India, 2008

May I first congratulate you,

Sir, on your election as President of the Assembly at its

sixty-third session. I am sure that your wisdom and

vast experience will guide us as we deliberate the many

challenges that the world faces today.

The United Nations is the embodiment of our

faith in the benefits of collective action and of

multilateral approaches in resolving global issues. At

the 2005 World Summit we pledged ourselves to an

agenda for early and meaningful reform of the United

Nations. However, we must acknowledge frankly that

there has been little progress on the core elements of

the reform agenda.

We need to make more determined efforts to

revitalize the General Assembly to enable it to fulfil its

rightful role as the principal deliberative organ of the

United Nations system. The composition of the

Security Council needs to change to reflect

contemporary realities of the twenty-first century. Only

a truly representative and revitalized United Nations

can become the effective focal point for the

cooperative efforts of the world community. We need

to expeditiously hold negotiations towards this end.

Globalization has contributed to ever-widening

circles of prosperity, and we in India have also

benefited from it. But its benefits have not been

equitably distributed. Ensuring inclusive growth within

nations, and inclusive globalization across nations, is a

central challenge facing us all.

The development gains that many countries have

made are today threatened by a possible food crisis, a

global energy crisis and, most recently, unprecedented

upheavals in international financial markets.

The net impact of these problems is that both the

industrialized economies and the developing

economies face inflation and a slowdown in growth

after several years of robust expansion. Industrialized

countries can afford periods of slow growth.

Developing countries cannot. There is therefore an

urgent need for coordinated action by the global

community on several fronts.

The explosion of financial innovation

unaccompanied by credible systemic regulation has

made the financial system vulnerable. The resulting

crisis of confidence threatens global prosperity in the

increasingly interdependent world in which we all live.

There is, therefore, a need for a new international

initiative to bring structural reform in the world’s

financial system, with more effective regulation and

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stronger systems of multilateral consultations and

surveillance. This must be designed in as inclusive a

manner as possible.

The world food crisis is the cumulative

consequence of the neglect of agriculture in the

developing world, exacerbated by distortionary

agricultural subsidies in the developed world.

Diversion of cultivable land for producing biofuels is

compounding the problem.

The world needs a second green revolution to

address the problem of food security. We need new

technologies, new institutional responses and above all

a global compact to ensure food and livelihood

security. This will require transfer of technology and

innovation from developed to developing countries.

India is very keen to expand cooperation with Africa in

Africa’s quest for food and livelihood security for its

people.

Trade liberalization in agriculture can help,

provided it adequately takes into account the livelihood

concerns of poor and vulnerable farmers in the

developing and least developed countries.

It is feared that many of the conflicts of the

twenty-first century will be over water. We must

therefore reflect on how to use this scarce resource

most efficiently. We need to invest in new technologies

and new production regimes for rain-fed and dryland

agriculture and explore cost-effective desalination

technologies.

Poverty, ignorance and disease still afflict

millions and millions of people. The commitment to

achieve the ambitious targets set as part of the

Millennium Development Goals was an

acknowledgement by the international community that

global prosperity and welfare are indivisible and that

affluence cannot coexist with pervasive poverty.

Unfortunately, solemn commitments made for the

transfer of financial resources from the developed to

the developing world have remained largely

unfulfilled. The commitment of developed countries to

move to the target set long ago of 0.7 per cent of gross

national income as official development assistance

needs to be honoured as a matter of priority. In this

context, special efforts have to be made to address the

concerns of Africa for adequate resource flows to

support its development.

Poverty alleviation and livelihood security are

closely linked to energy security. We need a much

greater measure of predictability and stability in the oil

and gas markets. We need to think of ways and means,

such as early warning mechanisms, to help countries

cope with oil shocks.

We must put in place a global cooperative

network of institutions of developed and developing

countries engaged in research and development in

energy efficiency, clean energy technologies, and

renewable sources of energy.

India is registering rapid economic growth, and

has combined it with declining energy intensity of its

economy. However, our total demand will keep

increasing, and we are actively looking for all possible

sources of clean energy.

The opening of international civil nuclear

cooperation with India will have a positive impact on

global energy security and on the efforts to combat

climate change. This is a vindication of India’s

impeccable record on non-proliferation and testifies to

our long-standing commitment to nuclear disarmament

that is global, universal and non-discriminatory in

nature. The blueprint for this was spelled out by Prime

Minister Rajiv Gandhi in this very Assembly 20 years

ago.

I reiterate India’s proposal for a nuclear weapons

convention prohibiting the development, production,

stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons and providing

for their complete elimination within a specified time

frame.

Climate change can be overcome successfully

only through a collaborative and cooperative global

effort.

We support the multilateral negotiations now

taking place under the United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change. The outcome must be

fair and equitable and recognize the principle that each

citizen of the world has equal entitlement to the global

atmospheric space.

I believe that the pursuit of ecologically

sustainable development need not be in contradiction

to achieving our growth objectives. As Mahatma

Gandhi once said, “The earth has enough resources to

meet people’s needs, but will never have enough to

satisfy people’s greed.”

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India has unveiled an ambitious national action

plan on climate change. Even as we pursue economic

growth, we are committed to our per capita emissions

of greenhouse gases not exceeding those of the

developed countries.

The growing assertion of separate identities and

ethnic, cultural and religious intolerance threaten our

developmental efforts and our peace and stability. It is

vital that we strengthen international cooperation to

combat terrorism and to bring the perpetrators,

organizers, financers and sponsors of terrorism to

justice. We should conclude expeditiously the draft

comprehensive convention on international terrorism.

In this context, the situation in Afghanistan is a

matter of deep concern. The international community

must pool all its resources to ensure the success of

Afghanistan’s reconstruction efforts and its emergence

as a moderate, pluralistic and democratic society.

We welcome the return of democracy in Pakistan.

We are committed to resolving all outstanding issues

between India and Pakistan, including the issue of

Jammu and Kashmir, through peaceful dialogue.

We also welcome the coming to power of

democratically elected Governments in Nepal and

Bhutan. We seek to expand areas of cooperation with

all these countries to deal with the challenges of

sustainable development and poverty eradication.

The United Nations is a living symbol of

pluralism. It has weathered many storms. It is the

vehicle through which our combined will and efforts to

address global challenges must be articulated and

implemented. Unless we rise to the task, we will

bequeath to succeeding generations a world of

diminishing prospects.