Prime Minister John Key has addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York for the first time.
He used the opportunity to launch New Zealand's bid for a position on the 15-member council.
His full speech is below:
E nga mana
E nga reo
E nga hau e wha
Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa
To the powers
To the voices
To the four winds
I greet you all
Mr President; Distinguished representatives of the States of the
United Nations; Mr Secretary General.
I have addressed this Assembly in te reo Mäori, the indigenous
language of New Zealand, and I bring warm Pacific greetings from
all New Zealanders.
I am deeply honoured to lead New Zealand's delegation to this
General Assembly for the first time.
ike every New Zealand Prime Minister since 1945, I stand here today
to reaffirm my country's commitment to this United Nations and to
the United Nations Charter.
The founding members of the United Nations gathered in San
Francisco in 1945 to create this Organisation out of the ashes of
the most destructive war and the most debilitating economic
depression in modern history.
They believed in the 'larger freedom' of a world where collective
action might avert common crises.
They believed in the Rule of Law, where all States would be held to
a universal standard, and in a world where all peoples, faiths and
cultures, could flourish.
They believed in a future where every human being would be 'free
from want', and 'free from fear'.
And they wanted an international organisation and architecture that
could deliver on those beliefs.
Distinguished representatives, New Zealand was active among those
founding members in San Francisco.
And, as a small, independent, and diverse country in the Pacific,
New Zealand still has a stake in this United Nations - this great
meeting place of all States.
I have benefited personally from efforts to secure these
ideals.
My family fled persecution in Europe, and I was privileged to grow
up in a new world where a child of immigrants is now accorded the
extraordinary privilege of leading his country and addressing this
Assembly on its behalf.
Distinguished representatives, we meet at a time of many
challenges.
With 130 Heads of State and Government assembled here this week,
this General Assembly represents our greatest opportunity since the
World Summit in 2005 to reaffirm our
collective resolve.
New Zealand embraces this opportunity.
Today I will focus on some of the most pressing issues demanding
our collective response.
Mr President, the crisis in the global economy continues.
We must remain resolute in our efforts to stabilize the global
economy to enable a return to sustainable growth.
New Zealand welcomes the actions of the G20 over the past year. But
in commending these efforts, we call on the G20 to heed the voice
of the world's small economies and to ensure they are also heard in
global decision-making.
Distinguished representatives, free and fair trade will be the
principal engine for driving developing countries out of poverty
and bringing greater prosperity to all.
An essential component in our response to the global economic
crisis must therefore be a balanced and ambitious conclusion to the
Doha Round of world trade talks.
A genuinely global agreement that reduces tariffs, eliminates
export subsidies, reduces domestic subsidies and increases market
access will see benefits flow to all States.
At a time when all countries are suffering from the brunt of the
current economic crisis, further delay is inexcusable.
As one of the world's first truly open economies, New Zealand has
an unwavering commitment to trade liberalization and to the pursuit
of bilateral, regional and global free trade agreements.
We support the call of the UN Secretary-General for the immediate
suspension of price controls and other agricultural trade
restrictions to reduce soaring food prices and help millions cope
with the highest food prices in thirty years.
And so, I call on all those States and groupings that have broken
their undertakings and reintroduced protectionist measures to
reconsider.
These actions are as harmful as they are unacceptable. Agriculture,
which is so important for developing countries in particular, is
one of the sectors most affected.
Distinguished representatives, the escalation of poverty is a
result of the economic crisis.
New Zealand is naturally proud of the efforts of the UNDP to
strengthen its focus as the UN's largest development agency on
poverty and on the achievement of the Millennium Development
Goals.
For its part, New Zealand pledges to continue to increase its
Official Development Assistance, with a clear focus on the Pacific
Islands region.
Aid effectiveness is just as important as the quantum of aid; and
that is why, last month, we committed to the Cairns Compact that
will strengthen development coordination in the Pacific
Islands.
Distinguished representatives, the major focus of the General
Assembly this year must be the challenge of climate change.
Climate change demands innovation and a global response. The world
cannot afford to contemplate failure at Copenhagen. Political
leadership is needed, and it is on display.
At the Climate Change Summit this week the leaders of the world's
three biggest economies showed their determination to both make
Copenhagen a success and to take action themselves.
All countries must take action that reflects our individual
circumstances, responsibilities and capabilities.
For our part, New Zealand is committed to securing a durable and
meaningful agreement on climate change. An agreement that is both
environmentally effective and economically efficient.
I have set a target for New Zealand of reducing greenhouse gas
emissions by between 10 and 20% below 1990 levels by 2020, if there
is a comprehensive global agreement. This is a per capita drop of
35 to 42 percent since 1990.
New Zealand is acutely conscious that most of our greenhouse gas
emissions come from livestock methane emissions, which so far no
technology can reduce.
At the same time we are proud of our role as a food producer to the
world and the contribution we can make to assuring food-security
for the world's people.
Our challenge is to find a way to balance growth in agricultural
production with the need to reduce emissions and reach climate
change targets.
