National governments and the international community must work “hand-in-hand” to realize the lofty goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Foreign Minister of Laos People’s Democratic Republic said at the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday.

Addressing world leaders at the Assembly’s general debate, Saleumxay Kommasith added that priority must be accorded to least developed and land-locked developing countries given their added vulnerabilities. There countries were also at an added disadvantage due to the impact of climate change, which hit them hard.

“Against this backdrop, it is more crucial than ever for world leaders to honour the commitments pledged in the Paris Agreement,” he said.

Mr. Kommasith also underlined the need to address the scourge of transnational crime, at all levels, noting his country’s commitment with regional countries at the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the wider international community in the fight against illicit drug, illegal wild life trade, trafficking in persons, among others.

He also highlighted the importance of peace and security for socio-economic progress in all nations.

“Past experiences have shown that settling disputes by peaceful means is the best way to ensure durable peace that is essential for sustainable development of a nation,” said the Minister.

As such, the international community must help build mutual trust and confidence among countries to support them overcome challenges between them and resolve disputes peacefully, he added.

Minister Kommasith also welcomed the thawing of relations in the Korean Peninsula and between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the United States.

“We hope that such positive momentum will be strengthened, thereby, contributing to the maintenance of peace and stability, and denuclearization in the region as a whole.”

Concluding his address, the Minister urged the international community to uphold and further strengthen multilateralism.

“This remains one of the core values of our only universal organization, the United Nations,” he said.

Full statement available here.

At a time of growing pessimism over the effectiveness of the United Nations, the international community must overcome political and ideological differences to strengthen the world Organization to address the multiple problems, from sustainable development and development aid to climate change and the fight against terrorism, Senegal told the UN General Assembly on Saturday.

“The UN is by its very essence the seat and embodiment of this multilateralism,” Senegalese Foreign Minister Sidiki Kaba stressed on the fifth day of the Assembly’s annual general debate.

“It remains the only forum capable of conceiving and fleshing out concerted solutions with universal dimensions,” he said, calling for global and inclusive responses that irreversibly establish the ideal of a better world.

“The world is currently victim of a growing pessimism with regard to the very effectiveness of the UN, which some, rightly or wrongly, at times accuse of distancing itself from its Charter and of being incapable of providing adequate solutions peoples’ problems and the acute crises that gravely threaten our planet and life on Earth,” Mr. Kaba said.

“In such a context it behooves us to show, if ever there was such a need, that the UN remains the irreplaceable platform for conducting world affairs. Its failure is that of us all. Its success is equally that of us all.”

At its birth in 1945 the UN symbolized humankind’s most fervent hopes, Mr. Kabat noted. “Today it embodies them more than ever,” he stressed. “It remains the only world institution whose legitimateness and authority flow from its universal composition.”    

Full statement (in French) available here.

The edifice of global order is “under assault,” Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pakistan’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, said on Saturday at the United Nations, pointing to rising inequality within and among countries.

“Forces of protectionism, populism and isolationism are gaining currency,” he argued, saying “Intolerance is ascendant over acceptance; rhetoric over reason, and power over principle.”

Multilateralism “is on a path of retreat,” and “unilateralist tendencies are growing [and] long standing legal norms are being eroded for strategic and commercial considerations,” he declared.

“Post-World War idealism is giving way, slowly but surely, to a hardened, militaristic approach,” he said, which was “not only regressive, [but] downright dangerous.”

Turning to peace, he reminded the Assembly that Pakistan remained one of the oldest, largest and most active UN peacekeeping contributors the world over.

“The Pakistani ‘blue helmets’ have laid lives in the cause of global peace,” he said proudly adding that his country also hosts one of the oldest missions, namely the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP).

Commending that operation’s contribution in monitoring the Line of Control in Jammu & Kashmir, he noted Pakistan’s desire for a relationship with India “based on sovereign equality and mutual respect.”

Explaining that they were to meet on the sidelines of this year’s General Assembly, he said that India, for the third time, called off their dialogue.

“They preferred politics over peace,” asserted. “They used the pretext of stamps issued months ago, of a Kashmiri activist and depicting grave human rights violations, including pellet gun victims, as an excuse to back out from the talks.”

The Foreign Minister underscored that “dialogue is the only way to address long-standing issues that have long bedeviled South Asia and prevented the region from realizing its true potential.”

Moreover, Mr. Qureshi asserted that New Delhi, “in plain sight of the international community,” perpetrates State-sponsored terrorism in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir and “has sponsored terrorism and aggression against all its neigbours.”

Underscoring the relevance of the UN, the Foreign Minister detailed an eight-point list to keep the Organization as the world’s “central platform for dialogue and diplomacy,” which ran from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to maintaining the “sanctity and integrity of international agreements” and developing universally-agreed legal frameworks on technology and innovation.

