Month: September 2021

“But it is our judgment that there is no prospect, at the present stage, for the US to really withdraw its hostile policy towards the DPRK,” he added. 

The Ambassador was speaking on the sixth, and final day of the high-level week of the General Assembly. After being held virtually last year due the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s gathering featured “hybrid” activities that included leaders in person along with virtual participants.    

United States involvement  

For Mr. Song, it is “the desire of the international community to see peaceful resolution of the issue of the Korean peninsula in the interests of the Korean nation.” 

Three decades since the end of the Cold War, he said, the peninsula “is still in a vicious cycle of ever-looming aggravation of tension and confrontation.” 

The ambassador argued that the “main root cause lies in the hostile policy towards the DPRK”, mostly from the United States.  

“Worse still, they have a misconception that the US has become hostile towards the DPRK due to the nuclear issue,” he said, but the United States has been “antagonizing the DPRK for more than 70 years.” 

Sufficient military power 

For the Permanent Representative, “the possible outbreak of a new war on the Korean peninsula is contained not because of the US’s mercy on the DPRK.” 

“It is because our State is  a growing reliable deterrent that can control the hostile forces in their attempts for military invasion,” he said. 

“We have stored reliable power to defend ourselves by exerting continuous efforts, with a clear insight into the demand of the times which necessitates us to possess sufficient might for national defense in the face of the geopolitical environment and the balance of power on the Korean peninsula as well as ever-straining international relations.” 

He stressed, however, that his country does not wish to use this power against any nation. “In other words, we would never violate nor endanger the security of the US, South Korea and our neighboring countries,” he explained.  

United Nations’ reform 

Pointing to the COVID-19 pandemic, global warming and conflicts all over the globe, he said “it is no exaggeration to say that the international community is faced with the most serious crisis since the founding of the UN.” 

To address these challenges, he proposed changes to the United Nations system, particularly the Security Council. 

“[It] does not say a single word about the reckless arms buildup and war criminal acts by specific countries, such as the US, and its following forces. It instead finds faults with the just self-defensive measures of the DPRK at every chance,” he said. 

To reform the Council, he proposed to Member States that the “representation of developing countries, which make up majority in the UN, should be increased.” 

For him, it is also “imperative” that the resolutions adopted at the Security Council could be rejected by a contravening resolution from the General Assembly.  

Next, he asked the international community to “revitalize the work of the UN based on the principles of sovereign equality and respect for equal rights and self-determination of the people.” 

Mr. Song also pointed to a world marked by “chaos, disorder, bloodshed and violence” that is caused by foreign intervention. 

The Ambassador said that, to this day, some countries “try to unilaterally impose the western values and ‘rules based international order’ upon sovereign states behind the signboard of ‘defending democracy’ and ‘protecting human rights’.” 

For him, “such an attempt to interfere in the internal affairs is a gross violation of the principle of sovereign equality.”  

 

Read the full statement in English. 

Saint Lucia: A near-impossible balancing act 

Philip Joseph Pierre, Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Economic Development and Youth Economy of Saint Lucia, said his nation suffers from serious challenges due to its small size and vulnerability to natural disasters and climate change. While struggling to find solutions for those existing problems, Saint Lucia was hit with COVID-19.  

“We are now being inundated by the new, while still being overwhelmed by the old,” he stated in his pre-recorded address to the annual high-level debate of the UN General Assembly.  

The pandemic forced last year’s debate to be held almost entirely virtually, but the 2021 session is being held in a hybrid format, combining in-person and virtual participation. 

Mr. Pierre said small island nations like Saint Lucia “continue to contend with the near-impossible balancing act of preserving lives and livelihoods” amid the insidious twists and turns of the coronavirus pandemic. 

This includes pushing back against misinformation about the virus and what he called “vaccine apartheid” that has seen some countries stockpile vaccines, “while other countries watch helplessly as COVID-related deaths continue to rise for want of a jab.”  

At the same time, Mr. Pierre said the pandemic “seems to have slowed down everything but the deterioration of our beloved planet earth.” COVID-19 grabs the headlines, “but it is a fact that the pandemic emerged at a time when the world was already on an unsustainable path to achieve  the 2030 [Development] Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”. 

With less than a decade left to achieve the 2030 Agenda, the Prime Minister noted that the UN Decade of Action requires urgent solutions towards “salvaging our global living quarters”.  

“It can be argued that the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate change challenge confront us with an intermeshed problem of symptom as cause and cause as symptom”, he said. “It provides us with a harsh and timely reminder that human health and planetary health are linked”. 

The cost of meeting these challenges and undertaking health or climate resilience activities, is “way beyond” the financial reach of small islands, he lamented. As such, he appealed for contributions towards recovery efforts and for all nations to pay their commitments to the Adaptation and Mitigation Funds. 

Full statement here. 

Bahamas: Raise ambitions at COP26

Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Phillip Edward Davis, also called for equitable distribution of vaccines, including to small island developing States, which are not manufacturers. “It is also important to make safe treatments and therapeutics accessible and to designate them as public goods,” he added.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has made abundantly clear what many of us have always known to be true: we are all in this together,” he told the Assembly in his in-person address.

“We must collaborate to end the COVID-19 pandemic and address public health issues. We must cooperate to mitigate the effects of climate change. Access to development financing must be adequate and fair. Lagging response on any of these issues will have dire consequences for the global economy,” the Prime Minister said.

Even as his country was dealing with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the Prime Minister reminded the Assembly that just two years ago this month, the Bahamas had been devastated by Hurricane Dorian, one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the Atlantic, “and the physical and emotional wreckage are still with us.”

