia’s experience from the recent global
financial and economic crisis is a timely reminder of
the consequences of overdependence on a single
economic sector. My Government has therefore
developed a diversification plan to shift the economy
from dependence on copper. That is being done
through policy interventions in the agriculture, tourism
and manufacturing sectors, coupled with programmes
aimed at improving the business environment in
Zambia.
 For those efforts to succeed, however, there must
be an expeditious conclusion to the World Trade
Organization’s Doha Round of negotiations. Zambia
considers the aid-for-trade component of the
negotiations as critical, as it will develop our country’s
capacity to overcome supply-side constraints and
encourage value addition in its commodities.

47 09-52425

 Zambia’s response to the global economic crisis
needs the support of its international development
partners. We appreciate that our cooperating partners
have also been affected by the global economic crisis.
Nonetheless, we urge them to fulfil their pledge to
increase their contributions to official development
assistance to 0.71 per cent of gross national income.
That is necessary if the global development agenda is
to help vulnerable economies, such as Zambia’s, meet
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.
 Zambia believes that there is a need to reform
international financial governance systems in order to
avoid future global financial crises. The changes,
which must be inclusive, should respond to the needs
and concerns of all nations, regardless of status. It is
essential that there be an increase in the voice and
power of developing countries at the World Bank and
the International Monetary Fund. The reform process
should aim to improve the predictability of aid flows
and emphasize reforms that promote faster aid delivery
and fewer conditionalities.
 Zambia roundly applauds the leadership that the
United Nations provides in tackling climate change, as
was illustrated only two days ago by the hosting of the
high-level Summit on Climate Change. Our efforts to
raise the standards of living for the world’s poor people
in order to meet the Millennium Development Goals
are being frustrated by the effects of climate change.
 Scientists have spoken. We have seen with our
own eyes, in just one generation, how great an effect
climate change has had on our environment. On the eve
of the Climate Change Summit, just a few days ago,
unprecedented floods hit the state of Georgia in this
country, as if to rebuke any of us who still doubt the
evidence. Let us just look around us. We do not need
science to tell us that deserts have expanded, that
forests have drastically shrunk, that rivers have dried
up and that it rains less and less in many places, and
yet so much more in others. Nature has lost its balance
and humankind has lost its footing.
 In our own short lifespan, in my own country, I
remember a time when forests were within a child’s
walking distance, teeming with a profusion of animals,
birds, plants, insects and fruits. Today my
grandchildren would be lucky to name the indigenous
fruits of our country on the fingers of one hand. So
many species of our countries’ flora and fauna have
become extinct — forever lost to the world — in such
a short time.
 Our children have spoken. Our citizens have
spoken. If we go to Copenhagen to question the science
yet again, or to make more speeches justifying
inaction, if we still believe that we can only act after
our competitors act, then we as leaders will have failed
our peoples and consigned the world to utter
destruction. Copenhagen is the precipice, either we
step back and let live or tip over into the abyss. We
must act, and act now.
 With regard to mitigation, Zambia’s view is that
the shared vision should be based on shared
responsibilities for climate change; and that there must
be an equitable burden-sharing mechanism that requires
developed countries to commit to reducing emissions to
legally binding levels, while developing countries take
actions to ensure a substantial reduction from
environment-degrading development programmes.
 As the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference
draws near, Zambia expects an agreement that will
balance climate change concerns with development.
The Copenhagen agreement must provide increased
and predictable support for the implementation of the
adaptation programme, which must be established
within a binding legal instrument under the United
Nations Framework Convention.
 Speaking in my capacity as the Chairman of the
International Conference on Great Lakes Region, I am
happy to report to the Assembly that the Great Lakes
region of Africa is now more stable and peaceful than
it has ever been in the past 15 years, albeit with
challenges. The improved relations between the
Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, and
their joint efforts to tackle the problem of negative
forces in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, has opened up opportunities for achieving
sustainable peace and stability in the region.
 However, the region is still faced with the threat
posed by the continued presence of illegal armed
groups and negative forces, namely, the Forces
démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR)/
ex-Forces armées rwandaises/Interahamwe, the Lord’s
Resistance Army (LRA) and the Allied Democratic
Forces. Although the recent joint military operations
between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and
Rwanda succeeded in dislodging FDLR elements from
most of their strongholds, the continued atrocities

