Tonga, 2002

As I

offer you my congratulations upon your assumption of

your high office, Mr. President, I must also praise your

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predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Han Seung-soo, for a

truly exemplary term as President, which was marked

at the outset by the Nobel Peace Prize for the

Organization and which closed with the promise of the

recently concluded World Summit on Sustainable

Development. Together with the continuing leadership

of Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the support of the

Organization's Member States, I look forward to that

tradition of excellence and achievement continuing

under your presidency, Sir.

I add my voice to the chorus within this

Assembly warmly welcoming the Swiss Confederation

to our fold and congratulating East Timor on its

forthcoming accession to membership. Tonga very

much looks forward to working with both of them as

fully-fledged States Members of the Organization.

While 11 September 2001 will for all of us be

ever present, it is fitting that we pause to remember

those who fell in the line of duty and those other loved

ones who perished on that terrible day. Those horrific

events should serve to inspire us to rededicate

ourselves and galvanize our collective efforts to fight

the scourge of terrorism in all its forms and

manifestations.

My Government continues to formulate measures

in compliance with Security Council resolution 1373

(2001). These measures have both national and

regional dimensions, and a number of workshops have

been held in the Pacific region during the year to

ensure that Pacific island countries formulate viable

counter-terrorism measures and to assist them to do so.

A number of key Government agencies, including civil

aviation, immigration, police, finance and customs

agencies, have already adopted measures, including

financial and rapid reaction security measures, to

tighten the security aspect of the resolution. Obviously,

the sustained assistance of developed countries in our

region has been very useful in our endeavours. It is our

earnest hope that our required country report will be

before the Counter-Terrorism Committee by the year's

end. In this respect, I am grateful to the Committee and

to the Security Council for their patience.

Since I last addressed this Assembly, at the

Millennium Summit, there have been further signposts

to add to the developmental path. These are signposts

so readily identifiable as Doha, Monterrey and, now,

Johannesburg. These names epitomize the vision and

the as yet unfulfilled promise of our collective

development aspirations in this era of globalization. In

that regard, I commend President Fox and the people of

Mexico for their sterling efforts earlier this year. It was

pleasing that consensus prevailed on critical thematic

issues of particular import to developing countries, and

we look forward to the opportunities that Monterrey

will afford. I further commend President Mbeki and the

people of South Africa for their wonderful achievement

earlier this month. I am particularly pleased that the

Johannesburg Summit gave prominence and profile in

the Plan of Implementation to the sustainable

development of small island developing States. In that

regard, Tonga looks forward to the 10-year review of

the Barbados Programme of Action in 2004 as a further

signpost in the developmental path that will give

impetus to what was achieved in Johannesburg. In

preparing for that review, Tonga will continue its

national efforts to refine and identify areas for specific

priority capacity-building needs, as well as

opportunities to take increased advantage of financial

and technological support.

As a developing ocean State, we are encouraged

by the particular commitments in the Johannesburg

Plan of Implementation on fish stocks and fishing

practices. The implementation of those time-bound

commitments requires responsibility and good faith

from all parties so as to ensure that States like mine

obtain their fair share of their vastest and most

bountiful resource. We are pleased that the United

Nations fish stocks Agreement has entered into force

and welcome the informal meeting of States parties

that took place here in New York recently. In this

respect, we urge other Member States to become party

to that important Agreement. Within this context, we

also continue to welcome the preparations under way

for giving effect to the Convention on the Conservation

and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in

the Western and Central Pacific Ocean. The

Convention is a testament to our commitment to

conserving and sustainably managing a critically

important resource. As such, we continue to urge the

distant water fishing nations with a real fisheries

interest in our region to make every effort to become a

party to the Convention. Tonga continues to value the

work and decisions taken this year of the Meeting of

States Parties to the United Convention on the Law of

the Sea, the International Seabed Authority and the

third meeting of the United Nations Open-ended

Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law

of the Sea. We look forward to an important milestone

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later this year: the twentieth anniversary of the United

Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. I hope that

Member States will consider the upcoming anniversary

as an opportune time to become a party to the

Convention.

