YouSaid · the spoken record

Pranab MUKHERJEE

lines on the record: 37
first: 2006-09-24
most recent: 2007-09-24
sittings or episodes: 2
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“India is convinced that without the early adoption of a comprehensive convention against international terrorism, the global struggle against terrorism remains incomplete and likely to succeed only partially. We must ensure that there is zero tolerance for all forms of terrorism. In conclusion, I would express the hope that our deliberations in the year ahead will lead us to enlightened action. With maturity and resolve we will successfully overcome the many challenges before us.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“The international community needs to intensify the effort to address the very real threat posed by the link between the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and related materials and technologies and the ability of non-State actors to acquire them. The risk posed by the intersection between proliferation and terrorism is real and serious. The central objective must be to ensure that our solidarity in words is translated into action. The adoption of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy last September was a noteworthy development, signalling the will of the international community to combat this menace in a holistic and coordinated manner. Welcome as the Strategy is, there is much more that needs to be done to combat the menace that international terrorism has become.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Indeed, it is all the more relevant today, given the fact that peaceful uses of nuclear energy can address the inexorably growing demand for new and non-polluting sources of energy to fuel economic development. We will be bringing proposals to Member States and this Organization to see how we can refocus on general and complete disarmament, particularly nuclear disarmament. Disarmament is our agreed goal, and it subsumes arms control and non-proliferation. It is well known that India has an impeccable record in preventing the proliferation of sensitive technologies. That is in keeping with our commitment to being a responsible nuclear Power. India is ready to work with the international community to develop a new international consensus on non-proliferation.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“India would therefore judge reform proposals by their impact on the ground, by the resultant improvement in the effectiveness of the system and by the impact on transaction costs for the United Nations development system. Steps to achieve the complete elimination of nuclear weapons have also only made limited headway. Despite some progress, the world remains far from achieving the objective of total elimination of nuclear weapons. India’s long-standing commitment to universal, non-discriminatory and comprehensive nuclear disarmament is embodied in the vision of late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi for a nuclear-free and non-violent world. This vision was put forward nearly two decades ago. It remains undiminished today.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“The central goal of such revitalization must be the restoration and enhancement of the role and authority of the General Assembly as originally envisaged in the Charter. Given the significance of developmental activities for the developing world, India sees a corresponding need for the reform of United Nations operational activities in favour of development. Since these activities are aimed at supporting the work of Member States, it follows that Members must determine their direction and shape through an intergovernmental process. The litmus test for any reform proposal is whether it improves the support extended by the United Nations to the efforts of programme countries.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“These principles are expansion in both permanent and non-permanent categories of membership; greater representation for developing countries and representation for developed countries that is reflective of contemporary world realities; and comprehensive improvement in the working methods of the Security Council, including ensuring greater access for island and small States. We welcome recent statements from this podium by President Bush of the United States of America and other world leaders on the need for Security Council reform in both the permanent and non-permanent categories. It is high time that we collectively bring these ideas to implementation. Reform of the United Nations would also be incomplete without revitalization of the General Assembly.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Despite substantive implementation of the United Nations reform agenda that emerged from the 2005 World Summit Outcome, such reform will inevitably remain incomplete without comprehensive reform and expansion of the Security Council and revitalization of the General Assembly. Elements and ideas on the reform of the Security Council have been discussed for well over a decade in numerous reports and interminable consultations. It is now time for intergovernmental negotiations to commence in order to make the Security Council more democratic, representative and responsive. We, together with partners from Africa, Latin America and Asia, tabled a resolution on 11 September 2007, spelling out the principles on which reform ought to be based if it is to be meaningful.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“As a result, women are not merely the beneficiaries of change in India, but are its instruments. As the world’s largest democracy, it was also natural for India to support the establishment of the United Nations Democracy Fund. We made an initial contribution of $10 million to the Fund and remain actively and constructively involved in realizing the objectives for which it was set up. As a small token of our commitment to that laudable initiative, I have the privilege of announcing a further pledge of $10 million to the United Nations Democracy Fund. The international system cannot be reordered meaningfully without a comprehensive reform of the United Nations. If the Organization is to remain the cornerstone of the international architecture in this century, it cannot remain mired in the realities of the 1940s.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“India is honoured to be one of the first signatories of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. Earlier today, I also had the honour of depositing India’s instrument of ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. As the largest democracy in the world, India has developed a system of local self-government with democratically elected institutions of representative Government at all levels the village, the district, the State and the nation. The effort to make participatory democracy more meaningful to every Indian citizen underpins what is perhaps one of the greatest social experiments in the world today, namely, the transfer of decision-making power to nearly one million elected women local Government representatives.