09-52425 48

committed by the remnants of that group against
civilians remains a great source of concern.
 We applaud the role of the international
community through the United Nations Organization
Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in
providing support for the Government of that country
in its efforts to build military capacity to neutralize the
negative forces in the eastern part of its territory. The
international community needs to exert more sustained
pressure on the leadership of those negative forces
living within and outside the region, so that they are
brought to justice.
 The Lord’s Resistance Army, which fled to the
north-eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the
Congo and the Central African Republic after the Juba
talks failed, continues to commit atrocities against the
innocent civilian population. The Great Lakes
mechanisms allowed for a joint military operation
against the LRA, which, challenges notwithstanding,
achieved some progress in dislodging rebel forces.
 There is a need for sustained military and
diplomatic pressure to bring Joseph Kony back to the
negotiating table. There is also a need for more
logistical support from the international community to
protect the civilian population and, at the same time,
put an end to the atrocities and brutality committed
with impunity by the LRA.
 The Great Lakes region is organizing a round
table conference in Bujumbura, Burundi, to be held
from 5 to 6 November 2009, at which we expect
renewed support from the Group of Friends and other
partners to finance the Pact on Security, Stability and
Development in the Great Lakes Region.
 Prior to the global economic downturn, Zambia’s
economic growth was on course to meet all but one of
the Millennium Development Goals, namely, ensuring
environmental sustainability. However, the effect of the
global financial and economic crisis, coupled with the
effects of climate change, threaten the prospects of
meeting the MDGs on poverty, agriculture and
environmental sustainability.
 The United Nations remains the central principal
organ for coordinating international cooperation in
socio-economic development, peace, security, human
rights and the rule of law. There is a need to reform the
United Nations in order to make it more effective and
efficient. Zambia believes that the reform of the United
Nations will not be complete without meaningful
reform of the Security Council. Making the Council
more representative, democratic and accountable to all
Member States, irrespective of status, is essential if its
decisions are to be acceptable to the entire
international community. The Security Council must
adapt to the realities of the new geopolitical situation
that characterize the world.
 Given that Africa constitutes the second largest
bloc of United Nations membership, proposals to
reform the Security Council should heed Africa’s call
for two permanent seats with veto power and two
additional non-permanent seats. That would address the
historical injustice against Africa while responding to
the need to democratize the Security Council. Equally
important in that regard is the need to reform the
working methods of that important United Nations
body.
 Human rights issues are an important component
in the maintenance of peace and stability in any
country. I wish to inform the Assembly that, since
Zambia was elected a member of the Human Rights
Council, in 2006, it has continued to advocate for the
promotion and protection of human rights. In May
2008, Zambia extended an open invitation to all
mandate holders on special areas of focus relating to
issues of human rights to visit and evaluate the extent
to which Zambia observes its obligations under the
various United Nations conventions. We urge other
countries to follow suit.
 Even in the post-cold-war era, nuclear arms pose
a threat to international peace and security and the very
existence of humankind. It is for that reason that
Zambia stands for general and complete disarmament
in a time-bound manner, to include biological,
chemical, nuclear and radiological weapons. The
demand of the time is that we compete for peace, not
war, for development and not armaments.
 There is no doubt that the United Nations
continues to be the only multilateral institution capable
of addressing the challenges of our one world. This
session’s theme attests to that fact. The world looks up
to this body to encourage dialogue among civilizations
on all global challenges in an inclusive manner as the
only practical way to ensure meaningful and effective
international cooperation.
 Allow me to conclude by quoting Jonathan Rauch
in the January 2001 issue of The Atlantic magazine, in

