23 September 2017 – Bahrain reiterated its support for a strong Middle East in its United Nations General Assembly address, underscoring the need for strong and common political will to guarantee positive relations with other countries, support for the principles of non-interference in others internal affairs, and reaffirmation of the fight against terrorism and its sponsors.

“As partners, we can work together to preserve the security of the Gulf region, to combat terrorism and to provide protection for international navigation and commerce routes,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa, addressing the world body in New York.

He also urged compliance with international conventions and instruments to address the greatest challenge facing the international community – terrorism.

“Terrorism is no longer confined to terrorist organizations that can be confronted and eliminated. Rather, that menace has become a tool in the hands of States determined to create crises in other countries in pursuit of their own agenda” he said, adding that it is no longer acceptable to allow rogue countries to occupy others’ territories, violate the sovereignty of States, threaten international peace and security, support terrorism and spread hate and anarchy.

Full statement available here

Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdallah, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Sultanate of Oman, addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s seventy-second session. UN Photo/Cia Pak

In his address, Foreign Minister Yousef bin Alawi bin Abdullah of Oman highlighted his country’s adherence to UN principles. “We call upon all states to exert more efforts to help the United Nations restore its pivotal role in international relations.,” he said.

“The Sultanate of Oman invites the United Nations and the International Community to take up their responsibilities and strive to achieve peace, prevent conflicts and wars and settle difference, through dialogue and peaceful means. In this respect, my country renews its readiness to work with the United Nations to build a new world of security and stability.”

Full statement available here

23 September 2017 – The Philippines’ battle against corruption, crime and illegal drugs seeks to protect the human rights of peaceful law-abiding people, the country’s top foreign affairs official said today at the United Nations General Assembly.

“The Philippines integrates the human rights agenda in its development initiatives for the purpose of protecting everyone, especially the most vulnerable, from lawlessness, violence, and anarchy,” said Secretary for Foreign Affairs Alan Peter Cayetano during the annual high-level debate.

He said that the very principle of ‘responsibility to protect’ must encompass the vast majority of peaceful law-abiding people who must be protected from those who are not.

As a responsible leader, the country’s President, Rodrigo Roa Duterte, launched a vigorous campaign against the illegal drug trade “to save lives, preserve families, protect communities and stop the country’s slide into a narco-state,” Mr. Cayetano said, adding that the campaign was never an instrument to violate any individual’s or group’s human rights.

As of August 2017, the drug trade had penetrated at least 24,848 barangays. This is 59 per cent of the total of 42,036 of the smallest government units spanning the country’s archipelago.

The Philippines have also discovered the intimate and symbiotic relationship between terrorism vis-à-vis poverty and the illegal drug trade, Mr. Cayetano said.

These terrorists were somehow able to bring together an assortment of extremists, criminals, mercenaries and foreign fighters who attempted to take control of Marawi. The national armed forces will regain full control of Marawi from Islamic State-inspired terrorists.

On regionalism, he said, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, has overcome the divisions, fears, and hostilities of the past, forging regional cooperation in promoting growth, development, and peaceful settlement of disputes.

Full statement available here

23 September 2017 – The Foreign Minister of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) today denounced United States President Donald Trump’s “reckless and violent words,” saying that the US leader himself is on a “suicide mission.”

“In case innocent lives in the US are lost because of this suicide attack, Trump will be held totally responsible,” Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho told the Assembly’s 72nd annual general debate, referring to President Trump’s statement to the world body earlier in the week pledging to ‘totally destroy’ the DPRK if the US is forced to defend itself and saying that its leader is on a ‘suicide mission.’

The Foreign Minister called on the UN sanctions imposed upon it for its nuclear and missile tests “unprecedented acts of injustice.”

“Due to his lacking basic common knowledge and proper sentiment, he tried to insult the supreme dignity of my country by referring it to a rocket. By doing so, however, he committed an irreversible mistake of making our rockets’ visit to the entire US mainland inevitable all the more,” he said.

Mr. Ri said the very reason the DPRK has to possess nuclear weapons is because US hostility and nuclear threats have continued for over 70 years. “The possession of nuclear deterrence by the DPRK is a righteous self-defensive measure taken as an ultimate option,” he added.

“Unless true international justice is realized, the only valid philosophical principle is that force must be dealt with force and nuclear weapons of tyranny must be dealt with the nuclear hammer of justice.”

