Kiribati, 2004

It is with great pleasure that I

bring warm greetings from the Government and people

of Kiribati on whose behalf I have the honour to

address the Assembly today.

Before I begin, I would like to extend our

congratulations to Mr. Jean Ping on his election to the

presidency of the fifty-ninth session of the General

Assembly. We have every confidence in his able

leadership to guide the work of the Assembly and to

deliver conclusive outcomes. He has our full support

and cooperation in carrying out his work. I wish also to

thank the President’s predecessor for the excellent

work he has done in steering the work of the Assembly

during the past year. My congratulations also go to the

Secretary-General for his sterling leadership of our

Organization during these trying times and for rising

commendably to the challenge.

We gather again this year amidst the reality of

daunting challenges that continue to confront us as

individual nations and as a global community. The

ongoing conflicts in Iraq and other parts of the world,

the scourge of terrorism and the existence of nuclear

arsenals, accelerated environmental degradation and

the threat of global warming and sea-level rise, hunger

and poverty, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and other non-

communicable diseases, the marginalization of the

least developed countries within the global economy

and underdevelopment, all continue to pose major

challenges that our Organization must address today.

Those challenges cast a dark shadow over the

commitments made by world leaders at the Millennium

Summit held here in New York four years ago,

pledging to work collectively to maintain peace and

security, to eliminate poverty and to promote

development for the benefit of all mankind in the new

millennium.

The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction

and the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons

continue to threaten international security. We must be

unified in our approach and address those challenges

effectively by strengthening multilateral disarmament

and non-proliferation treaties and agreements and

through closer regional and international cooperation.

Kiribati supports all non-proliferation efforts and in

that respect is party to, among others, the Treaty on the

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Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and the

Chemical Weapons Convention.

We commend and support the work of the

international community and efforts taken at the

national, regional and international levels to respond to

the challenges of terrorism, recognizing the need for

international solidarity in addressing that increasing

global threat.

Kiribati is committed to the global fight against

terrorism. Terrorism knows no boundaries and we

cannot claim immunity from it. Indeed, as a small

island developing State we have very little capacity to

develop any effective countermeasures and are

therefore especially vulnerable to terrorism.

We acknowledge the importance of complying

with United Nations resolutions and international

security arrangements that have been adopted in the

fight against terrorism. While we cannot afford to be

complacent in our efforts in that regard, it must be

recognized that the requirements for compliance with

those resolutions and arrangements do pose enormous

challenges for countries such as Kiribati. Our limited

resources and technical capacity are already committed

to providing for the basic and essential social and

economic needs of our rapidly growing population,

thus placing severe constraints on our ability to make

progress in compliance. I would like to note, however,

that, with technical assistance from our development

partners, we have made progress in enacting important

legislation relating to terrorism and transnational

crime. We expect to make further progress on

compliance with the counter-terrorism requirements

shortly.

The progress made so far has revolved primarily

around the introduction of legislation. We recognize

that this is just the beginning of the process. The

implementation and enforcement of the legislation

enacted will pose an immense challenge. In this

respect, we will continue to count on the assistance and

support of the international community.

We note with deep regret and concern the loss of

life and devastation to property caused by the recent

series of hurricanes affecting the Caribbean and the

Atlantic coast of the United States. We offer our deep

sympathy to those affected by those natural disasters.

The adverse impact of climate change and sea-

level rise is, indeed, a critical security issue for the

global community in this new millennium, especially

for low-lying island States like Kiribati. That issue

must take centre stage with other international security

issues. We urge the international community to agree

on a unified global response in order to better protect

the environment, in the same way that the international

community is being encouraged to respond to terrorism

and other threats to global security. Our inability as a

global community to agree on a unified stand on

climate change and sea-level rise is very disappointing

indeed, and we deplore the notion that economic

growth must take precedence over environmental

issues at any cost. Our very existence as a State —

indeed, the existence all States similar to Kiribati — is

at stake if such thinking continues to prevail.

I would like at this juncture to express our

gratitude to the many countries that have ratified the

Kyoto Protocol and to appeal to those that have not to

do so as a matter of urgency. We have demonstrated

remarkable solidarity in the fight against global

terrorism. Can we not demonstrate the same solidarity

in the fight against climate change and sea-level rise?

Regional cooperation has been a very effective

mechanism in addressing the many challenges faced by

countries in our region. Regional cooperation has

enabled many Pacific countries to meet some of the

counter-terrorism requirements. Regional cooperation

has also enabled us to effectively address emerging

issues confronting our region; the outstanding success

of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands

is a clear demonstration of that.

We in the Pacific are confident of our ability to

steer a course for the future. We have approved work to

commence on a Pacific plan that will promote

collective action in the areas of security, good

governance, economic growth and sustainable

development. We envisage that the Pacific plan will

result in the delivery of tangible benefits to our

respective peoples and communities.

We recognize the need for, and welcome,

strengthened cooperation and the development of

closer linkages and partnerships between the United

Nations and its specialized agencies and other

organizations, including the Pacific Islands Forum.

