Kuwait, 2008

At

the outset, it is my pleasure to congratulate the

President of the Assembly on his election to preside

over the sixty-third session of the General Assembly

and to wish him every success. We also wish to thank

his predecessor, Mr. Srgjan Kerim, for his successful

presidency of the Assembly during the previous

session.

We should also like to express our appreciation

for the important and outstanding role of the Secretary-

General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, in

support of the purposes and principles of the Charter of

this Organization.

More than a year ago, the world witnessed the

emergence of new international challenges and perils

that hinder and disrupt efforts to achieve sustainable

development in numerous countries, especially

developing countries, and in particular the least

developed among them. Most significant among those

perils are the rise in the cost of food, basic

commodities and energy, as well as climate change.

The danger of those challenges lies in their global

impact; their effects transcend national borders. No

barrier or artificial restraint can withstand them. They

will cause the international community to backslide

significantly in achieving the Millennium Development

Goals. Indeed, we have begun to see the negative

effects of those threats in the African continent, which

has achieved no significant progress in the eradication

of poverty and hunger or in the struggle against such

dangerous infectious diseases as AIDS and malaria.

Instead, these challenges have exacerbated the

suffering of most African States.

Those challenges, alongside such dangers to

security as terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of

mass destruction and human rights violations, pose a

serious threat to international peace and security, and

meeting them will require prompt, collective, united

and firm action under the umbrella of the United

Nations and its various agencies. We must also remain

firmly committed to the agreements and conventions

that we have signed and ratified, and implement

transparently and honestly the resolutions we adopt in

international meetings and conferences.

While the State of Kuwait supports the reforms

that have been adopted in our international

mechanisms, the ongoing changes in and

transformation of the world order and the emergence of

new problems and challenges call for continued reform

and the restructuring of many United Nations bodies to

accompany those changes and improve their

performance. In that regard, we reiterate our demands

for necessary improvements in the working methods of

the Security Council, including greater transparency in

its work and an expansion of its membership pursuant

to standards and controls to ensure equity in its

representation and efficiency in the performance of its

duties and responsibilities in the maintenance of

international peace and security. Such reform must also

take into consideration the legitimate demands of Arab

and Islamic countries and the aspirations and interests

of small States.

The State of Kuwait is pursuing its efforts to

achieve economic and social development and to

improve the living conditions of Kuwaiti citizens and

alien residents. Kuwait has made good progress in

implementing the commitments and resolutions of the

2005 World Summit. It has achieved all the

Millennium Development Goals, including those on

education and health, and advanced the role and

empowerment of women in society. Furthermore, in

carrying out the wishes of His Highness Sheikh Sabah

Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Amir of the State of

Kuwait, to transform Kuwait into a regional financial

and business centre, the Kuwaiti Government has taken

numerous important decisions and adopted new

policies with a view to restructuring the national

economy and consolidating trade and investment

activities so as to provide an investment atmosphere

08-51851 30

conducive to attracting national and foreign capital

investment in such vital economic sectors as energy

and infrastructure.

The State of Kuwait has spared no effort in

continuing to provide development assistance to

developing countries, particularly the least developed,

through its official and non-official institutions. That

consistent approach of Kuwait’s foreign policy

emanates from its conviction that strengthening the

economies of the developing countries and helping

them fulfil their development goals will be beneficial

to all. It will broaden the horizons of partnership,

cooperation and solidarity and consolidate the global

economic and trading systems.

Since its establishment in 1961, the Kuwait Fund

for Arab Economic Development has provided grants

and loans to finance infrastructure projects in

developing countries. The gross total amount disbursed

in grants and concessionary loans by the Fund since its

establishment in 1961 is over $12 billion and has

benefited more than 100 countries.

The State of Kuwait continues to meet its

financial obligations to international financial

institutions and specialized international agencies in a

full and timely fashion. The Government of the State of

Kuwait decided in December last year to allocate

10 per cent of all its contributions and donations to

disaster-affected countries to specialized international

organizations and agencies working in the field.