He stressed that the UN failure in fulfilling its role in realizing genuine international justice is primarily related to the undemocratic practices of the 15-Member Security Council, whose decisions alone have the force of law, where the five permanent members – China, France, Russia, United Kingdom and United States – are all nuclear powers with a common interest in maintaining their monopolistic nuclear status.

Full statement available here

23 September 2017 – Expressing his faith in the United Nations and its commitment to responding to challenges such as the disasters presently plaguing Latin America and the Caribbean, Denis Naughton, Minister for Environment of Ireland, said that and other issues require the UN to “move from debate to action.”

Strong partnerships, he told the General Assembly, would remain at the core of Ireland’s approach in working together for a peaceful and prosperous future, and he stressed that as international issues – from climate change to migration – increasingly intersect, “there are not unilateral solutions to these problems.”

The key to tackling global issues collaboratively, he continued, lies in the 2030 Agenda and its attendant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which together have the power and potential to transform the world.

Turning to efforts to reduce threats of violence and nuclear weapons, Mr. Naughton said Ireland unreservedly condemns the series of missile tests by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), urging the country to de-escalate the conflict between the DPRK and the United States.

Part of peacekeeping means providing humanitarian assistance and contributing to international efforts, Conveney said, and explained how investing in youth will ensure a sustainable future. “We have a phrase in Irish […] which, broadly translated, states “praise the youth and they will come.”

He highlighted the prominence of this statement, particularly relevant to Africa, and expressed commitment to building a partnership with that continent, as well as pursuing other international relationships.

Mr. Naughton concluded his speech with a message on coexistence: “In today’s globalized world we must live in each other’s shelter, not shadow.”

Full statement available here

23 September 2017 – Pleading with all countries in the United Nations General Assembly – large and small, rich and poor – to come together to save our planet, the Prime Minister of Dominica, where the landscape, ravaged by back-to-back hurricanes “resembles a warzone,” said his and other islands in the Caribbean need help now to build their homelands back better.

“I come to you straight from the front line of the war on climate change,” Roosevelt Skerrit said in an emotional address to the General Assembly’s annual general debate. But he had made the difficult journey from his storm-battered country “because these are the moments for which the United Nations exists!”

Just two years after powerful tropical storm Erika had ripped through the region – leaving his country, known as ‘nature island’ a land of dirt and dust – he said Dominica, the Bahamas and others had been ravaged by perhaps the worst hurricane season on record, with Irma and Maria leaving loss of lives and livelihoods, and as yet untold damage.

Mr. Skerrit said that warmer air and sea temperatures have permanently altered the climate between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Heat is the fuel that takes ordinary storms – “storms we could normally master in our sleep – and supercharges them into a devastating force.

The most unfortunate reality, he said, is that there is little time left to reverse damages and rectify this trajectory. “We need action and we need it now,” he said.

“The stars have fallen, Eden is broken. The nation of Dominica has come to declare an international humanitarian emergency.”

He concluded by urging ownership and responsibility for perpetuating harm that desperately begs attention: “Let it spark a thousand points of light, not shame.”

Full statement available here

Darren Allen Henfield, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s seventy-second session. UN Photo/Cia Pak

In an equally impassioned address, Darren Allen Henfield, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Bahamas, expressed his concern with the effects of environmental degradation and climate change on small island developing States, which are “threatening their survivability.”

“With what we have witnessed just recently with the passage of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and now Maria, I cannot underscore sufficiently the importance the Bahamas attaches to combating climate change, and the preservation and protection of the environment,” he said.

Stressing that “climate change is global,” he emphasised the damage that hurricane Irma had in the Bahamian archipelago. Indeed, while the Bahamas had not suffered a direct hit, it was not totally spaced. The southern islands experienced serious damage. Additionally, tornadoes inflicted considerable damage on the northern islands of Bimini and Grand Bahama.

Highlighting the election of a new Government for his country the past May, the Minister spoke on its intention of creating the first fully green island in the region, out of the destruction of Ragged Island, which became uninhabitable.

“For the first time in its history, The Bahamas evacuated whole communities to safe quadrants ahead of Hurricane Irma. What’s next: wholesale evacuation of the entire Caribbean?” he asked, calling on the international community to act fast and in a co-ordinated way.

In his address, the Foreign Minister also highlighted the “need to re-evaluate of the measurements used to determine economic well-being” in the country, to allow them to receive development assistant.

Full statement available here