India, 2007

Kindly accept my

congratulations, Sir, on your election to the presidency

of the General Assembly at its sixty-second session.

My delegation assures you of its full cooperation as we

address issues identified in the annual report of the

Secretary-General (A/62/1) and as we responsibly and

creatively move forward with pending reforms of the

Organization.

At the outset I would like to express India’s deep

gratitude to all Member States for the recent

unanimous adoption by the General Assembly of

resolution 61/271, deciding to annually observe the

International Day of Non-Violence, on 2 October, the

anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi. I also

look forward to participation by Member States in the

informal plenary meeting of the General Assembly and

other functions being organized tomorrow at the United

Nations to mark the first International Day of

Non-Violence.

A central topic for this year’s debate

responding to climate change is both timely and

relevant. India’s views on it were recently set forth at

the high-level event on climate change, which took

place here on 24 September. Combined with the

exchange of views in the general debate, it will no

doubt provide a useful backdrop to the meeting of the

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

Change to be held later this year in Bali, Indonesia.

The impact of climate change and environmental

degradation falls disproportionately upon developing

countries. Developing countries are the most

vulnerable to it, and also lack the means to tackle it.

Measures to address climate change must be based on

mitigation and adaptation strategies with fair burden-

sharing and measures to realize sustainable patterns of

consumption and production. The process of burden-

sharing must also take into account where the primary

responsibility for the present state of greenhouse gas

concentration in the atmosphere rests and not foreclose

rapid and sustained economic development for the

developing world, which, in any case, is an imperative

for adaptation.

Technology is the other key area that needs to be

addressed. It is important that critical clean

technologies be made available and affordable to

developing countries. The intellectual property rights

regime must balance rewards for innovators with the

common good of humankind. Concerted international

action to address climate change, in accordance with

the principle of common but differentiated

responsibilities and respective capabilities, as well as

national circumstances and social and economic

conditions, is the need of the hour. India, for which

energy security is a national imperative, has a very

small individual carbon footprint, with per capita

carbon dioxide emissions at just about a quarter of the

world’s average. Even so, we are determined that, as

we pursue economic growth, our per capita greenhouse

gas emissions will not increase beyond those of the

industrial countries.

Poverty and underdevelopment are amongst the

central challenges of our times. The overarching

requirement is for sustained economic growth to

eradicate poverty in developing countries. However,

economic growth must also be measured against the

template of social inclusion. Growth alone is not

enough if it does not produce benefits that are

sufficiently dispersed, not only in terms of increased

income and employment, but also for improved health,

nutrition and education for all.

I affirm India’s resolve to achieve the

internationally agreed development goals, including

the Millennium Development Goals. The Government

of India accords the highest priority to inclusive

growth, including the political, legal, educational and

economic empowerment of women, effective and

affordable public health, and enhanced access to

educational opportunities, especially for all those who

are disadvantaged.

It is apparent that progress in the achievement of

the internationally agreed development goals has been

tardy. The international community, through the United

Nations system, must more effectively support the

efforts of developing countries to achieve the

development goals. A comprehensive reform of the

international financial architecture is a key ingredient

in that process. The United Nations must play an

important role in overseeing the reform of the

international financial architecture. That should include

measures to ensure a greater voice for and participation

by developing countries in the Bretton Woods

institutions. The process of reform must be carried to

its logical conclusion if the credibility of those

institutions is to be enhanced.

We must also address as a priority the regrettable

inversion of global resource flows. Today, instead of

the urgently needed inflow of resources to developing

countries to buttress their national economic

development plans, we are confronted with a net

outflow from them. Official development assistance

(ODA) showed a marked fall during 2006 and remains

well below the target of 0.7 per cent of gross national

product. It is primarily being used to finance debt

relief. That this is happening after so many years of

liberalization and globalization highlights our

collective failure. Perhaps we should be considering

mechanisms, such as an international debt commission,

to redress the problem of developing country debt.

The least developed countries, which are

particularly hard hit by rising energy costs, find

themselves in an even more difficult situation.

Enhanced and predictable resource flow to developing

countries remains a key objective of the global

partnership for development. India will continue to do

what it can to help with capacity-building in other

developing countries and to assist them through ODA

within the limits of its capacity. By the end of the year,

imports from least developed countries into India will

face a zero-tariff regime.

Early and substantive progress at the Doha Round

of trade negotiations, based on the primacy of the

development dimension, is another imperative. We

must return to the negotiating table with a redoubled

sense of urgency, while recognizing that adherence to

the existing mandate remains critical. Nor can the

interests of subsistence farmers be ignored or equated

with those of other sectors. An illogical linkage

between agriculture and non-agricultural market access

will only complicate the development impact of the

Round. The overarching principle of special and

differential treatment for developing countries remains

a categorical imperative.

