STATEMENT
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE'ULUKALALA LAVAKA
Thank you Mr. President,
In offering my congratulations
to you upon your assumption of this high office, there must also be praise for
your predecessor, His Excellency Dr. Han Seung Soo, for a truly exemplary tenure marked at
the outset by the Nobel Peace Prize for the Organisation and which closes with
the promise of the recently concluded World Summit for Sustainable Development.
Together with the continuing leadership of the Secretary General, His
Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan, and the support of the Organization's Member States,
I look forward to that tradition of excellence and achievement continuing under
your Presidency.
I add my voice to the chorus
within this Assembly, warmly welcoming and congratulating East Timor and the
Swiss Confederation to our fold. Tonga very much looks forward to working with
both of them as fully fledged Member States of the Organisation.
Whilst "9/11" will for
all of us be ever present, it is fitting that we pause to remember those who
fell in the line of duty and those loved ones who perished that terrible day.
Those horrific events should serve to inspire us to rededicate ourselves and
galvanise our collective efforts to fight the scourge of terrorism in all its
forms and manifestations.
Mr. President,
My government continues to formulate
measures in compliance with Security Council
Obviously
the sustained assistance of developed countries in our region has been very
useful in our endeavours. It is our earnest hope that our requisite country
report will be before the Counter Terrorism Committee by year's end. In this
respect, I am grateful to the Committee and to the Security Council for their
patience.
Mr. President,
Since I last addressed this august
Assembly at the Millennium Summit, there have been further signposts to add
to the developmental path. These are signposts so readily identifiable as
Doha, Monterrey and now
Johannesburg. These names epitomise the vision and the as yet unfulfilled
promise of our collective developmental aspirations in this globalisation
era. In this regard I commend President Fox and the people of Mexico for their
sterling efforts earlier this year. It was pleasing that consensus prevailed
on the critical thematic issues of particular import to developing countries
and we therefore look forward to the opportunities that Monterrey will afford. I further commend
President Mbeki and the people of South Africa for their wonderful achievement
earlier this month. I am particularly pleased that the Summit in Johannesburg
gave prominence and profile in the Plan of Implementation to the sustainable
development of Small Island Developing States. In this regard, Tonga looks
forward to the ten year review of the Barbados Programme of Action (BPOA)
in 2004 as a further signpost in the developmental path that will give impetus
to what has been achieved in Johannesburg. In preparing for that review, Tonga
will continue its national efforts to refine and identify areas for specific
and priority capacity building needs as well as opportunities to take increased
advantage of financial and technological support.
Mr. President,
As a developing ocean State, we are encouraged by the
particular commitments in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation on fish
stocks and fishing practices. In order to implement these commitments requires
responsibility and good faith from all parties so as to
ensure that States like mine obtain its fair share of its most vast and
bountiful resource. We were pleased that the UN Fish Stocks Agreement has
entered into force and welcome the informal meeting of States Parties that took
place here in New York recently. In this respect we urge other Member States to
become a party to this important agreement. Within this context, we continue to
also welcome the preparations for giving effect to the Convention on the
Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and
Central Pacific Ocean. This Convention is testament to our commitment to
conserving and sustainably managing a critically important resource. As such,
we continue to urge the distant water fishing nations with a real fisheries
interest in our region to make every effort to become a party to this
Convention. Tonga continues to value the work and decisions this year of the
UNCLOS Meeting of States Parties, the International Seabed Authority and
UNICPOLOS III. We look forward to an important milestone later this year, which
is the twentieth anniversary of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. I hope
that Member States consider the upcoming anniversary as opportune to becoming a
party to the Convention.
Mr. President,
Our region has further
endorsed a first ever regional oceans policy that elaborates some guiding
principles that should serve as a template for countries like Tonga to consider
developing national ocean policies that strengthens coordination and complementarity
in our ocean related activities. An activity that continues to give rise to
deep concern is the
Mr. President,
Tonga continues to support the development of an
appropriate environmental vulnerability index for Small Island Developing
States and commends the continuing work of the South Pacific Applied Geoscience
Commission in this regard. With the participation of States, it is our belief
that such an index has the potential to provide accurate indicators of
vulnerability to which small islands in particular are exposed to such as
natural disasters, climate change and sea level rise. As such, Tonga welcomes
the commitment by certain Annex I countries during the Johannesburg Summit to
ratify the Kyoto Protocol and the further opportunities for progress that such
positive action presents.
Mr. President,
On 30th and 31st December 2001, Tropical Cyclone Waka traversed
the northern group of Tonga with wind velocity in excess of 100 miles an hour
and resulted in substantial and horrific damage to those islands. To be sure,
the damage was estimated at over TOP $140 million but thankfully there was
no loss of life. The inevitable and difficult task of relief, recovery and
reconstruction was compounded by the geographic distance of the northern group
from the capital and the sheer scale of the damage sustained. Luckily, action
by traditional donor governments and our neighbours within the region, territorial
governments, regional and international organisations, such as the Pacific
Island Forum and particular UN agencies, was swift and generous and provided
much needed assistance to my Government. Two weeks after the Cyclone, nature,
who had wrought such devastating winds, now caused more favourable weather to prevail that greatly
helped the replanting phases of the recovery effort. We expect a resurgence of
the critical agricultural, tourism and fisheries sectors by the end of the
year. I am therefore deeply grateful to such governments, organisations and
agencies as Australia, Canada, China, Fiji, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, New
Zealand, Samoa, Thailand, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European
Union (EU), American Samoa, French Polynesia, UNDP and the World Bank as well
as NGOs and the Churches for their valued assistance in our time of crisis.
Mr. President,
Whilst information and
communication technologies (ICT) remain "the way to go", we continue
with our own efforts to bridge the digital divide and take maximum advantage of
the digital revolution. To take full advantage will require joint efforts in tandem
with the international community and the United Nations, particularly through
the efforts of the UN ICT Taskforce as one avenue. Such effort must be
characterised by partnership and inclusion in the ICT process so that all
developing States in every region can benefit. The UN's role of bridging,
coordinating and integrating activities is therefore crucial. We urge in this
respect continued support for SIDSNET and efforts to strengthen its capacity to
support and assist Small Island Developing States.
We welcome the fruitful
outcome, earlier this year, of the UN General Assembly Special Session on
Children. Whilst we recognize the promise it holds for the welfare and well
being of all children, like the outcome of the recent Special Session on
HIV/AIDS, commitments must progress beyond the rhetoric into concrete actions.
Mr. President,
Tonga fully supports the work of the Security Council and, like other
speakers before me, calls for the full implementation of all of its resolutions
to ensure an enduring peace in the arena of conflict and to lift the veil of
doubt where this could pose conflict.
In one
such arena, we join the call for an end to violence, a return to the
negotiating table, and the building of confidence so as to realize the
co-existence of two States, side by side in secure and
recognized borders.
Tonga
also supports efforts to streamline the work of the General Assembly so that it
can play the pivotal and focused role that we desire. In like terms, we support
the call for reforming the Security Council where both the number of permanent
and non-permanent seats are increased to accord with and respond to today's
realities.
Finally Mr. President with
respect to pertinent regional issues, Tonga endorses the views expressed in
both the Nadi Declaration, in document A/56/1015, and the Suva Communique, in
document A/57/331. They are the respective outcomes of the Summit of the
African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States held in Nadi in July 2002 and
the annual meeting of Pacific Island Forum Leaders held in Suva in August 2002.
I thank you.