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“An illogical linkage between agriculture and non-agricultural market access will only complicate the development impact of the Round. The overarching principle of special and differential treatment for developing countries remains a categorical imperative. As part of India's commitment to the achievement of human rights for all, and as a member of the Human Rights Council, we remain actively involved in developing the institutional framework of that body, including the universal periodic review mechanism, based on effective international cooperation as a central principle in the Council’s methods of work. India will work towards developing an international normative framework for the promotion and protection of human rights.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Enhanced and predictable resource flow to developing countries remains a key objective of the global partnership for development. India will continue to do what it can to help with capacity-building in other developing countries and to assist them through ODA within the limits of its capacity. By the end of the year, imports from least developed countries into India will face a zero-tariff regime. Early and substantive progress at the Doha Round of trade negotiations, based on the primacy of the development dimension, is another imperative. We must return to the negotiating table with a redoubled sense of urgency, while recognizing that adherence to the existing mandate remains critical. Nor can the interests of subsistence farmers be ignored or equated with those of other sectors.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Today, instead of the urgently needed inflow of resources to developing countries to buttress their national economic development plans, we are confronted with a net outflow from them. Official development assistance (ODA) showed a marked fall during 2006 and remains well below the target of 0.7 per cent of gross national product. It is primarily being used to finance debt relief. That this is happening after so many years of liberalization and globalization highlights our collective failure. Perhaps we should be considering mechanisms, such as an international debt commission, to redress the problem of developing country debt. The least developed countries, which are particularly hard hit by rising energy costs, find themselves in an even more difficult situation.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“It is apparent that progress in the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals has been tardy. The international community, through the United Nations system, must more effectively support the efforts of developing countries to achieve the development goals. A comprehensive reform of the international financial architecture is a key ingredient in that process. The United Nations must play an important role in overseeing the reform of the international financial architecture. That should include measures to ensure a greater voice for and participation by developing countries in the Bretton Woods institutions. The process of reform must be carried to its logical conclusion if the credibility of those institutions is to be enhanced. We must also address as a priority the regrettable inversion of global resource flows.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“The overarching requirement is for sustained economic growth to eradicate poverty in developing countries. However, economic growth must also be measured against the template of social inclusion. Growth alone is not enough if it does not produce benefits that are sufficiently dispersed, not only in terms of increased income and employment, but also for improved health, nutrition and education for all. I affirm India’s resolve to achieve the internationally agreed development goals, including the Millennium Development Goals. The Government of India accords the highest priority to inclusive growth, including the political, legal, educational and economic empowerment of women, effective and affordable public health, and enhanced access to educational opportunities, especially for all those who are disadvantaged.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“The intellectual property rights regime must balance rewards for innovators with the common good of humankind. Concerted international action to address climate change, in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, as well as national circumstances and social and economic conditions, is the need of the hour. India, for which energy security is a national imperative, has a very small individual carbon footprint, with per capita carbon dioxide emissions at just about a quarter of the world’s average. Even so, we are determined that, as we pursue economic growth, our per capita greenhouse gas emissions will not increase beyond those of the industrial countries. Poverty and underdevelopment are amongst the central challenges of our times.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Developing countries are the most vulnerable to it, and also lack the means to tackle it. Measures to address climate change must be based on mitigation and adaptation strategies with fair burden- sharing and measures to realize sustainable patterns of consumption and production. The process of burden- sharing must also take into account where the primary responsibility for the present state of greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere rests and not foreclose rapid and sustained economic development for the developing world, which, in any case, is an imperative for adaptation. Technology is the other key area that needs to be addressed. It is important that critical clean technologies be made available and affordable to developing countries.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“I also look forward to participation by Member States in the informal plenary meeting of the General Assembly and other functions being organized tomorrow at the United Nations to mark the first International Day of Non-Violence. A central topic for this year’s debate responding to climate change is both timely and relevant. India’s views on it were recently set forth at the high-level event on climate change, which took place here on 24 September. Combined with the exchange of views in the general debate, it will no doubt provide a useful backdrop to the meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to be held later this year in Bali, Indonesia. The impact of climate change and environmental degradation falls disproportionately upon developing countries.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Kindly accept my congratulations, Sir, on your election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-second session. My delegation assures you of its full cooperation as we address issues identified in the annual report of the Secretary-General (A/62/1) and as we responsibly and creatively move forward with pending reforms of the Organization. At the outset I would like to express India’s deep gratitude to all Member States for the recent unanimous adoption by the General Assembly of resolution 61/271, deciding to annually observe the International Day of Non-Violence, on 2 October, the anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi.”