He lamented his country’s sense of foreboding in the wake of the storm, saying: “Every rainfall is a reminder of the horror. How can we continue to do nothing in the face of such tragedy?” To any leader who still believed there was enough time to address climate change, he said “I invite you to visit Abaco and Grand Bahama,” where the devastation wrought by Dorian is now part of the country’s landscape.

“So, we are not here to call for measured steps. We are here to say that big, radical change is the only response that can save our country. We are out of time,” Mr. Davis declared, urging states to raise their ambitions and make real commitments to cut emissions at COP26 in Glasgow. “We don’t want that conference to be like the preceding 25,” he said, calling for states “not to agree to the same promises that won’t be kept.”

There must be “real progress on bridging the gaps in investment and access to technology and skills,” especially in the areas of climate mitigation and adaptation, he said, emphasizing the need for more innovative financing and debt solutions, including for climate adaptation swaps.

 He went on to point out the increasing gap in global financing for meeting the  SDGs by 2030, estimated at $2.5 trillion in 2019, and reiterated his country’s support for the inclusion of a multidimensional vulnerability index in the decision-making of international financial institutions and the international donor community. 

Antigua and Barbuda: Vaccine equity is a global good 

Like his Bahamian counterpart, the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston A. Browne, also concentrated his address on the pandemic and climate change, which he called “the two overarching issues that confront mankind”.

Beginning with COVID-19, he echoed others who spoke of the lack of a coherent response to ending the crisis, including vaccine inequity.

He stressed that developing countries were not seeking handouts, and many had paid into a global system that promised early access to vaccines, however, “selfish nationalism” forced many to rely on “vaccine charity.”

“No country wanted to beg for vaccines…we were ready to pay”, said Prime Minister Browne, yet most jabs manufactured by major pharmaceutical companies were bought or contracted and “hoarded by a few wealthy nations”.

If, at the onset of the pandemic, developing countries had been given access to proper COVID-19 vaccines and medical supplies, “globally, we would be in a better place”, he asserted.

Calling inoculation discrimination, “wrong, unjust, and patently unfair”, Mr. Browne& advocated for equitable vaccine distribution at affordable prices and less expensive COVID testing.

“Vaccines are a global good; they should not be a commodity for profit at the expense of human life”, he said.

Noting that climate change has already had catastrophic consequences on some small island States, the Prime Minister called for “global solidarity and firm commitments” to reduce global temperatures below 1.5 degrees and provide quality financing and climate technologies “to save our planet”.

Pointing out that industrialized countries have an obligation to assist the States most affected by climate change because “they created a problem in the first instance”, Mr. Browne signalled that the development funding assistance for small islands developing States should not be seen as a gift or charity but “as a form of climate reparations to compensate for past climate damage”.

Full statement here. 

Referring to the theme of the Debate, ‘Building Resilience Through Hope’, Cardinal Parolin differentiated hope from optimism: whilst optimism, he said, is an expectation that things will turn out well, hope is characterized by perseverance in the face of new and existing crises. 

Cardinal Parolin called for a global recovery based on a renewed sense of fraternal solidarity. He called for the international community to work together to help those on the “pharmaceutical margins” and end needless suffering and death. Vaccines, he said, must be available to everyone, especially in conflict areas and humanitarian settings. 

The Cardinal said that a renewed examination of how health care systems have largely been overwhelmed by the pandemic and left so many without sufficient care or any care at all, is needed.

Sustainable development ‘a daunting challenge’

A similar examination on economic systems, which have left many behind and made the poor even more vulnerable, is also required and, in light of political and distribution failures of the pandemic, the fight against corruption must continue.

The pandemic, warned Cardinal Parolin, has rendered the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, already an uphill struggle, a daunting challenge.

Rebuilding sustainably will mean rethinking the relationship between individuals and the economy, continued the Holy See Secretary of State, and ensuring that both economic models and development programs remain at the service of men and women, particularly those on the margins of society, rather than exploiting both people and natural resources.

Creating a resilient planet

The upcoming UN climate conference, known by the shorthand COP26, will be an important opportunity for resilience, said the Cardinal, affording the international community an opportunity to reinforce commitments to protect the Earth.

The senior official hailed the advances in technology, and human creativity, that are making environmentally conscious choices by governments and individuals easier, and inspiring hope.

However, he pointed out that hope is in short supply for so many who are caught up in conflict, singling out the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, and the ongoing political tensions in Syria and Lebanon, as a reminder of the impact that conflicts have on peoples and nations.

Cardinal Parolin reiterated calls by UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Pope Francis for a global ceasefire, and for an end to the nuclear arms race, expressing the Holy See’s hope of progress in the implementation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), scheduled to hold its Review Conference next January.

A ‘crisis in human relationships’

The world, warned Cardinal Parolin, is dominated by selfishness and by the culture of waste, and is facing a “crisis of human relationships”, with negative consequences for human rights.

Humanitarian law, he declared, is often taken as a recommendation rather than an obligation, and “refugees, migrants and internally displaced persons are increasingly left in limbo or even left to drown”, and religious believers endure harassment, persecution, death and even genocide on account of their faith.

The senior official also condemned “partial interpretations” of human rights as a ground for polarization and division, that drive UN processes “contrary to the bodies’ given mandates”. 

Committing the UN to ‘healthy politics’

Expanding on the theme of the UN’s role, Cardinal Parolin called for the Organization to return to the core principles and purposes enshrined in its Charter, and live up to its aims, rather than becoming a tool of the powerful, and commit to “health politics”, based on the pursuit of the common good and universal truth.

Revitalizing the UN, he added, must include examining whether the structure conceived in 1945 remains adequate for 2021 and beyond, and affording greater attention to promoting and safeguarding the mandates of UN bodies.

Read the full statement here.