Papua New Guinea, 2025

The Assembly will hear an address by His Excellency James Marepe, Prime Minister of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea. I request Protocol to escort His Excellency and invite him to address the Assembly. Madam President, congratulations on your election to the Presidency of the 88th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. I want to also thank the outgoing President for his wonderful work. Secretary General, Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, Firstly, on behalf of my country, Papua New Guinea, I want to say thank you to Almighty God, the Creator God, for the care of my country the last 50 years. It is truly with deep honour that I bring to this Assembly warm greetings from the 10 million people of my country. Just a few days ago, we celebrated 50 years of our independence, and very soon, on the 10th of October, we will mark 50 years since we joined the United Nations. And I want to say, 50 years on, we have been proud participants in the United Nations family, and we have stood to the principles of the United Nations Charter. Deep in the core of my nation's continued success, we have maintained our nation under our Constitution. At independence, the founding fathers and mothers of Papua New Guinea gave us a single Constitution, something that we value to the core. Our Constitution has kept our diversity together. It protects total human rights, affirms our Christian heritage, it guides the way we live and govern. Despite being Christian, for instance, we protect the freedom of religion of every sort in our country, it safeguards our culture, and it protects our environment. Papua New Guinea is home to extraordinary diversity. Since time past, over 1,000 tribes have lived, over 850 languages thrive in the 600 islands that we call Papua New Guinea today. It is this one Constitution that binds my country into a symphony of one nation, one people, one country. And I want to say thank you very much to the fathers of my country, and to the mothers of my country who have given this wonderful Constitution that protects the democracy we have today. I want to also acknowledge the work of our churches, who alongside state have delivered education, health, and community services that has contributed to holding my country together. For this, we are forever grateful. I want to say deep in the heart of this Constitution, it preserves human rights and human dignity. And we coexist amongst ourselves. If you look into PNG today, we've got mosques for our Muslim brothers and sisters, we have Hindus who practice their Hindu faith, we have many religions in our country. Our Constitution, whilst pronouncing our Christian faith, tolerates diversity of religion, diversity of people's opinion, diversity of individual's choice in as far as their practice of worship and how they want to live. In a world of so much divergence, Papua New Guinea has one or two lessons to teach the world. One of them is living amidst diversity, coexisting and living in unity. A second lesson we possibly want to speak to the world is a lesson of peace. Papua New Guinea, like many parts of the world, also has known conflicts for a decade. In fact, 14 years after independence in 1975, Bougainville Island in our country suffered extreme violence. But through dialogue and the oversight of the United Nations, we've achieved the 2001 Bougainville Peace Agreement. And since then, I am happy to say not a bullet has been fired since the peace agreement was signed. We continue to resolve questions around Bougainville's future through dialogue, our Melanesian conscience, our Christian brotherhood sitting together on the table and through our consensual process. I want to say Bougainville reminds us that peace can be achieved. In a world today where we struggle to find peace, I want to say peace can be found on the table of peace. I remind all who are in conflict, different conflicting parties, needless to name, peace can be found. Why don't you give peace a go? Sit on the table of peace. This morning I was pleased to hear the Israeli Prime Minister saying for the first time, or in fact he's been saying with re-emphasis again this morning, that Hamas, if you let go those who you capture, they could stop the war right now and then. That's a construct of peace. And I want to say, why don't we give peace a go? Hamas, for Israel conflict with you, you have the opportunity to give your people a moment of peace. This morning, Israel Prime Minister Arthur, that if you let go the hostages, including those that have been killed, they could stop the war now, right now. And for Papua New Guinea as a friend of Israel, I want to say we will stand on Israel's word and ask them to come to the peace table if Hamas, you come out and stop the current war that is going on. Give peace a go. To the other conflicts happening around the world, peace can be sought, peace can be arrived at. And I want to ask, give peace a go, sit at the table of peace. That could be something that the world can learn from Papua New Guinea. After 10 years of civil conflict, we decided under UN supervision that we will give peace a go. 24 years on, no bullet has been fired. We're working through the process. And I want to thank the Secretary General. We were honored. Very recently, he did visit us. He visited us, spent three nights and four days in Papua New Guinea. He praised our leadership on climate change, on biodiversity, preservation of natural environment, and, of course, our diversity of people living together as one people, one nation, one country, despite the 1,000 tribes and 840 or 50 languages we have. And he also praised us for the maintenance of peace in PNG through the Bougainville Peace Model. And he also, the same breath, reminded us that much work remains in PNG, including fighting corruption, including giving development to all parts of my country. And I want to assure him at this