2007-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 62 (2007)
“Yet, how are we to act, even in the present, unless we know which way we are going and what our objectives are?” Confronted as we are by the globalization of threats and by the limitations of our international system to address such challenges, the need for a comprehensive reform of the United Nations has never been more imperative. We need to enfranchise the United Nations to meet the challenges of our time by reinforcing its role and authority as the core of real multilateralism. We look forward to working closely with other Member States, under your leadership, Madam President, to press ahead with essential reforms at the United Nations and to implement an effective global partnership for development that encompasses everyone and enables every individual to live a life of dignity in a clean, safe and healthy environment.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“We also need to address the central issue of the special needs of the developing countries, especially in Africa, and of the vulnerable small States. On our part, we will continue to expand our programme of South- South cooperation also through the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, through Team 9 — our special programme for West African countries — and by means of the connectivity mission in Africa, as well as through assistance, capacity-building and technology transfer aimed at reducing the vulnerability of small States. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who embodied our commitment to the United Nations ideals, said that “in a world of incessant and feverish activity, men have little time to think, much less to consider ideals and objectives.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“The international community must work together to meet those challenges. India’s record in that regard is impeccable, and we have instituted effective measures to ensure that the technologies we develop are not leaked in any way. It is true that the developing countries bear the heaviest burden from pandemics, epidemics and chronic diseases. The scourge of HIV/AIDS, malaria, avian influenza and tuberculosis seriously threatens the future of many developing countries by robbing them of the most productive segment of their society — their young people — thereby affecting the future of those countries. An enhanced global collaborative effort is called for to confront the proliferation of challenges affecting the lives of the majority of our citizens.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“The existence of nuclear weapons continues to threaten international peace and security. In our view, the best non-proliferation measure is universal disarmament, and the international community needs to take immediate steps to eliminate the threat of the use of nuclear weapons. We have to revive momentum for achieving what the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi called a nuclear-weapon-free and non-violent world, to be achieved, through negotiations, in a time-bound manner. India will be presenting a working paper at this session of the General Assembly on the issue of nuclear disarmament, on which we look forward to working with Member States. In recent years, new dangers have emerged due to the threat of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction-related materials and technologies to non- 9 06-53952 State actors and terrorist groups.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“We hope that the Strategy will provide the impetus to unite the international community in its fight against terrorism via practical measures that facilitate cooperation by way of extradition, prosecution, information exchange and capacity- building. We went along with the Global Counter- Terrorism Strategy, but the comprehensive convention on international terrorism, which remains a work in progress, would have provided the requisite legal framework upon which a counter-terrorism strategy could have been based. It cannot be beyond our collective ingenuity to reach an agreement on such a comprehensive convention, even though we have missed the target of doing so at the sixtieth session of the General Assembly. We must work together to finalize and adopt the comprehensive convention, at least during this session of the General Assembly.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Earlier this month, we joined in the adoption of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (resolution 60/288), even though, ideally, we would have liked the United Nations to convey a far stronger message in order to counter terrorism. We must collectively and unanimously reject the notion that any cause can justify terrorism. No cause can ever justify the targeted killing of innocent men, women and children. The international community must signal that it will no longer tolerate the actions of the sponsors and abettors of terrorism, including States which wilfully fail to prevent terrorists from utilizing their territory.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Barely two months ago, on a single black day, more than 200 lives were lost and more than 1,000 were injured by dastardly bombings in Mumbai and elsewhere in India. These and other such outrageous incidents were clearly designed to spread maximum terror among ordinary people. Ours is not the only country to be singled out for vicious and senseless acts of murder. A strong response to terrorism requires broad-based international cooperation, denying to terrorists the space that has been available to them and increasing the capability of States to address terrorist threats. It requires sustained and specific cooperation by a variety of national, regional and global agencies.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“A strengthened and more effective United Nations presumes a revitalized General Assembly that exercises its role and authority in the areas of responsibility assigned to it by the Charter. These include its effectively addressing topics such as international law and human rights, financial, budgetary and administrative matters, as well as the global economic architecture and important issues related to development. I now turn to one of the most crucial issues of our times: the problem of terrorism. While this phenomenon has become increasingly global, our collective response to it has remained rather inadequate. The multiple ways in which terrorism challenges the core principles of humanity and the mandate of the United Nations are underlined by the outrages perpetrated in India over the last few months.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“For instance, the inclusion of items on its agenda which have nothing to do with peace and security represents an encroachment on the roles mandated to other United Nations bodies. In order to ensure that the international community exercises real ownership of the process of securing our world, it is essential that comprehensive reform of the Security Council be undertaken and that its membership be expanded in both the permanent and the non-permanent categories. It is no accident that the Secretary-General’s report refers to the enhancement of legitimacy and the urgent need for reform to ensure the Security Council’s relevance and credibility. The revitalization of the General Assembly is intertwined with the reform of the Security Council. It is no coincidence that its reform too has long been frustrated.