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his article entitled “The New Old Economy: Oil,
Computers and the Reinvention of the Earth”, as
quoted by R. A. Bisson and Jay Lehr in the preface to
their book entitled Modern Groundwater Exploration.
In the article, which looked at future oil supply,
Mr. Rauch predicted that demand for oil will peter out
well before supply runs out because, he argued,
something cheaper and cleaner would come along. He
concluded by stating that “knowledge, not petroleum,
is becoming the critical resource in the oil business”
and that, although the supply of oil is fixed, the supply
of knowledge is boundless.
 Thus human ingenuity holds the secret to
resolving problems confronting humankind. So it is
with all the issues facing us and this United Nations of
ours today. The resolution of our problems of climate
change, the economic and financial crisis, peace and
security and human rights and democracy depends
upon human ingenuity. The United Nations must
therefore first — and most important — work to create
an environment where ingenuity can indeed flourish,
that is, a peaceful world where all feel they belong and
are treated with dignity.
 Before I conclude my remarks, let me just say a
word or two about the embargo that has been imposed
on the people and Government of Cuba since 1959 by
the United States of America. Those unfair and
unjustified sanctions have greatly hurt the people of
Cuba. The time has come for those sanctions to be
lifted. I join those who are calling for the lifting of
sanctions.


On behalf of the people and the Government
of Turkmenistan, I heartily welcome and congratulate
you, Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki, on the opening of the
sixty-fourth session of the General Assembly and on
your election as President of the Assembly and express
my confidence that, under your leadership, this body
will work successfully and fruitfully. I should also like
to thank Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, President of
the General Assembly at its sixty-third session, for his
skilful and effective work in that post.
 The current state of global realities and the nature
of and trends in today’s political, economic and social
processes objectively require closer and more
coordinated interaction between States and major
international organizations if we are to accomplish our
common main goals: achieving world peace and
security, creating conditions for further development
and progress, and protecting the legal and moral
foundations of today’s world order.
 The level of effectiveness of such interaction,
striking a reasonable balance between national interests
and the interests of the entire international community,
will greatly determine how successfully we resolve
equally important global problems with regard to the
ecology, energy, food, issues of fair distribution of
water resources, effectiveness in fighting poverty and
infectious diseases, countering the drug threat and
many other challenges.
 It is impossible to talk about achieving these
goals without acknowledging and confirming the
critical role of the United Nations. For more than 60
years the Organization has been the main guarantor in
maintaining and supporting universal peace, security
and development. During that time, our Organization
has won great credibility in the world, accumulating
unique experience in resolving difficult international
problems and forging a firm legal foundation for
cooperation between States.
 The United Nations was and remains the
underpinning of today’s world order, a pole of
attraction of the hopes and aspirations of all mankind.
In the present conditions it is the United Nations that
must become a pillar in the constructive activity of
States in building a just and harmonized system of
international relations.
 It is from this angle that Turkmenistan considers
issues of United Nations reform. We realize that on a
number of aspects our Organization needs
improvement and greater effectiveness to meet today’s
needs. That is a normal and logical process in line with
the logic of contemporary dynamic world development.
Therefore we are for a rational reform of the United
Nations. We will achieve that only by further
strengthening it and steadily consolidating its position
in the international system, expanding its role and
functions as a guarantor of global peace, stability and
development.
 We are confident that United Nations reform must
be sensible, targeted and related to the real needs of the
international community. Turkmenistan supports efforts
of Member States and of the Secretary-General aimed
at making the Organization’s work more dynamic,
more effective, more open and more democratic. In this
context, Turkmenistan shares the view on the need to
further improve the structure of the Security Council,
creating closer and effective interaction between the
Council and the General Assembly.
 The main goal of our foreign policy remains the
same: comprehensive assistance to the world
community in its efforts to support and strengthen a
global security system, to warn of and neutralize
threats of conflict and to provide conditions for stable
and sustainable development of States and peoples and
for broad and constructive international cooperation.
 In this regard, we believe that the permanent
neutrality of Turkmenistan and the related
consequences of its legal status give the community of
nations good practical opportunities to positively
impact the course and nature of processes under way in
Central Asia and the region of the Caspian basin. That
means creating here permanently functioning
mechanisms of international contacts for discussing