Our region has further endorsed a first-ever

regional oceans policy that elaborates some guiding

principles that should serve as a template for countries

like Tonga to consider using to developing national

ocean policies that strengthen coordination and

complementarity in our ocean-related activities. One

activity that continues to give rise to deep concern is

the transshipment of radioactive material through the

waters of our region. In this regard, while we might

understand the needs and requirements of those States

that engage in this activity, it is just as important that

the necessary framework for prior notice, consent,

safety and compensation for countries like Tonga not

be ignored.

Tonga continues to support the development of an

appropriate environmental vulnerability index for small

island developing States and commends the continuing

work of the South Pacific Applied Geoscience

Commission in that regard. It is our belief that, with

the participation of States, such an index has the

potential to provide accurate indicators of vulnerability

to which small islands in particular are exposed, such

as natural disasters, climate change and sea level rise.

As such, Tonga welcomes the commitment by certain

Annex I countries under the Kyoto Protocol made

during the Johannesburg Summit to ratify the Protocol

and the further opportunities for progress that such

positive action presents.

On 30 and 31 December 2001, tropical cyclone

Waka traversed the northern group of Tonga with a

wind velocity in excess of 100 miles an hour and

resulted in substantial and horrific damage to those

islands. To be sure, the damage was estimated at over

140 million Tongan dollars, but thankfully there was no

loss of life. The inevitable and difficult task of relief,

recovery and reconstruction was compounded by the

geographic distance from the capital of the northern

group and the sheer scale of the damage sustained.

Luckily, action by traditional donor Governments and

our neighbours within the region, territorial

governments, regional and international organizations,

such as the Pacific Islands Forum and specific United

Nations agencies, was swift and generous and provided

much-needed assistance to my Government. I am

deeply grateful to those Governments, organizations

and agencies, as well as to non-governmental

organizations and churches, for their valued assistance

in our time of crisis. Two weeks after the cyclone,

nature, having wrought such devastating winds, caused

more favourable weather to prevail, which greatly

helped the replanting phases of recovery. We expect a

resurgence of the critical agricultural, tourism and

fisheries sectors by the end of the year.

While information and communications

technology (ICT) remains the way to go, we continue

with our own efforts to bridge the digital divide and

take maximum advantage of the digital revolution. To

do so will require joint efforts in tandem with the

international community and the United Nations,

particularly through the efforts of the United Nations

ICT Task Force as one avenue. Such efforts must be

characterized by partnership and inclusion in the ICT

process, so that all developing States in every region

can benefit. The United Nations role of bridging,

coordinating and integrating activities is therefore

crucial. In that respect, we urge continued support for

the Small Island Developing States Information

Network (SIDSNet) and for efforts to strengthen its

capacity to support and assist small island developing

States.

We welcome the fruitful outcome earlier this year

of the General Assembly special session on children.

While we recognize the promise it holds for the welfare

and well-being of all children, like the outcome of the

recent special session on HIV/AIDS, commitments

must progress beyond rhetoric into concrete action.

Tonga fully supports the work of the Security

Council and, like other speakers before me, calls for

the full implementation of all of its resolutions to

ensure an enduring peace in arenas of conflict and to

lift the veil of doubt where such doubt could lead to

conflict.

In one such arena, we join the call for an end to

violence, a return to the negotiating table and the

building of confidence so as to realize the coexistence

of two States, side by side in secure and recognized

borders.

Tonga also supports efforts to streamline the work

of the General Assembly so that it can play the pivotal

and focused role we desire. In like terms, we support

the call for reform of the Security Council, in which

the number of both permanent and non-permanent seats

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would be increased to accord with and respond to

today's realities.

Finally, with respect to pertinent regional issues,

Tonga endorses the views expressed in both the Nadi

Declaration, contained in document A/56/1015, and the

Suva Communiqué, that will be contained in document

A/57/331. They are the respective outcomes of the

third Summit of the African, Caribbean and Pacific

Heads of State and Government, held in Nadi, Fiji, in

July 2002, and of the annual meeting of the Pacific

Islands Forum Leaders held in Suva, Fiji, in August

2002.