Trinidad and Tobago, 1995

It is a great

honour for me to extend to you, Sir, warmest

congratulations, on behalf of the delegation of Trinidad and

Tobago, on your election as President of this session of the

General Assembly. The celebration of the fiftieth

anniversary of the United Nations and the urgent need to

respond to a number of major questions facing the

Organization make this a singularly important year. We are

confident that with your vision and leadership you will

guide this historic Assembly session to a successful

conclusion.

My delegation would also like to express its deep

appreciation to your predecessor, His Excellency

Mr. Amara Essy of Côte d’Ivoire, for the able manner in

which he presided over the forty-ninth session of the

General Assembly.

We are also particularly pleased to welcome the

small island State of Palau as the one hundred and eighty-

fifth Member of the United Nations.

Most States represented in this Hall were not present

at the historic signing of the United Nations Charter in

San Francisco 50 years ago, but on gaining independence

they applied for membership in this Organization as an

essential part of their quest for a secure and stable

international environment and improved standards of

living. Trinidad and Tobago, a small democratic State,

which gained its independence in 1962, was no exception.

Since 1962, when we became a Member of the

United Nations, there have been profound changes in

international relations and consequent increases in the

responsibilities of this Organization. The most dramatic of

these changes was the end of the cold war, which

engendered a certain optimism that there would be an

anticipated peace dividend which would provide impetus

to international cooperation for development.

Unfortunately this was not to be. The end of the cold war

triggered an almost unprecedented surge of ethnic and

nationalist conflict, which proceeded to consume much of

the attention and resources of the international

community.

Our Organization has had to adapt quickly to meet

these challenges. There was a sudden and meteoric rise in

the volume and, indeed, the complexity of United Nations

peace-keeping activities. The Organization has had its

share of successes and disappointments. However, despite

the failure to meet growing expectations, the United

Nations can be justly proud of many of its achievements

in the field of peace-keeping, in the restoration of

democracy, and in its response to emergency situations.

The successes in Central America, Cambodia, Namibia,

Mozambique and South Africa bear ample testimony to

the effective role the United Nations can play in the

advancement of peace, justice and security.

In our region, the cooperation between the United

Nations and the Organization of American States in the

9

restoration of the democratically elected President of Haiti

shows what can be accomplished once the necessary

political will exists in support of such actions. In this

regard, we welcome the recently held legislative and local

elections in Haiti, which, in spite of difficulties, saw

thousands of Haitians assemble peacefully and safely to

cast their ballots. We are confident that these developments

will serve to enhance Haiti’s efforts to consolidate

democracy, and will assist in the process of national

reconciliation. The international community must continue

to assist the Government and people of Haiti in the post-

emergency period and in their long-term efforts to achieve

economic and social reconstruction.

In the Middle East, Trinidad and Tobago welcomes

the interim agreement between Israel and the Palestine

Liberation Organization on the expansion of Palestinian

self-rule in the West Bank, which was signed in

Washington, D.C. on 28 September 1995. It represents

another significant advance in the process towards lasting

peace in the region.

As for the former Yugoslavia, we are encouraged by

the efforts on the part of all sides in the conflict to come to

the negotiating table, and we express the hope that this

development will significantly advance the process towards

peace and stability in that war-torn region.

On the African continent, the spirit of reconciliation

which has prevailed in some areas of conflict gives us hope

that some of the seemingly more intractable problems can

also be resolved. The international community must fulfil

its responsibilities in assisting the process.

Earlier this year the States parties to the Treaty on the

Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons decided to extend

the Treaty indefinitely. The Conference also adopted a

number of principles and objectives, one of which called

for the completion of a comprehensive nuclear-test-ban

treaty no later than the third quarter of 1996. It was also the

understanding of the international community that there

would be no further nuclear tests, pending the entry into

force of that treaty. Trinidad and Tobago has joined other

parties to the Tlatelolco and Rarotonga Treaties in rejecting

current nuclear testing by some nuclear-weapon States, and

appeals to those States to heed the mounting requests to

cease nuclear testing.