33 09-52179

various aspects of regional problems and working out
mutually acceptable and consensual decisions. Based
on available experience and on political and diplomatic
peacemaking under United Nations auspices,
Turkmenistan states that it is ready to provide the
world community with all the necessary political and
logistical conditions for that activity.
 In this context we consider exceptionally
important and promising the decision of the United
Nations in 2007 on opening the United Nations
Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central
Asia, with its headquarters in Ashgabat. The Centre
now works actively on monitoring and analysing
regional problems. It participates in various measures
concerning most important development issues in
Central Asia, including at the level of heads of State,
and helps to craft approaches for resolving those
issues. Turkmenistan welcomes the involvement of
various States, international organizations, financial
and economic institutions and experts in United
Nations efforts to draw up constructive models of
development for regional processes.
 In formulating our approaches to the problems of
universal security, our view is that the concept is
integral and indivisible, both geopolitically and from
the standpoint of specific aspects. We are certain that
security in one country cannot be guaranteed when
security is lacking in the region, on the continent or in
the world. Similarly, political or military security
cannot be long term and fully fledged without
guaranteeing economic, energy and food security,
without preventing and mitigating the risks and threats
of a man-made ecological problem, or without
effectively combating international terrorism,
organized crime, proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction or other global challenges.
 From this point of view, one of the most urgent
components of global security is energy security. First
and foremost, that is because the current system of
international energy has become a vulnerable link in
the world economy. That vulnerability is due to a
number of reasons: political instability in some parts of
the planet, a lack of commonly recognized international
legal mechanisms, incomplete infrastructure and
pipeline routes that are geographically limited. All of
that affects the common atmosphere in the world
energy supply market. There is an objective need to
change this situation, to overcome inertia of
stereotypes and to reach a new level of thinking that
corresponds to modern demands.
 Today, we talk not about adopting certain
preventive measures or about local agreements on
some aspects of fuel transport, but about the creation of
principally new, universal models of relations in the
realm of world energy, models that are based on a
multilateral balance of interests, the coinciding of
opinions and concepts on the global architecture of
energy security and an awareness of the long-term
benefits and advantages of cooperation.
 It seems logical to begin international discussion
of the problem of energy supplies as a first step in this
direction. The discussion needs to find lines of
coincidence of interests, to determine initial positions,
to generate common language to carry on a dialogue —
in other words, to create the basis for substantial and
effective cooperation.
 Therefore, during the previous session of the
General Assembly, Turkmenistan announced an
initiative to develop universal mechanisms that could
guarantee reliable and secure functioning of the
international energy supply infrastructure and provide
for access to it and its effective use. A first step in that
direction was resolution 63/210, entitled “Reliable and
stable transit of energy and its role in ensuring
sustainable development and international cooperation”,
which was adopted by consensus on 19 December 2008
on Turkmenistan’s initiative. I would like to take this
opportunity to express my gratitude to all States for
their support for our initiative and for their responsible
and constructive position on this issue.
 Mrs. Aitimova (Kazakhstan), Vice-President, took
the Chair.
 In line with the letter and the spirit of the
resolution, Turkmenistan proposed the convening, with
the support of the United Nations, of a high-level
international conference on the theme “Reliable and
stable transit of energy and its role in securing stable
development and international cooperation”. That
conference took place in Ashgabat in April 2009, and
one of its outcomes was the proposal to request the
United Nations to establish a group of experts to make
recommendations on a possible international legal
document on the subject that takes into account
proposals by interested countries and international
organizations. Turkmenistan is prepared to fully
support the setting up of such a group in the framework