As part of India's commitment to the

achievement of human rights for all, and as a member

of the Human Rights Council, we remain actively

involved in developing the institutional framework of

that body, including the universal periodic review

mechanism, based on effective international

cooperation as a central principle in the Council’s

methods of work. India will work towards developing

an international normative framework for the

promotion and protection of human rights. India is

honoured to be one of the first signatories of the

International Convention for the Protection of All

Persons from Enforced Disappearance. Earlier today, I

also had the honour of depositing India’s instrument of

ratification of the United Nations Convention on the

Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

As the largest democracy in the world, India has

developed a system of local self-government with

democratically elected institutions of representative

Government at all levels the village, the district, the

State and the nation. The effort to make participatory

democracy more meaningful to every Indian citizen

underpins what is perhaps one of the greatest social

experiments in the world today, namely, the transfer of

decision-making power to nearly one million elected

women local Government representatives. As a result,

women are not merely the beneficiaries of change in

India, but are its instruments.

As the world’s largest democracy, it was also

natural for India to support the establishment of the

United Nations Democracy Fund. We made an initial

contribution of $10 million to the Fund and remain

actively and constructively involved in realizing the

objectives for which it was set up. As a small token of

our commitment to that laudable initiative, I have the

privilege of announcing a further pledge of $10 million

to the United Nations Democracy Fund.

The international system cannot be reordered

meaningfully without a comprehensive reform of the

United Nations. If the Organization is to remain the

cornerstone of the international architecture in this

century, it cannot remain mired in the realities of the

1940s. Despite substantive implementation of the

United Nations reform agenda that emerged from the

2005 World Summit Outcome, such reform will

inevitably remain incomplete without comprehensive

reform and expansion of the Security Council and

revitalization of the General Assembly. Elements and

ideas on the reform of the Security Council have been

discussed for well over a decade in numerous reports

and interminable consultations. It is now time for

intergovernmental negotiations to commence in order

to make the Security Council more democratic,

representative and responsive.

We, together with partners from Africa, Latin

America and Asia, tabled a resolution on 11 September

2007, spelling out the principles on which reform

ought to be based if it is to be meaningful. These

principles are expansion in both permanent and

non-permanent categories of membership; greater

representation for developing countries and

representation for developed countries that is reflective

of contemporary world realities; and comprehensive

improvement in the working methods of the Security

Council, including ensuring greater access for island

and small States. We welcome recent statements from

this podium by President Bush of the United States of

America and other world leaders on the need for

Security Council reform in both the permanent and

non-permanent categories. It is high time that we

collectively bring these ideas to implementation.

Reform of the United Nations would also be

incomplete without revitalization of the General

Assembly. The central goal of such revitalization must

be the restoration and enhancement of the role and

authority of the General Assembly as originally

envisaged in the Charter.

Given the significance of developmental

activities for the developing world, India sees a

corresponding need for the reform of United Nations

operational activities in favour of development. Since

these activities are aimed at supporting the work of

Member States, it follows that Members must

determine their direction and shape through an

intergovernmental process. The litmus test for any

reform proposal is whether it improves the support

extended by the United Nations to the efforts of

programme countries. India would therefore judge

reform proposals by their impact on the ground, by the

resultant improvement in the effectiveness of the

system and by the impact on transaction costs for the

United Nations development system.

Steps to achieve the complete elimination of

nuclear weapons have also only made limited headway.

Despite some progress, the world remains far from

achieving the objective of total elimination of nuclear

weapons. India’s long-standing commitment to

universal, non-discriminatory and comprehensive

nuclear disarmament is embodied in the vision of late

Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi for a nuclear-free and

non-violent world. This vision was put forward nearly

two decades ago. It remains undiminished today.

Indeed, it is all the more relevant today, given the

fact that peaceful uses of nuclear energy can address

the inexorably growing demand for new and

non-polluting sources of energy to fuel economic

development. We will be bringing proposals to

Member States and this Organization to see how we

can refocus on general and complete disarmament,

particularly nuclear disarmament. Disarmament is our

agreed goal, and it subsumes arms control and

non-proliferation.

It is well known that India has an impeccable

record in preventing the proliferation of sensitive

technologies. That is in keeping with our commitment

to being a responsible nuclear Power. India is ready to

work with the international community to develop a

new international consensus on non-proliferation. The

international community needs to intensify the effort to

address the very real threat posed by the link between

the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction

(WMDs) and related materials and technologies and

the ability of non-State actors to acquire them. The risk

posed by the intersection between proliferation and

terrorism is real and serious. The central objective must

be to ensure that our solidarity in words is translated

into action.

The adoption of the United Nations Global

Counter-Terrorism Strategy last September was a

noteworthy development, signalling the will of the

international community to combat this menace in a

holistic and coordinated manner. Welcome as the

Strategy is, there is much more that needs to be done to

combat the menace that international terrorism has

become. India is convinced that without the early

adoption of a comprehensive convention against

international terrorism, the global struggle against

terrorism remains incomplete and likely to succeed

only partially. We must ensure that there is zero

tolerance for all forms of terrorism.

In conclusion, I would express the hope that our

deliberations in the year ahead will lead us to

enlightened action. With maturity and resolve we will

successfully overcome the many challenges before us.