United
Nations
Millenium Summit
Address
by,
H. E. Mr.
Amraiya Naidu,
Ambassador
and Permanent Representative
of Fiji to
the United Nations
Distinguished Co‑Chairmen,
Secretary‑General, Excellencies, Colleagues,
It is my profound privilege to
deliver to you tile greetings of His Excellency, the President of the Republic
of Fiji, who deeply regrets not being able to share this momentous occasion of
the Millenium Summit with you all here in tile United Nations. His Excellency
Ratu Josefa Uluivuda Iloilo is nonetheless with us all in the spirit of this
historic occasion to bid the exiting, and usher in the Millennium of the 21st century.
Fiji takes great pride in its UN
membership and will continue to commit its spirit and resources to the peaceful
goals and the principled ideals of this international family.
As a sibling of the South Pacific
family of nations, Fiji stands proud also of the expanding membership of the
United Nations community due to the admittance of its fellow South Pacific nations
in the recent years. It is therefore with deep humility and reflection that Fiji
takes the floor as the last speaker from government delegations and immediately
following Tuvalu to offer its familial congratulations and embrace to Tuvalu,
our sister nation from the Pacific.
Indeed, every family meets with
successes and shortcomings at different stages of its life. The UN is no
different. There is no question that the goals it aspired to fifty‑five
(55) years ago have been achieved. There is therefore great cause for
celebration today as we come together to close the 20th century.
The United Nations will be all the
more richer at the end of today with wisdom, commitment, thoughts and ideas
expressed as tile way forward for the organisation. It has offered a remarkable
opportunity to appraise what has been accomplished as well as to look for ways
to work towards getting tangible results on issues affecting humankind.
In its achievement, the UN is also
continually refining its goals ‑‑ in the values and principles that
are consolidated in the UN Millennium Declaration. In this process it is also
redefining its mandates, the structures, processes and resources to meet the
rapid global challenges which are far more sophisticated today and in the
future, than those it faced 55 years ago.
It is this
spirit of humble achievement that Fiji intends to bequeath to our future
generation with the guidance of a UN, well equipped and well resourced, to
continue to rise to its future challenges.
And as
family is tile bedrock of social and political institutions, it behoves
therefore in each of us here to ensure the UN remains intact, stronger and
robust. Fiji's confident that these goals are attainable through the proposed
reforms within tile organisation being engineered by the Secretary‑General
to whose dynamic leadership Fiji pays particular tribute.
The UN family has enabled smaller,
least developed or developing countries such as my own to contribute to world
peace in our own albeit small way. Whilst there have been measurable benefits
of UN membership it also has positive scope to deliver much more equitable
changes.
My small country has contributed
troops and civilian police to UN peacekeeping missions for over two decades and
have in the process paid tile ultimate price of the loss of thirty‑five
(35) lives in the maintenance of peace. Our presence has been in the United
Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) since that Mission began and we
continue to have a contingent there. Our civilian police are serving in Bosnia
and Kosovo. Military Observers are in Iraq‑Kuwait Mission and more
recently our troops have been sent to East Timor. Our soldiers in the United
Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) are serving with
troops from Ireland and New Zealand in Suwai in East Timor which borders West
Timor. We know the area since Wednesday is far from being calm.
Like any member of a family, Fiji
has had its share of difficulties and triumphs, It is to the credit of the UN
that tile neighbourly feelings of respect, comradeship and understanding would
prevail unimpeded in tile halls arid corridors of these buildings, even in
times of conflict in its Member States.
The laudable vision of the
Secretary‑General in "We the Peoples..." is a torch that will
guide the UN and embellish its steps for a holistic and collective Journey into
the 2 1" century. Let us seize the moment. This juncture is ours. It is
humankind's call in order to leave this world better than we found it. Let us
pause, look back for things that went wrong to strengthen our resolve to steer
clear for a better future and there is no better time for this task than now ‑
at the crossroad of two millennia.
I thank you.