In response to the suffering of many developing

countries in the difficult economic conditions resulting

from the increase in food and energy prices, the State

of Kuwait has established the Decent Life Fund, with a

capital of $100 million, to develop and improve

agricultural production in developing countries.

Kuwait has also announced the donation of

$150 million to the Fund, which was established at the

most recent summit conference of the countries

members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting

Countries, held in the sisterly Kingdom of Saudi

Arabia. That donation was earmarked for research

studies in the fields of energy, environment and climate

change.

The State of Kuwait continues to follow a

balanced oil policy that takes into consideration the

interests of consuming and producing countries alike

and seeks to maintain stable oil prices on the world

market. However, the unjustified rise in prices, which

is a source of concern, is caused by factors that are out

of the control of the producing countries. They include

speculation, additional taxes on fuel, and the failure to

build new refineries and to upgrade existing ones. The

ongoing impact of all of those factors has aggravated

the economic crises and led to rising rates of inflation

in the developing countries.

In that context, we express our deep concern over

the financial crisis in the world markets. We welcome

in that regard the bold steps and actions taken by the

United States Government to address the mortgage

crisis and to mitigate its negative effects not only on

the United States economy, but also on the economies

of other States around the world.

Achieving sustainable development in the Middle

East will depend to a large extent on the ability of the

countries of the region and the international

community to address security issues and challenges

that are a constant source of tension and instability. In

our desire to achieve peace, we call on the international

community now and in the future to help calm the

hotbeds of tension and instability.

Any genuine and serious desire to achieve a

comprehensive, just and lasting peace must adhere to

the relevant resolutions of international legitimacy, the

principle of land for peace, the road map adopted under

Security Council resolution 1515 (2003) and the Arab

peace initiative, leading to the attainment by the

Palestinian people of all their legitimate political rights

and the establishment of their independent State on

their own land. We reaffirm our full support for the

sisterly Syrian Arab Republic in recovering its

occupied lands. We also express our support for the

sisterly Republic of Lebanon as it pursues dialogue

between all Lebanese parties in implementation of the

agreement signed in Doha, capital of the sisterly State

of Qatar.

The State of Kuwait welcomes the progress

achieved by Iraq in combating terrorism. It commends

the Iraqi Government’s efforts and diligent endeavours,

whose fruit include an obvious improvement in the

security conditions in most Iraqi provinces. The State

of Kuwait hopes that those endeavours will continue

towards comprehensive national reconciliation and

consensus leading to a democratic, free, secure and

independent Iraq, living in peace with itself and its

neighbours and respecting its international obligations

and commitments.

31 08-51851

For its part, Kuwait will spare no effort in

supporting regional and international efforts to assist

Iraq in facing its security, political and economic

challenges, as well as its efforts to ensure its security,

stability, political independence, sovereignty and

territorial integrity, and non-interference in its political

affairs.

In that context, the State of Kuwait hopes that

contacts between the sisterly United Arab Emirates and

the friendly Islamic Republic of Iran will continue at

all levels in order to find a solution to the conflict over

the occupied islands of the Emirates in accordance

with the principles and rules of international law and

the policy of good-neighbourly relations.

While the State of Kuwait stresses the right of all

States to produce, develop and use nuclear energy for

peaceful purposes within the framework of the Treaty

on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), it

calls upon the friendly Islamic Republic of Iran to

pursue its cooperation with the International Atomic

Energy Agency in order to dispel the fears and doubts

about the nature of its nuclear programme. It also urges

Iran to address all other outstanding issues.

We call on the international community to

continue its efforts and endeavours to seek a peaceful

solution that would spare our region from crises or

wars that could undermine its security and stability,

and to deal seriously and without favouritism with any

country in the region not party to the NPT. That would

pave the way for declaring the Middle East a region

free from weapons of mass destruction of all kinds.

All the peoples of the world yearn to live a free,

decent life in a safe and stable world in which justice,

equality and a clean environment free of conflict,

diseases and catastrophes prevail. It is our collective

responsibility to lay the foundations for a new

partnership, based on fair and balanced rules of justice

and equality, in which each party would assume its

responsibilities and obligations to realize the

aspirations and hopes of our peoples.