Fiji, 1982

My delegation wishes to associate itself with the compliments paid to

you, Mr. President, on your election to your high office, and we

pledge to you our continued co operation. We would also like to

acknowledge with satisfaction the outstanding leadership of your

predecessor in office. I would like to place on record my

Government's satisfaction with the excellent work being done by the

Secretary General during his first year in office. We wish to assure

him of our continued support. We extend to him our compliments and

endorse his forthright and incisive views on the major issues

confronting this planet and on the role of the United Nations in the

efforts to resolve the problems that we share as a result of our

inseparable humanity. He has highlighted not only the problems, but

the structural weaknesses of the Organization in tackling those

problems. In our view, the United Nations must, as a matter of

urgency, address both dimensions if all of humanity is to have even a

chance.

In the Secretary General's report on the work of the Organization he

alluded to the failure of the collective security system of the

League of Nations. It will be recalled that concurrently with the

failure of the League of Nations the world suffered an unprecedented

economic depression which in many ways contributed to the upheaval of

the Second World War.

It has been noted that the only thing we learn from history is that

we do not learn from history. How true that is. The present world

political and economic situation, which I need not reiterate before

the Assembly, and the inability of the United Nations to deal

effectively with issues pertaining thereto, bear an unnerving

resemblance to the events that ushered in the Second World War.

While my country, Fiji, in the peaceful South Pacific Ocean, is

thousands of miles away from the Middle East, our commitment to world

peace led to our direct involvement in United Nations efforts to

bring peace and stability to the area. Of particular concern to my

Government has been the recent resurgence of war in the unfortunate

country of Lebanon. The resultant massacres of Palestinian men, women

and children is a matter to be deplored by all. My Government has

already condemned all those that were directly or indirectly involved

in the killings. The problem of Lebanon is part of the overall

problem of the Middle East J which has defied solution for more than

three decades. In the mean time, new elements have been injected into

the conflict and this has made peace in the area even more elusive.

My delegation continues to support the principles set forth in

Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) as a basis for

peace in the region. It is also imperative that the aspirations of

the Palestinian people to a homeland be realized, and that the rights

of all States, including that of Israel, to live within recognized

boundaries be acknowledged.

My country has always advocated the peaceful resolution of all

disputes through dialogue and negotiations. It was in this spirit

that my Government agreed to contribute peace keeping forces to

UNIFIL in 1978. In the same spirit, Fiji decided to contribute troops

to the multinational forces and observers last year in order to

further the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel that led to the

return of the Sinai.

The cost of the contribution to UNIFIL has been particularly

burdensome for a small country such as ours. For the past four years

our ability to maintain our troops in Lebanon has been seriously

undermined by the accumulated arrears of reimbursements, which amount

to millions of dollars. It is our earnest hope that all Member States

will meet their obligations and pay the assessed contributions

promptly so that reimbursements at the agreed levels can be made to

participants in UNIFIL without delay.

No one can deny that UNIFIL has proved its usefulness, but for peace

keeping forces to be effective it is essential that they have both a

clear mandate and the co operation, respect and support of all Member

States and, more particularly, of the immediate parties to the

disputes. This, regrettably, has not always been the case in Lebanon.

The situation in the Asian region has remained the same. Foreign

armed intervention and occupation continue in Afghanistan and

Kampuchea. In both cases the majority of United Nations Members have

taken an unequivocal stand, to which we subscribe. This international

concern will continue until the foreign forces are unconditionally

withdrawn. Only then will the freedom of their people and the

sovereignty and territorial integrity of those countries be restored.

With respect to Kampuchea, the recent initiatives that have brought

the resistance groups into a coalition provide a better basis for a

negotiated and peaceful solution of the problem in that country. We

hope that there will be a more positive response to this important

development.

The vexed question of the peaceful reunification of Korea remains

with us. However, we regard the recent proposal by South Korea as an

important step towards reconciliation. It is our hope that a unified

Korea will soon become a reality.

In the field of disarmament very little has been achieved. All we

hear of are new initiatives or the breakdown of talks. The recent

special session of the General Assembly on disarmament was no

exception. If anything, the arms race has been escalated. The goal is

no longer to establish deterrent forces, but rather, as one of the

super Powers has stated recently from this rostrum, to achieve armed

superiority and maintain it. We must pause to think of the logical

consequences of such a course and where the super Powers are leading

us all. There appears to be no limit to man's quest for self

destruction.