09-52179 34

of the United Nations. We call upon all interested
States to provide proposals for its programme of work.
We believe that the establishment of such a group
could be the first step in the process of drafting a
comprehensive United Nations document aimed at
securing the effective functioning of the international
energy supply system.
 Support for the process of disarmament, reducing
weapons arsenals — including, first and foremost,
weapons of mass destruction — and preventing
proliferation continue to be among the most important
issues on the international agenda. We believe that in
the current system of international relations there
should be no room for either the legacy of the cold war
or for the recurrence of bloc confrontation, under
which the quantity and quality of armaments were
almost the sole criteria for establishing the influence
and authority of States. We are convinced that the
fewer weapons there are in the world, the more stable
and calm will be its development and the more trust
and understanding there will be among countries and
peoples.
 As the Assembly is aware, the Treaty on a
Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Central Asia was signed
in 2006 in the city of Semipalatinsk. All countries of
the region have now become parties to the Treaty. This
joint initiative has proved to be consonant with the
aspirations of the majority of the world’s countries. It
has been highly praised by the international community
and endorsed by the General Assembly. In that regard,
we believe that it would be timely to hold an
international conference, during the first half of next
year, on the subject of disarmament in the Central
Asian region and the Caspian Basin. Our country is
prepared to host such an event. We would also
welcome constructive proposals from the international
community, including from individual States, on how
to help global disarmament processes and on how to
effectively address issues pertaining to our
participation in the implementation of such proposals.
 One of the most serious challenges in today’s
world is how to effectively combat such phenomena as
international terrorism, illegal drug trafficking and
cross-border organized crime. For a variety of reasons,
those problems are of particular importance for our
region. We are convinced that only through joint efforts
by States working in close cooperation with
international organizations will we be able to
successfully face those threats. Turkmenistan believes
that the United Nations has a special role to play in that
regard. We believe that it is both necessary and timely
to reinvigorate the participation of the United Nations
and its agencies in developing and coordinating
effective models for international cooperation aimed at
neutralizing those threats and putting in place
mechanisms for preventive diplomacy and the
establishment of conditions for the post-conflict
reconstruction of economic and social infrastructure.
 In that connection, we must underscore the
special importance that Turkmenistan attaches to the
reconstruction of Afghanistan and to the establishment
of lasting peace on Afghan soil. Our country provides
assistance to Afghanistan for economic, social and
humanitarian projects. That work will continue. We
want to see Afghanistan as a peaceful and prosperous
country that is a good neighbour and partner for all
States in the region.
 At the same time, we believe that the United
Nations can and should play an important role in
resolving the issue of Afghanistan. We are convinced
that, with its enormous peacemaking experience and
great moral authority, the United Nations is capable of
proposing new formats and models in the context of
political and diplomatic efforts to resolve
Afghanistan’s problems and establish peace and
harmony in that country. That work could today be
done more energetically and efficiently, given the
potential of the United Nations Regional Centre for
Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia. We support
increased focused involvement by the Regional Centre
in the international community’s efforts to resolve the
situation in Afghanistan.
 The international community’s awareness of
long-term development objectives and its readiness to
work jointly to achieve them are today prerequisites for
the stability of the entire system of international
relations. The serious effects of the global financial and
economic crisis have once again clearly demonstrated
the need to join efforts in developing an international
security architecture and establishing the conditions for
equal and fair relations between States and peoples on
the basis of recognized international legal norms and
the timeless ideals of the United Nations.
 Turkmenistan believes that responsibility,
morality and humanism will be the criteria by which
present and future generations will assess our work. As
a State and as a member of the world community we

35 09-52179

will further contribute to strengthening lofty principles
in international affairs while consistently implementing
our philosophy of Turkmen neutrality, a fundamental
part of which includes our strategic cooperation with
the United Nations.