Cambodia, 2012

On behalf of

my delegation, please allow me to extend our sincere

congratulations to you, Sir, on your election as

President of the General Assembly at its sixty-seventh

session. I have no doubt that under your able leadership

this session will yield fruitful outcomes. I would also

like to convey my admiration to Mr. Ban Ki-moon for

his untiring efforts to overcome the many multifaceted

challenges confronting our world today.

Let me start with the obvious. The twenty-first

century we live in is facing one of its most difficult

moments. Never before has the pressure of global

interdependency been so intense. As economies become

more and more interdependent, not only are opportunities

to create wealth multiplied, but so are opportunities

to transmit destabilizing shocks from one country to

another. Imbalances and risks are omnipresent. In the

context of declining economic prospects and mounting

global challenges, collective actions are required to

remedy the shortcomings of global governance in

ensuring systemic financial stability, a stable monetary

system and the regulation of international financial

markets, and in dealing with major systemic shocks. The

multilateral system, devised more than half a century

ago, is facing challenges to its capacity to deliver on

its mandate as the international agenda has become

increasingly complex. Clearly, the current multilateral

system needs to be radically reformed and made into

a well-coordinated and permeable body of institutions

that can deliver innovative and feasible solutions to a

globalized international society.

In order to respond to systemic risk in the financial

sector, we have closely cooperated with China, Japan

and the Republic of Korea within the Association of

Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to strengthen a

regional financial safeguard mechanism, called the

Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization, which has

recently increased its funding level from $120 billion

to $240 billion. We strongly believe that that regional

financial arrangement will complement the global

firewall for regional crisis resolution. ASEAN has also

established a macroeconomic and finance surveillance

office in Singapore to achieve a more integrated, even-

handed and effective surveillance mechanism. As we all struggle to overcome the effects of the

global financial crisis, we should not lose sight of new

emerging challenges and threats, such as obstacles

to sustainable development, the achievement of the

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), climate

change, food security and so on. Many developing

countries still face many obstacles to achieving all

their MDGs by the target date of 2015, owing to their

vulnerability to the global financial crisis, the challenges

of the debt burden and the unmet commitments of

official development assistance. Having achieved stable

growth successively for a number of years, Cambodia

is confident that, despite its limited resources, it will

achieve the Cambodian MDGs by 2015. We welcome

the adoption of resolution 66/288, entitled “The

future we want”, by the United Nations Conference

on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), held in Rio de

Janeiro on June 2012, and strongly advocate that the

MDGs should remain a fundamental milestone in the

development agenda. We also call for renewed efforts

to enable the developing countries to achieve their

Millennium Development Goals on time.

Climate change is a critical problem for the whole

world, requiring immediate and concerted actions. The

rapid pace of climate change could have devastating

effects, particularly on small States in the Asia-Pacific

and the Caribbean regions, in the form of rising sea

levels. Other developing countries, mostly dependent on

agriculture, are threatened by similar negative effects,

such as extreme f loods and drought, which affect their

livelihood. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described

such phenomena as a real threat to international peace

and security.

Regrettably, despite all the adversities inf licted on

the world’s most vulnerable people by climate change,

the international community remains divided on

implementing a rapid and critical global response. We

call on developed countries to reduce greenhouse-gas

emissions in accordance with the United Nations

principle of common but differentiated responsibility.

It is disappointing that, for the most part, the promises

made by developed nations in Copenhagen in 2009, in

Cancún in 2010 and in Durban in 2011 have not been

fulfilled in a timely manner.

In the same vein, we are of the view that

natural-disaster management and cooperation

mechanisms should be further developed and

strengthened at both the regional and the global

levels, with a view to preventing natural disasters and addressing related issues that have become more

pressing owing to climate change. ASEAN has made

great progress in that area at the regional level; the

establishment of the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for

Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management,

known as the AHA Centre, deserves mention in that

regard.