August Hall that we are working. PNG is a work in progress. We committed to leaving no citizens behind. We committed to transforming our country. We committed to growing our economy to a scale where we can be able to look after each citizen of our country. And I want to say to the Secretary General, Papua New Guinea commits to the goal of leaving no person or no child behind. And we give that assurance in the 80th anniversary of the United Nations. Papua New Guinea is also a good global citizen. We are not insignificant in as far as global discourse is concerned. Our forests and our oceans are great global assets. We have one of the biggest parcel of forests on planet Earth. We have over 3 million square kilometers of ocean or sea space. Our tropical forest absorbs carbon as well as produce oxygen, as I've been saying in this August Hall many times. Our vast waters, part of the great Pacific waters, are big carbon sink. Our rivers, our reefs, our ecosystems shelter unique biodiversity. In fact, we hold 6 to 7 percent of the world's biodiversity. Why do I bring this up? I bring this up simply to point all of us that our planet is boiling. Our planet is in destruction mode. We must work to save our planet. Unless you have a second planet to run off to, science tells us in the observable universe, you look 93 billion light years into the observable universe, there is no other planet that is livable like planet Earth. And so why destroy this one planet that has trees, that has sea, that has water, that has oxygen, that is livable for all of us? Our ancestors passed on this livable planet to us. Why are we destroying this planet? We must preserve it and pass on a livable planet to our descendants. And in this vein, I want to put to all of you, those of us who are forest nations like PNG, or even ocean nations, where in our oceans, biodiversity exists. PNG, with many of our Pacific Island nations, including Australia, home to one of the largest, in fact, the largest coral sea, the Coral Triangle, passes through our waters. We, custodians of these global resources, ask the big carbon footprint holders, especially the G20s and the industrial nations, cut your emissions. Reform the global financial system to support those of us who hold biodiversity and are biodiversity nations. And take responsibility for your carbon footprint. Unless, and again, you have a second planet to run off to, it doesn't matter what Elon Musk asks, you can look to the outer space in your lifetime. It is not feasible to fly to the nearest planet. And so let's save this one planet we have. As we face COP 30 in Brazil, Papua New Guinea offers support to forest nations and ocean nations to talk about sustainable development and just do in as far as us maintaining our forests is concerned. Our carbon footprint is minimal. PNG, for instance, produces 10 million metric tons of carbon a year, yet we subsume over 100 million metric tons of carbon. Someone producing those excess carbon out there must assist me, preserving my forests or our forests for the upkeep of our planet. This is a conversation very close to all of us, and I want to put to all of us in this session. This planet is destroyed. It doesn't matter what you say. Don't live in ignorance. Ask your own scientists. Scientists and scientific finding tells us our planet is warming. In fact, it is boiling as we speak. And I want to ask that the United Nations, in fact, Secretary General, His Excellency António Guterres has been a strong advocate in this space. Why don't we come out and support him fully? And on this, I want to thank the United Nations for continual embrace of Papua New Guinea's aspirations and views since 1975. I want to say thank you to all our bilateral partners and multilateral partners for standing with us since 1975. I want to thank Australia for being our strongest bilateral partner to date, including allowing us to be independent peacefully in 1975. I want to say thank you to all investors who have stood with PNG since 1975. Most of you know my line of thought. It is not aid and grant, but trade for PNG as we build our economy to sustain the over 10 million people that stays and call PNG home. I want to thank all NGOs and churches and individuals for their enduring support to my country in our 50th year of independence and democracy. Your solidarity has kept Papua New Guinea united thus far. In closing, I want to say 50 years ago we entered this assembly as one of the youngest members. Today, 50 years on, we stand tall as a free, vibrant democracy, nation that is still united amidst our diversity, resilient and strong, working to grow our economy so that our people can be prosperous and to improve our region as well as contribute to the world around us. On behalf of Papua New Guinea, I want to congratulate the United Nations for turning 80 this year and to the world. Eighty years may have passed. Some things don't change. Core values of humanity don't change. United Nations is the meeting place of the diversity we have called planet, planet Earth rather. Papua New Guinea has diversity in ourselves. Our diversity finds our meeting place in our national parliament, in our constitution, likewise for humanity. Many of you may think that United Nations is irrelevant, but Papua New Guinea at the 80th year of United Nations want to say that charter is relevant. We must keep the sanctity of the United Nations running in this place humanity can meet. In my closing message, I want to say unity can be found in diversity like PNG maintains our unity in diversity. It is better together than being alone. Peace is built and sustained through dialogue and not through war. This one planet must be preserved for generations. Thank you very much. Thank you too much. On behalf of Papua New Guinea, I say thank you all for listening. On behalf of the Assembly, I wish to thank the Prime Minister of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea.