Tuvalu, 2011

As this is the first time I

have stood at this rostrum as Prime Minister of Tuvalu

and participated in the general debate of the General

Assembly, I am delighted to convey the warmest

greetings and best wishes of my people and my

Government, and I am honoured to speak today on

their behalf. Let me first extend my special thanks and

sincere appreciation to the Government of the United

States of America, as the host country, for the warm

hospitality and special protocols accorded to my

delegation since our arrival.

Ten years ago, Tuvalu established and opened its

Permanent Mission to the United Nations here in New

York, with a mandate to engage more closely with

nations of the global family. Despite our limited

resources as one of the smallest Member States, our

presence is a simple testimony of our hope and trust in

collaboration with Member States in the pursuit of our

destiny. This further reflects our continued

commitment to uphold the maintenance of international

peace and security, development and human rights as

fundamental pillars of the United Nations, as enshrined

in its Charter.

Tuvalu warmly welcomes and fully supports the

four main areas of focus of Mr. Al-Nasser’s presidency,

including the peaceful settlement of disputes, United

Nations reform and revitalization, improving disaster

prevention and response, and sustainable development

and global prosperity, which he clearly identified

during the opening of the session. In particular, the

theme that he proposed for the general debate — “The

role of mediation in the settlement of disputes by

peaceful means” — is timely, considering what is

happening around the world today.

In this context, I wish to express our belated

tribute and respect to the people and the Government

of the United States in commemoration of the recent

tenth anniversary of the events of 11 September 2001.

Tuvalu strongly condemns such terrorist acts and all

similar incidents worldwide, and our prayers are with

those who have lost their loved ones. Tuvalu further

salutes those who have lost their lives for the cause of

justice and peace.

As a peace-loving nation, Tuvalu fully supports

the role of the United Nations in the maintenance of

peace and security across the globe. However, at the

same time, the integrity and sovereignty of countries

should be respected at all costs. Tuvalu firmly believes

that military and violent action should not be used as a

means for the settlement of disputes. Instead, the

parties concerned should be encouraged to discuss and

understand the root causes of their differences and try

to listen to each other in a more peaceful manner.

Today the world is undergoing profound changes

without any boundaries through the unprecedented

impacts of globalization and other related global

events, which have critical implications for Tuvalu.

This has been further exacerbated by the continued

severe impact of the global financial and economic

crisis, which has had an enormous and critical negative

effect on Tuvalu’s economy. In particular, the Tuvalu

Trust Fund, which is the main source of revenue to

stabilize our recurrent budget, has been severely

affected. As a consequence, my Government has no

other option apart from streamlining and containing its

national recurrent budget to a sustainable level so as to

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enable the provision of basic services to its people

during these difficult times.

In this regard, I humbly call upon the

international community and development partners to

urgently fulfil their commitments to assist the least

developed countries (LDCs), including Tuvalu, through

the implementation of the Istanbul Programme of

Action, adopted at the fourth United Nations

Conference on the Least Developed Countries, held in

Turkey earlier this year. The Istanbul Programme of

Action is a living document that needs to be

implemented vigorously and collectively by LDCs and

the international community during the next 10 years.

In that regard, I am pleased to confirm that the main

thrusts of that Programme of Action will be integrated

and mainstreamed in the Tuvalu National Sustainable

Development Strategy, during the Fourth United

Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries

scheduled for next month.

Furthermore, as a least developed country, Tuvalu

is most vulnerable to global economic shocks, the

impacts of climate change and outbreaks of disease,

including non-communicable diseases. Tuvalu

continues to call on and appeal to the United Nations to

take those vulnerabilities seriously into consideration

when addressing the question of the graduation of

LDCs. Despite the ambitious target of the Istanbul

Programme of Action for 50 per cent of LDCs to be

graduated within the next decade, Tuvalu firmly

believes that its economic and environmental

vulnerability, coupled with its continuous dependence

on official development assistance, cannot be totally

ignored. In that context, the graduation criteria need to

be reviewed to reflect and recognize our vulnerability.

Last month, Tuvalu published its second

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Progress

Report covering the period from 2010 to 2011, which

highlights the progress we have made to date towards

achieving those goals. Despite the ongoing impact of

recent global crises, which Tuvalu continues to face, it

is encouraging to note that five of the MDGs are likely

to be achieved and three will have mixed results by

2015. As alluded to earlier, while we have made

progress in achieving the MDGs, such progress can be

reversed overnight because of our particular economic

and environmental vulnerability.

The ongoing process and inter-governmental

negotiations at the United Nations to revitalize and

reform the General Assembly and the Security Council

respectively are fully supported. However, while we

recognize the importance of the reforms being

undertaken by those United Nations bodies in order to

update their mandates, we are concerned that the time

taken to conclude such undertakings is far too long. In

that regard, we look forward to a more realistic

timetable to complete those negotiations in the near

future, once and for all.

Our collective efforts to strengthen and maintain

peace across the globe will be meaningless, if the

United Nations continues to turn blind eyes and deaf

ears to Taiwan’s contribution and efforts toward those

common goals. Furthermore, Taiwan’s continued

contribution to the international community as one of

the committed development partners cannot be

overemphasized. In that regard, Tuvalu strongly urges

the United Nations to recognize those contributions

without any reservations. In particular, Tuvalu calls

upon the United Nations subsidiary bodies, especially

the World Health Organization and the International

Civil Aviation Organization, to allow Taiwan to

participate fully and meaningfully in their meetings

and activities, including in United Nations meetings on

climate change.

Climate change is a priority global issue of the

twenty-first century and beyond and therefore requires

a global solution. Climate change impacts countries

unequally and not all countries possess the same

capacity and resilience to adapt and respond to such

impacts. For a small island developing State like

Tuvalu, climate change is without a doubt a security

issue that threatens our survival. At the end of this year

parties to the United Nations Framework Convention

on Climate Change will be meeting in Durban to

advance our work on climate change. It will be a

critical meeting, as time is fast running out for highly

vulnerable countries like Tuvalu. My country believes

the meeting in Durban must deliver key outcomes.

First, we must adopt amendments to the Kyoto

Protocol, so as to allow for a second commitment

period. It will be necessary to adopt a decision that

includes provisional entry into force of those

amendments to avoid any gap between the first and

second commitment periods. That is necessary in order

to ensure that the clean development mechanism

continues without any complications and that the

mechanism continues to provide financing for the

Adaptation Fund.

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Secondly, we must make rapid progress in

developing an international mechanism to address loss

and damage. For highly vulnerable countries like

Tuvalu, that is vitally important. We need an

international mechanism to spread the burden of

rebuilding after major weather catastrophes. Thirdly,

we must re-focus our work on reducing emissions from

deforestation and forest degradation. To properly

reduce global deforestation we must put in place

appropriate measures that effectively address its

causes. We must look at this from the demand side and

explore all means of regulating the trade in products

that is driving deforestation.

Finally, we believe that all major emitting

countries must take more decisive action to reduce

their emissions. The current pledging system found in

the Cancún Agreements is inadequate. We will be

seeking a mandate in Durban to commence

negotiations on a new, legally binding agreement for

those major emitting countries that have not taken

commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. That

agreement should complement the Kyoto Protocol, but

not replace it.

As we make progress towards the Rio+20

Conference next year, we must ensure that there is a

focused section dealing with the needs of small island

developing States. In considering the theme of the

green economy, we must explore carefully how we can

redirect the current international trading system to

properly reflect the needs of small island economies.

We need accessible and affordable technologies that

take advantage of renewable energy and energy

efficiency, we need help to protect our blue economies

and our oceans, and we need to explore new

preferential trade arrangements to overcome our size

disadvantage.

In conclusion, let me reiterate the severe impact

of the recent financial and economic crisis and other

ongoing global crises, which continue to affect my

country’s economy and its overall social and economic

development. As a small island developing State and a

least developed country, vulnerable to such crises and

dependent on overseas development assistance, Tuvalu

appeals to the international community to urgently

honour and fulfil their commitments and obligations

outlined in the Istanbul Programme of Action and other

international platforms. We firmly believe that with our

continued cooperation and strong partnerships at all

levels, we can successfully overcome those problems

for the sake of our people and humankind.