Food security is another serious issue of the present

time. At the speed the world’s population is growing,

the United Nations Environment Programme predicts

that by 2030 we will need to produce 50 per cent more

food, 30 per cent more clean water and 40 per cent more

energy. Consequently, the increased competition for

natural resources and between biofuel energy and food

for human needs will only further exacerbate the food

security situation. A major global reform is needed

urgently to implement the Rio+20 recommendations

on sustainable development, which emphasize both the

need for major investments to modernize agriculture

and encourage small-scale agricultural projects around

the world and the vital importance of addressing

interlinkages between energy and agricultural prices.

Rising oil and food prices are a common concern of

the majority of countries in the world. High oil prices

contribute to soaring food prices. Rising oil and food

prices mean increased poverty levels at a time when

global growth is still weak and the number of the

unemployed and underemployed is continuously rising

in many countries. Our modern global food system is

highly oil-dependent, but petroleum is becoming less

and less affordable. Thus, there is no solution yet for

the world’s worsening food crisis within the current

energy and agricultural system. What is needed is a

major rethinking of both food and energy prices and the

coordination of agricultural and energy policies. We

can but appeal to the world oil-producing countries to

consider the negative effects of higher fuel prices and

their impact on food and energy security.

In our regional context, ASEAN has adopted a

comprehensive strategy on food security with the signing

of the Emergency Rice Reserve Agreement with China,

Japan and the Republic of Korea, which is a permanent

scheme for meeting emergency requirements.

The Group of 20 (G-20) has a crucial role to play

in meeting those global challenges. Cambodia, as Chair

of ASEAN, appreciated the opportunity to represent

ASEAN at the G-20 Summit held in Los Cabos in June.

Cambodia’s views reflected the need to, among other

things, to sustain economic stability and structural reform for growth and employment; the urgency to

improve and strengthen the international financial

architecture in an interconnected global economy;

the imperative of completing the Doha Round and the

prevention of the return of trade protectionism; and

the priority of further facilitating trade, an important

conducive factor for stimulate international economic

growth, which all our countries need.

Cambodia fully supports all the priorities agreed

among the G-20 countries in Los Cabos to promote

trade, job creation and economic growth, including

their determination to finalize negotiations on the Doha

Round agenda as soon as possible. International trade

is one of the most important factors that will bring

about economic growth and job creation in both the

immediate and longer term.

Since the establishment of the United Nations, in

1945, the global situation has changed so dramatically

that global diplomac urgently needs to be strengthened.

It is therefore in everyone’s interest to push for

comprehensive reform of the United Nations so that

it reflects the diverse needs and representativeness of

the world today. That reform should be comprehensive

and should cover not only the Security Council but

also other United Nations organs in order to preserve

its relevance and legitimacy as an effective global

governance institution to cope with the reality of the

present-day world, which is different from that of the

post-Second World War era.

The General Assembly should be further

empowered to enable it to play a leading role in

addressing today’s global problems as a democratic,

deliberative policymaking organ of the United Nations.

Both the permanent and non-permanent membership

of the Security Council should be equitably expanded

so that it represents both developed and the developing

countries.

In the spirit of the United Nations peacekeeping

mission for the advancement of world peace, security

and development, Cambodia has contributed 1,000 men

to United Nations peacekeeping operations in Africa,

especially in South Sudan and Lebanon.

Through its experience of close collaboration with

the United Nations and its own experience in ending

war, and thanks to its win-win policy and post-conflict

management, in particular with respect to economic and social development and national reconciliation,

Cambodia wishes to contribute more effectively, through

the Security Council, to the cause of peace, security and

the peaceful settlement of conflicts in many parts of the

world. To that end, for the very first time since joining

the United Nations, in 1955, Cambodia has presented

its candidature as a non-permanent member of the

Security Council for the period 2013-2014, for which

voting will be held next month. I also wish to note that,

since 1955, Cambodia has never occupied any seat in

the United Nations system and that its candidature has

been endorsed and supported by all ASEAN member

States.

Before I conclude, I would like to take this

opportunity to stress that Cambodia deeply regrets the

acts of violence against the United States Consulate in

Benghazi, which caused the death of four American

diplomats, including the United States Ambassador,

even though we very well understand the legitimate

anger at disrespect towards the Muslim religion.