This is not just a challenge for New Zealand, but one for the
world.
Agricultural emissions make up 14% of all emissions worldwide. As
demand for food rises, so will those emissions. Yet so far the only
known way to achieve emission reductions from agriculture is
through reductions in output.
That is not an acceptable response. Not for New Zealand. And not
for a growing world that seeks freedom from hunger.
A better response to this challenge must be found. In my view that
response must draw on the power and possibility of science.
Just as New Zealand is proud of its agricultural producers, so are
we proud of our role in agricultural research. This research has
resulted in scientific and technological advances that have
improved production and fed millions.
But advancing research in the area of emission-reduction requires a
commitment so broad that it is beyond the capacity of any one
country.
This is a challenge that requires collective action and it is
collective action I call for today.
New Zealand has developed a proposal for a Global Alliance on the
reduction of agricultural emissions.
This Alliance would undertake international research and investment
into new technologies and practices to help reduce
agriculture-related emissions, and for greater co-ordination of
existing efforts.
Through a Global Alliance we can find solutions faster, make better
use of the money that is being spent around the world and encourage
all countries and companies to do more.
We have been delighted with the interest received in our proposal
so far and we will continue working with others to explore the
concept.
Today, my call to other agricultural producers of the world is to
rise to this challenge and join New Zealand in this research
effort.
Distinguished representatives, I now want to address some of the
security crises that we confront.
Yesterday I had the honour to observe the High-Level Security
Council meeting on disarmament and non-proliferation.
As a country with a proud record of promoting nuclear disarmament
and non-proliferation, I was heartened by the expressions of
support for a world free of nuclear weapons.
We must take full advantage of this historic moment to advance the
nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation agenda. We owe it to our
generation and to those who follow us to progress our vision for a
world free from nuclear weapons.
As a proudly nuclear-free nation, and as a country that has been at
the forefront of this debate since the 1970s, New Zealand stands
ready to play its part.
We are optimistic about the prospects for progress.
Last week New Zealand presided over the General Conference of the
International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. Preventing the spread
of nuclear weapons through the
implementation of safeguards under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty is a fundamental pillar of the Agency's work.
Next year sees the five-yearly review conference of the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty.
New Zealand will actively work with our New Agenda Coalition
partners for a meaningful outcome at that conference, to bring us
closer to a truly secure world.
We will also continue to address the humanitarian harm of
conventional weapons. We will work for a robust, action-oriented
outcome later this year at the second Review Conference of the
Anti-Personnel Landmine Convention.
Looking back, I am proud of the role New Zealand was able to play
in the negotiation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The
government attaches priority to passing legislation to enable us to
ratify this very significant treaty.
New Zealand also continues to play its part in maintaining and
promoting international peace and security.
Peacekeeping remains one of this organisation's most essential
tasks, and its most solemn responsibilities to its members.
While UN peacekeeping has been significantly strengthened since the
testing it underwent in the 1990s, the demands now being placed on
it are severe.
I want to express my profound gratitude to those civilians and
military personnel who place their lives at risk to support peace
and live up to the ideals of the United Nations Charter.
Ensuring UN peacekeeping is as effective and responsive as possible
must therefore remain one of this organization's most urgent
priorities.
The United Nations provides the legal mandate - and often the
operational effectiveness - for our joint efforts to achieve and
maintain peace and security.
New Zealand is firmly committed to supporting UN peacekeeping -
both its own operations and others it has mandated such as those in
which we are involved in Afghanistan, the Solomon Islands and
Timor-Leste.
All too often, the UN, has however, found itself unable to respond
to emerging crises.
New Zealand therefore strongly supports the concept of
Responsibility to Protect. I am pleased at the solid foundation the
General Assembly's recent debate on R2P has laid for its
implementation.
New Zealand also strongly supports the International Criminal
Court. It is a fundamental tenet of our domestic legal systems that
wrong doers must be brought to justice. The ICC is the mechanism
for applying that same principle to persons accused of the most
serious international crimes.
Distinguished representatives, New Zealand takes very seriously its
responsibilities for creating and maintaining peace and security in
its region and in the world. I am therefore pleased to confirm New
Zealand's candidature for the United Nations Security Council for
2015 - 2016, in elections to be held in 2014.
In advancing its candidature, New Zealand does so as a state
committed to upholding the international Rule of Law, and to
providing a strong and principled Pacific voice on behalf of small
States like ourselves with an interest in a fairer and more secure
world.
We all have a stake in a world where peace and the Rule of Law
prevail, where all States are secure and can prosper, and where all
people are guaranteed the human rights and fundamental freedoms
promised them in the Charter.
But we also know that solutions to the problems we collectively
face do not lie with aspirational goals and promises that can be -
and far too often are - quickly and quietly forgotten or
ignored.
Hard, pragmatic decisions must be made.
Enforceable solutions must be implemented.
We know that effective, collective action is in every country's
long-term, national interest.
That is what New Zealand believed in 1945; and I recommit now to
taking action to live up to the ideals of the UN Charter, here, in
this great chamber, this evening.
