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Mr. Chairman,
I would like to present my warmest respects to
President Castro and my appreciation to him for
joining us this morning and for his inspiring
address.
I also thank you personally, Mr. Chairman, and
your staff for the wonderful welcome you have
given us and for the excellent
arrangements.
At the same time I would like to thank our
friends from Iran who did such an excellent job
in hosting us at the last Ministerial
Meeting.
Lastly, it’s a great pleasure to see so many
guests from all over the world joining us at our
meeting. I add my own welcome to them all,
especially our new observer country, Tajikistan.
The number of observers, guests and visitors
continues to grow, Mr. Chairman. In many ways,
this is a tribute to Cuba’s leadership over the
past three years. It’s been good working with
your people and we certainly look forward to
building on it with our colleagues in Egypt,
when they take over in July.
Mr. Chairman, before I proceed, I would like to
say that I was very pleased with a report I got
yesterday. It was from our Economic and Social
Commission and it asked us to express our
concern about the swine influenza in Mexico and
the very serious effect it is having.
We fully support this proposal and send every
sympathy to all who have suffered, both in
Mexico and other parts of the world. We pray
that this alarming epidemic can be contained and
defeated as soon as possible.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to comment on the
economic and financial situation we are facing.
In doing so, I offer my special appreciation to
our fellow members from India, Indonesia and
Saudi Arabia who attended the recent G20 summit
along, with our observer members, Brazil and
Mexico.
I much appreciated their contribution. They not
only spoke for their own people but on behalf of
us all. What they said in London was the real
voice of this Movement. So, many thanks to our
colleagues and what I would like to do here, Mr.
Chairman, is to say something about what the G20
meeting meant for us as a member of the
Non-Aligned Movement.
Putting it simply Mr. Chairman, we were
encouraged by the summit and we have three
reasons for that.
First, the overall tone of the meeting. That was
something quite new and I liked the kind of
words they used.
For me, they were a welcome change. People
didn’t talk about a “third world”. There was no
“developed” or “developing, one, either. There
were no “donors” and “receivers” of aid and not
one of us here was seen as a special problem.
We were all in it together and part of a global
solution; in other words, directly involved. I
was very happy with that. I liked this new mood,
I hope it will last a bit longer than one single
meeting.
My second reason for being encouraged, Chairman,
concerns the past. If we look back over the last
twenty years we have all been listening to one
special catch-phrase. It’s called “economic
spin-off”.
This is a complicated idea but what it says is
this: “growth in the developed world will
automatically benefit everyone else including
the nearly four billion people we represent
here.” But now, we can see that it hasn’t worked
like that. The only result is a financial mess.
This benefits no one and the G20 seemed to
recognise this. So that’s my second reason for
being encouraged.
The third and maybe the main one is about the
future. I think the Summit could be a very
important turning point. It may give us a chance
to turn off the old international highway and
drive down a different route.
All we have to do is read the signpost. It’s
very clear and shows two simple words, “justice
and fairness”:
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just and fair United Nations reform;
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a just and fair settlement of the sixty
years of suffering by the people of
Palestine;
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a just and fair outcome from the Doha
agenda; and
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a just and fair completion of the Millennium
Development Goals.
In political, social and economic terms, Mr.
Chairman, it means North and South becoming
genuine partners who are ready to work together
to solve the many new and complex global
problems we are all facing these days, from
energy and food supplies, climate change and
natural disasters, to international security and
real economic development. In other words: for
me, Mr. Chairman, the G20 showed us this new
signpost.
I much appreciate the efforts of our colleagues
who were there to make sure it is easy to read.
Above all, I hope that no one sees the current
financial mess as just another road-block on the
highway to be cleared away quickly, so that we
can all carry on driving down the same old road
in the same old direction.
Instead, there is another route now and if it is
taken our present feeling of encouragement can
become one of lasting hope and confidence.
This means that we don’t want to hear a
catch-phrase that says: “Back to Normal”. We
want one that says: “Forward to Something New”.
At the moment, however, Mr. Chairman, all this
may be wishful thinking. We will soon find out,
however. Next month, we will have a clear idea
about whether it can be more than that.
There is a United Nations Conference in June on
the world’s financial and economic crisis and,
as our final document here suggests, this will
be an immediate test.
So, I look forward to the Conference with hope
and quite a few expectations. If it broadens and
deepens the mood of the G20 it will give us all
even more confidence, that, in turn will give
our leaders renewed inspiration when they meet
for their own Summit in July.
Thank you
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