It is more urgent than ever that, as a first step, the international

community agree to the total prohibition of nuclear weapon testing.

Fiji supports this proposal, as well as efforts to conclude a

comprehensive test ban treaty. In this regard, it urges the

resumption of the trilateral talks.

We in the South Pacific find ourselves a direct victim of the arms

race. One major Power continues its nuclear testing in the Pacific,

in total disregard of the protests of the peoples and the Governments

in the region. These tests, conducted by France on small atolls, pose

great hazards to the marine environment in the region. No one can say

with certainty what the effect of those tests may be in the future.

Last August the heads of Governments of the South Pacific countries,

who met in Rotorua, New Zealand, once again condemned those tests and

urged their immediate cessation. They also expressed their opposition

to the dumping of nuclear wastes in the Pacific. We hope that those

calls will not go unheeded.

Since its inception the Organization has played an important role in

the field of decolonization. As a member of the Special Committee on

the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on

the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples over

the past 12 years, Fiji has seen the decolonization process evolve

further. Apart from Namibia, the African continent is liberated. But

there are still other dependent Territories in other parts of the

world. Some of these are in the Pacific, and we note with interest

that this process of evolution is beginning to take place in

Territories such as New Caledonia. In this connection the leaders of

the countries of the South Pacific Forum find reassuring the

determination of the French Government to introduce important reforms

in that Territory Y these reforms are followed through, they should

eventually lead to self determination and independence with the full

participation of its indigenous population. We welcome this important

development.

After years of arduous negotiation, the Third United Nations

Conference on the Law of the Sea adopted in April this year a

comprehensive Convention dealing with all uses of the sea. It is a

pity that, because of a few delegations, this important milestone in

recent history could not be reached by consensus. But this cannot

detract from the significance of the achievement, given the vastness,

importance and complexity of the subject matter, the conflicting

interests of States and the difficulty of working out an

international regime for the sea bed beyond national jurisdiction

capable of equitably balancing the interests of developed and

developing countries.

For Fiji and similar small island countries the Convention

consolidates their inherent rights to the resources in their

surrounding seas. It was therefore not surprising that the heads of

Government of the South Pacific countries, at a recent meeting,

unanimously welcomed the adoption of the Convention and urged all

States to sign and ratify it. Indeed, my Prime Minister observed that

it was an historic act and a milestone in international negotiations.

Fiji, which participated actively in the negotiations, looks forward

to signing the Final Act in Jamaica this year.

The world economy is beset by severe problems. The industrialized

countries are facing continuing recession and heavy unemployment.

Enough interest rates have tended to decline recently, they have been

at unprecedentedly high levels in the past two years. Commodity

prices are at their lowest levels and the volume of international

trade has virtually ceased to grow. Global interdependence is such

that the prosperity of the developing countries is dependent on the

performance of the industrialized countries. The recession in the

industrialized countries, therefore, has a profound impact on the

economies of the developing countries. Many developing countries

which are already struggling with large debt repayments have had

their problems exacerbated by high interest payments, adverse trends

in the terms of trade and depressed export volumes.

The conditions of weak demand and high unemployment in the

industrialized countries have led to an increasing tendency towards

protectionism. In particular, there has been an expanding commitment

in developed countries to protect agriculture through high tariffs,

variable import levies or variable export subsidies. As a result,

there is hardly a major agricultural product in which developed

countries compete with developing countries for which the world

market is not undermined or distorted by subsidized exports or

concessional sales from surplus stocks of developed countries. In

some cases, as a consequence of rising agricultural protection,

countries which were once large importers have become large

subsidized exporters. International commodity agreements are rendered

useless by large scale dumping.

A case in point is that of sugar. In 1981, for instance, the European

Economic Community became the world's second largest exporter of

sugar, after Cuba. Ironically, it is the developing countries, which

cannot afford large scale competitive subsidization of major exports,

that are forced to adjust

In the present world economic climate the plight of the small island

countries such as Fiji is a difficult one. They are vulnerable. Their

economies are highly susceptible to external economic influences

beyond their control. Fiji's expert base is Harrow, with sugar and

tourism the two major foreign exchange earners, accounting for the

major part of total foreign exchange receipts.