Such linkages and partnerships can only result in the

more effective, coordinated and harmonized delivery of

assistance to member countries.

Making progress with regard to the development

aspirations of our peoples is a high — if not the

highest — priority for many of us who are here today.

Our national policy objective is to achieve the

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equitable distribution of development benefits to all

our peoples, based on the principles of good

governance. We are committed to the Millennium

Declaration and are on track in our national efforts to

achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

The Goals have been integrated and

mainstreamed into our national development strategy.

We are committed to pursuing those goals as the basis

of sustainable development. In this connection, I would

like to express our appreciation to all our development

partners, who, over the years, have contributed

meaningfully to the realization of our development

aspirations.

While we are grateful for the assistance extended

by our development partners, there is scope for us to

achieve more for our peoples — and to do so without

development assistance. Kiribati has a large exclusive

economic zone that has an abundant fisheries resource.

Those resources are presently being harvested by

vessels from distant-water fishing nations under license

arrangements. However, the return from these licensing

arrangements is negligible, at only around 5 per cent of

the landed value of the catch.

Naturally, we would like to see greater returns

from that resource. Our ability to achieve sustainable

economic development depends on it. Accordingly, we

urge the flag States of those fishing interests to

encourage their industries to explore the mutual

benefits to be gained from collaboration with resource

owners in establishing on-shore facilities that will add

value to the commodity. We believe that such a model

will also result in easing the pressure on fish stocks

and ensure conservation of the resource for the

sustainable benefit of mankind.

The entry into force in June this year of the

Western and Central Pacific Tuna Convention

represents a major development in the management of

the western and central Pacific tuna fishery.

In this age of rapid globalization, advances in

information technology and trade liberalization, it is

regrettable that, while some are reaping the full

benefits of those advances and developments,

significantly more remain on the fringes. The reality is

that a large proportion of the world’s population, most

of whom live in developing countries, continue to live

in poverty and are marginalized in trading

arrangements and market access opportunities. The

promise of globalization and open trading as a positive

force for economic growth, and social progress

continues to elude the many. Much work needs to be

done to ensure that the many also enjoy the benefits of

globalization.

Kiribati supports the findings of the report of the

World Commission on the Social Dimension of

Globalization. We urge that the findings of the report

be taken into consideration and incorporated into the

work of the Assembly, especially for the 2005 high-

level review of the outcome of the Millennium

Summit.

We welcome the United Nations support for the

convening, early next year in Mauritius, of the

International Meeting for the 10-Year Review of the

Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable

Development of Small Island Developing States. Like

other small island developing States, we attach great

importance to that review. With the continued support

and commitment of our development partners to the

process, we can be assured of important outcomes that

will go a long way in making a real difference to the

quality of life for our peoples.

We share the concerns of the international

community about the spread of HIV/AIDS and its

devastating impact as both a health crisis and a

development concern. We welcome the recent

developments in the search for affordable drugs for

HIV/AIDS victims in developing countries. We

encourage greater collaboration on HIV/AIDS research

and the mobilization of resources for prevention

activities and for better medical care for affected

patients.

We believe in the continuing relevance and

importance of the role of the United Nations and its

ability to respond to the challenges of our

contemporary world. In this regard, Kiribati welcomes

and fully supports the efforts to reform this

Organization to enable it to better respond to the

challenges of this era.

Given the crucial role of the Security Council in

the promotion of international peace and security and

the importance we attach to that issue, we see the

necessity for Security Council reform, including the

expansion of both the permanent and non-permanent

membership of the Council. Expansion is required to

better reflect the realities of our world today. We note

that some countries, including Japan, have consistently

committed substantial resources towards the

maintenance of global peace and security, and we

believe that they should be accorded permanent

membership on the Security Council.

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We attach great importance to our membership in

this noble Organization, and we reaffirm our

commitment to upholding the noble values and

principles enshrined in the Charter of the United

Nations. The Charter epitomizes our hope for

achieving justice and equality and the safeguarding and

promotion of fundamental human rights of all peoples.

Within that context, we believe that the exclusionary

principles applied to Taiwan in its bid for United

Nations membership go against the very values and

objectives of the Charter that we all strive to uphold. In

this era of tension and conflict we should discard the

present exclusionary practices and adopt a more

embracing environment where all countries willing and

able to contribute to the international community’s

efforts to promote world peace and stability are

welcomed as equal partners. Taiwan has made and

continues to make notable contributions to the

development of many developing countries and has the

capacity to contribute constructively to the good work

of the United Nations. It is therefore regrettable that

the desire of the 23 million people of Taiwan to again

become a part of that global community of nations

continues to be rejected.

The challenges that confront us at this point in

time are indeed daunting, but they are not

insurmountable. With renewed commitments and with

a common resolve to work in close cooperation and in

support of each other, we can succeed in creating a

more secure, a more prosperous and a more just world

for all in this millennium.