Related to our environmental concerns over nuclear

testing is the equally critical issue of the marine transport

of irradiated nuclear fuel, plutonium and high-level

radioactive wastes. These shipments continue to take place

despite the potentially catastrophic effects on small island

developing States, whose fragile and vulnerable

economies are overwhelmingly dependent on their marine

and coastal resources, and who possess neither the

resources nor the capability to deal with possible

accidents of this nature. My delegation would therefore

like to reiterate the priority concern which we attach to

this issue, and to urge the shipment countries to respect

the wishes of the small island developing States and other

en route States, which have called for an end to these

shipments through their archipelagic and territorial waters

as well as their exclusive economic zones.

The fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations will

be a time for reflection and re-examination of the

activities of the Organization, not only as they relate to

conflict situations but, equally, in the field of

development as a necessary precondition for peace and as

the best guarantee of long-term stability.

At the national level, Trinidad and Tobago has

undertaken a programme of economic reform and

restructuring of the economy, which is almost complete.

Our development focus has been on the pursuit of a

sound macroeconomic policy based on a number of

measures, which include a disciplined fiscal stance and

the consistent implementation of an orderly and broad-

based divestment programme, the enactment of structural

and legislative reforms designed to provide an

environment for the growth of a resilient and

internationally competitive private sector and one

conducive to greater foreign investment, the liberalization

of the trade and exchange-rate regimes aimed at

enhancing our competitiveness and a comprehensive

programme of reform of the domestic financial system.

Emphasis has also been placed on the reform of the

public sector and the provision of basic infrastructure in

order to ensure the efficient delivery of reliable, high-

quality services, the progressive restructuring of our

educational system so as to put in place a sustainable

human-resource development programme which would

respond to the new challenges and needs of our

development, and the employment of social policies

aimed at protecting the most vulnerable in our society. In

order to succeed, however, these measures must be

complemented by a supportive regional and international

environment.

For small States, regional integration is an

imperative, and, increasingly, regional cooperation

systems are seen as providing the essential building

blocks on which to construct hemispheric and wider

10

international cooperation. At the last Conference of the

Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Government,

held at Georgetown from 4 to 7 July, Trinidad and Tobago

was pleased to welcome Suriname as the fourteenth

member of the Caribbean Community.

The successful inaugural summit meeting of the

Association of Caribbean States, which was held at Port of

Spain from 17 to 18 August 1995, has also opened a new

chapter in the history of cooperation among countries of the

wider Caribbean. The adoption of the Declaration of

Principles and Plan of Action on Tourism, Trade and

Transportation provides a practical blueprint to foster

development and enhance economic integration among all

countries of the Caribbean. In this context, Trinidad and

Tobago reiterates the importance we attach to the full

reintegration of Cuba in the Western Hemisphere.

I have already alluded to the need to achieve greater

balance in United Nations activities in the fields of peace-

keeping and development. The need for such a balance

assumes even greater urgency when one recognizes that to

an increasing extent the nature, scope and complexity of

development challenges today are beyond the limits and

control of the nation State.

To the traditionally elusive development problems of

persistent poverty, debilitating debt, declining levels of

official development assistance, unemployment,

demographic pressures and the worsening income gap and

terms of trade between developed and developing countries,

one must add the new and additional challenges of

environmental degradation and globalization. Some of these

will continue to require a national approach, but the great

majority of them are beyond the limits of national action

and thus require a common commitment, a common

approach, and a call to global neighbourhood action.

The notion of shared responsibilities and the

recognition of the need for mechanisms for collective action

are the raison d’être of the United Nations system. A

coordinated and integrated United Nations system that is

focused and adequately funded thus remains the best hope

for effectively dealing with these myriad and complex

development challenges.

I can think of no better way to refocus and recommit

the United Nations to the goals of development and global

security for all than through the formulation and

implementation of a comprehensive action-oriented agenda

for development. An agenda which continues to address

traditional development problems while simultaneously

tackling the questions of protectionism, capital flows,

reform of the international economic decision-making

processes and management of the global economy must

be the focus of our efforts.