The unpredictable and harsh impact of external developments has

brought a number of small island economies face to face with

precarious financial situations. Their efforts to develop and

diversify their economies have been dealt severe blows by adverse

world economic developments, such as the oil crisis, high rates of

interest, protectionism and drying pools of multilateral and

bilateral loans. The smallness of island economics and their high

dependence on international trade leave these countries limited

policy options for solving the problems of low income,, high

unemployment and balance of payments deficits.

In a period when global arrangements Car trade liberalization have

not made progress, my Government finds at least two limited

arrangements of particular interest, the first being the Lome

Convention between the African, Caribbean and Pacific States and the European

Community, and the second the South Pacific Regional Trade and Co

operation Agreement between the small island countries in the South

Pacific and Australia and New Zealand. The Lome Convention also

guarantees access to part of our vital sugar exports into the

European Community. Under SPARTEC A, certain products from the island

countries enjoy preferential access to Australian and New Zealand

markets. Both these arrangements have provided considerable economic

benefits to the developing countries concerned and are examples of

the kind of schemes required under the North South economic dialogue.

As a member of the Governing Council of UNDP, Fiji is concerned about

the general decline in the resources available to UNDP. The numerous

projects supported by UNDP in many developing countries and the

increasing number of requests regularly made for such assistance

amply demonstrate the significant role being played by UNDP. It is to

be hoped that Member States, both donors and recipients, will make

extra efforts to build up the resources of UNDP so that it can meet

the demands on it.

These and many other issues of international concern, on which

previous speakers have addressed the Assembly so eloquently, have

become the stumbling blocks in the efforts to achieve a peaceful and

secure world. They have to be resolved, and this world body cannot

abdicate this responsibility. Like others, my delegation knows only

too well the magnitude of this responsibility. The task before the

United Nations in ensuring peace and security in the world and in

promoting development is not an easy one. We represent an

organization in which diversity is the norm rather than the

exception. However, many of the achievements that we as an

organization have registered and hope to continue to register have

been and remain possible only through a commonality of purpose,

accommodation of differences and understanding. The issues before us

at this session of the General Assembly reflect this diversity and

call for much greater understanding than has been demonstrated in the

past.

I wish to conclude my statement by drawing to the attention of the

international community the plight of the very small communities

micro States, as they are called most of which are islands. I do not

pretend to be a spokesman for them, but it is clear that their

special needs are not being adequately addressed and that so far as

the United Nations is concerned such countries, including my own,

appear to be nobody's baby.

The economic situation to which I referred earlier, which is so well

known to representatives, bears particularly harshly on small,

scattered communities. Their fragile economies are often tied to a

single crop and they are susceptible to natural disasters. These are

the harsh realities of their daily existence. We experience major

disadvantages as we try to modernize, and find ourselves caught in

vicious circles in our interaction with larger, more powerful

countries. For example, it is not relevant to use per capita income

as an index of our status. Its use inevitably denies us access to

concessionary finance with which to advance our development. Those of

us that make a little headway through our own efforts appear to be

penalized for doing so. It is as if whenever we think we are making

ends meet someone moves the ends.

There is no point in preaching to us that we should pull ourselves up

by our own bootstraps when , those who give that advice keep standing

on our hands.

Yet let us not abandon hope. Huxley's Brave New World may not have

anticipated a world in which islands come closer to center stage, but

that world is not far off. For the first time in human history, small

States are finding themselves expanded almost overnight as their

jurisdiction encompasses millions of square miles of ocean. How to

utilize

that space, how to explore and exploit it to improve the lives of our

people and, indeed, all mankind, poses a challenge that we cannot

face alone. No longer will the development models of the 1930s and

1960s, based on large land masses, as inAfrica, Asia or Latin

America, distract or delude us.

I do not imply that islands will soon be the inheritors of untold

wealth or that all our problems will be overcome. My point is that

the day is dawning when a new order of importance must be attached to

us, our needs and our potentials, for in that process interdependence

itself will be made more manifest and achieve a real meaning beyond

today's fashionable rhetoric.