“These times call for deliberation and diligence, but also cooperation and concerted action. They call for a truly united, United Nations,” he concluded.

Full statement available here.

The United Nations Security Council should “have the courage to remove Burundi from its agenda”, Foreign Minister Ezekiel Nibigira said on Saturday from the rostrum of the General Assembly.

The political and security situation, he said, is far from posing a threat to international peace and security. “The place that Burundi deserves today is not in the oval hall of the Security Council. It should be at the level of the United Nations agencies in charge of development to boost its economic recovery.”

Mr. Nibigira reminded those present that his country organized a constitutional referendum on May 17, “in calm and serenity”. He added that when the new constitution was promulgated on 7 June, the President of Burundi announced that “his second term of office will end in 2020 and he is ready to support the new President.”

The Minister pointed out that “the spirit of tolerance, honesty and openness of the political space is growing stronger in Burundi”, as shown by the return of several thousand refugees and political leaders.

As for the inter-Burundian dialogue, Mr. Nibigira added that dialogue as a means of finding peaceful solutions to disputes has become “a culture”.

More than 20 political parties have already adopted a road map for the 2020 elections, and a new national electoral commission will be set up, which will respect political, ethnic, regional and gender inclusion, explained the Minister.

The Minister pointed out that the unilateral economic sanctions were imposed by the European Union in the wake of the 2015 “election fever”, and that the situation has fundamentally changed since then.

While he reiterated his availability and cooperation with the UN to promote human rights, the Burundian Minister denounced “the dangerous tendency of some States to want to transform the Human Rights Council into a tool for political pressure and geopolitical regulation in the countries of the South.”

He recalled that the African Union called for the lifting of these “unjust and immoral sanctions” at its summit last summer.

On the security front, the situation in Burundi is calm, stable and under control, said Mr. Nibigira, a positive finding that is shared, he said, by the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General and the Security Council.

The Minister called for all countries sheltering those behind the coup attempt of 13 May 2015, to extradite them to Burundi, so that they will answer for their actions in court.

Full statement available here (in French) 

Despite taking goodwill measures over the past year, including dismantling a nuclear test site, there was “no way” the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea would unilaterally disarm itself without rebuilding trust with the United States, DPRK’s Foreign Minister told the United Nations on Saturday.

“Without any trust in the U.S. there will be no confidence in our national security,” Ri Yong Ho said, and underscored: “The DPRK Government’s commitment to the denuclearization is solid and firm.”

Yet, “if the party to this issue of denuclearization were South Korea (Republic of Korea) and not the US, the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula would not have come to such a deadlock,” he explained, underscoring the “firm determination” of Chairman Kim Jong-Un, “to turn the Korean peninsula into a land free of both nuclear weapons and threats.”

The Foreign Minister cited “significant goodwill measures” in the past year, such as stopping nuclear and missiles tests, dismantling the nuclear test site, and pledging not to proliferate nuclear weapons and nuclear technology.

“However, we do not see any corresponding response from the US,” he said.

“Instead of addressing our concern for the absence of peace regime in the Korean peninsula, the US insists on the ‘denuclearization-first’ and increases the level of pressure by sanctions to achieve their purpose in a coercive manner,” he stated, adding that it even objected to the “declaration of the end of war.”

“The key to consolidating peace and security in the Korean Peninsula is to thoroughly implement the DPRK-US Joint Statement adopted in June at the historic DPRK-US summit in Singapore,” he said, explaining that it contains principle issues, such as seeing a “complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and humanitarian work between the two countries.”

Once achieved, the Korean Peninsula, “the hottest spot in the globe, will become the cradle of peace and prosperity that contributes to security in Asia and the rest of the world,” he said.

he Foreign Minister noted that even before the summit, his government took significant good-will measures, such as stopping nuclear tests and dismantling its nuclear test site, while the US has shown no “corresponding response.”

On domestic matters, the Foreign Minister pointed out that in April, Mr. Kim put forward a new concentration on economic construction, which he called “a historic task” requiring a peaceful environment “above anything else.”

“The international society should support and encourage” these efforts in response to “the bold decisions and good-will measures we have taken” for a peaceful Korean peninsula, he stated.

Turning to the Security Council, he noted that it had not acknowledged the “momentum for peace on the Korean peninsula,” observing that it had even rejected Member States’ proposals to issue presidential statements welcoming the DPRK-US summit and Joint Statement.

In conclusion Mr. Ri urged the UN to “get rid of the stigma that ‘UNSC equals US’ as early as possible.”

Full statement available here.