At the recent Fourth World Conference on Women

at Beijing, the international community recognized the

crucial role that women play in the development process

and acknowledged that effective international cooperation

for development will remain an elusive goal unless

women can participate fully in the political, economic and

social life of their respective societies. The Beijing

Conference, along with the other global conferences held

at Rio, Barbados, Cairo and Copenhagen, have served to

buttress the case for an integrated approach to sustainable

development, which must be informed by environmental,

social, demographic, gender and human- resource

considerations. The agenda for development must

therefore seek to implement and fulfil, in an integrated

manner, the commitments arising out of these

Conferences.

Within the agenda for development particular

consideration must also be given to assisting developing

countries, especially those with small and vulnerable

economies in advancing their economic transformation

and in facilitating their greater participation in the world

economy.

Trinidad and Tobago is committed to free trade and

to placing its economy on a development path compatible

with the demands of the new global order. However, as

the challenges of globalization have demonstrated,

national policies are not enough. To achieve sustained

economic growth and sustainable development we need a

supportive and favourable international economic

environment as well as a fair, open and non-

discriminatory trading system, one which recognizes that

small and vulnerable economies like our own are at a

particular disadvantage because of our size and the lack

of economies of scale. No effort must therefore be spared

to ensure that we are provided with the necessary market

access so critical to our trade-expansion and development

objectives. Indeed, to do anything less within the agenda

for development would be a denial of the fact that

globalization has now placed an even greater

responsibility on the major developed countries to ensure

that their macroeconomic policies are favourable to

growth and development in the rest of the world.

Trinidad and Tobago is also of the view that the

agenda for development offers an opportunity to develop

11

the global partnership for sustainable development and to

promote the implementation of the agreements reached at

the Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro in 1992. In this process,

the special situation and needs of small island developing

States and the recognition of their environmental

vulnerability must receive priority attention. Trinidad and

Tobago therefore wishes to reiterate the particular

importance we attach to the implementation of the Barbados

Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of

Small Island Developing States.

In the Caribbean, recent devastating hurricanes have

once again dramatically demonstrated the fragility of the

ecosystems and the vulnerability of the economies of small

islands. We are grateful to those Member States which have

joined CARICOM countries in providing emergency

assistance, and we appeal to the international community to

continue its support for reconstruction efforts in the affected

countries.

The General Assembly will be called upon at this

session to make several critical decisions relating to the

future of the United Nations system. Trinidad and Tobago

is of the view that the elements of the reform exercise

currently before the Assembly constitute a good basis for a

more effective United Nations.

Indeed, Member States must use the momentum

provided by this fiftieth-anniversary session to reach an

agreement to expand the Security Council so as to enhance

its legitimacy and effectiveness, to resolve the critical

financial situation of the United Nations, to complete an

action-oriented and comprehensive Agenda for

Development with adequate and predictable resources for its

implementation, and to strike a reasonable balance between

resources for peace-keeping and for development.

Reform, however, cannot be an end in itself. It is but

a means to an end, and it will only be meaningful if we are

united in the view that a strengthened and revitalized

United Nations is an imperative, given the inescapable

reality of today’s global village; that the world of the future

will need more, not fewer, effective international

collaborative mechanisms to confront common threats; and

that the United Nations remains the only available

instrument for the necessary global effort required to tackle

these challenges.

The critical financial situation of the United Nations

must be a source of concern to all Member States. The

Secretary-General has described with increasing urgency

and frustration the difficulties he is facing in carrying out

the tasks entrusted to him because of a lack of the

necessary resources. The failure, in particular, of the

largest contributor to pay its legally assessed contributions

has placed the Organization on the brink of insolvency.

There must therefore be a greater commitment on the part

of all Member States to meet their obligations, as well as

a greater manifestation of will to resolve the overall

financial situation of the United Nations. Unless we

demonstrate this commitment, the paeans of praise with

which we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary will have a

very hollow ring.

At this fiftieth anniversary of the Organization, let us

recall the opening words of the United Nations Charter:

“We the peoples of the United Nations ... have

resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish these

aims.”

In a spirit of global partnership, we must renew our

resolve, in accordance with the principles and purposes of

the Charter, to ensure the realization of the objectives for

which the Organization was established: peace, equality,

justice and development for all. Trinidad and Tobago

pledges to work with others to confront the challenges

that face our Organization as we move towards the

twenty-first century.