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Recent tragic events in Lebanon and the stasis in the peace process in the broader Middle East have highlighted the growing failure of the institution designated by the Charter as having primary responsibility for issues relating to peace and security. It is widely accepted that the Security Council can no longer be regarded as reflecting the changed international environment that has emerged since the time of its creation. The Security Council must not 06-53952 8 only be more representative but also more effective if it is to be able to satisfactorily perform the role mandated to it by the Charter. At the same time, the Security Council has needlessly diverted its attention to issues and areas that go beyond its mandate.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“The United Nations should encourage immediate steps being taken to initiate the second stage of IMF quota reform, involving a basic revision of the quota formula and the subsequent increase of quotas for all under- represented countries. All of this must be done in a time-bound manner. Change is the law of life. The acute dissatisfaction heard in many statements is the result of institutions having been prevented from changing. What is true in the economic field is equally true of the architecture of our international security system as reflected in this unique Organization that is supposed to reflect the collective will of our world, a system which remains mired in the past.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“In this context, the World Bank must remain steadfast in its mission to build a world free of poverty, and its strategy must remain embedded in the historical development-centric approach. The Outcome Document of last year’s World Summit emphasized that enhancing the voice and participation of developing countries in the Bretton Woods institutions remains a continuous concern. The bridging of this voice deficit requires fundamental reforms in the quota structure which are long overdue and absolutely necessary to enhance the credibility and legitimacy of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The quota reforms have to begin with the revision of the formula so as to reflect the relative economic strengths of countries in the twenty-first century.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“The overarching principle of special and differential treatment therefore remains a categorical imperative, and is the underlying basis of the position of developing countries. In our view, there exists an overwhelming logic for giving the United Nations a role in providing direction to the comprehensive reform of the international financial and trading systems. These reforms must be aimed at building an international architecture that reflects the realities of the twenty-first century and is able to create an environment that effectively supports national efforts to eradicate poverty. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have given hope to the poor and the underprivileged of the world, and these goals are to be achieved by 2015.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“When agriculture was brought into the ambit of negotiations at the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the developing countries were given a clear understanding that trade-distorting agricultural subsidies would be phased out in a time-bound manner. Minimizing the vulnerabilities of poor farmers must be our collective priority. Demanding market access from developing countries, which displace low-income and subsistence farmers to satisfy commercial interests, cannot be supported. Proportionately lower overall tariff reduction commitments, operable, effective development instruments for special products and a special safeguard mechanism are essential if we are to ensure food and livelihood security and meet the rural development needs of developing countries.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“At another level, there is also a need to develop innovative sources of financing. We must evolve a broader understanding of ways to encourage the least developed countries to get out of the debt trap by extending debt-cancellation programmes, without insisting on conditionalities, such as encouraging privatization, which, applied indiscriminately, may recreate the original difficulties that necessitated recourse to debt in the first place. The impasse in international trade negotiations is disappointing, to say the least, considering the hopes raised after the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference and at the Group of Eight Summit in Saint Petersburg in July. Early resumption is desirable, but adherence to the existing mandate is imperative — the mandate of the Doha Declaration, the July framework and the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“While we appreciate the important role of private sector investment, it cannot replace public investment in developing countries, whose absorptive capacities are often limited and where the physical and social infrastructure is often weak. Official development assistance (ODA) remains an important means to 7 06-53952 augment public investment in areas such as human capital development and rural infrastructure, which rarely attract private sector investment. The process of increasing the available pool of resources for investment in the social and economic infrastructure of developing countries can be promoted at one level by developed countries, expeditiously reaching the target of setting aside 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic product for official development assistance.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“While these are certainly important — indeed, critical — if we are honest, we must acknowledge that significant unfulfilled tasks and challenges lie ahead, particularly with regard to unaddressed issues, including the reform of the architecture of our multilateral bodies that oversee security, trade, financial flows and development. Without this reform, the discontent associated with globalization will only deepen. Without it, there cannot be substantially enhanced and assured resource and technology flows to developing countries, which are necessary for real economic transformation and for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. It is sometimes argued that private sector investment is today replacing the traditional reliance on aid and development assistance.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“Today, whether we look at issues such as international trade, international financial mechanisms, methods to improve economic and social well-being, or even the various threats to peace and security that challenge our collective existence, one common theme that emerges is the lack of an effective and equitable global partnership. This is an imperative even for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The important annual report of the Secretary- General highlights several successes in moving ahead with United Nations reform. During the previous General Assembly session, the Central Emergency Response Fund, the Peacebuilding Commission and the Human Rights Council were established, and the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy was agreed upon. We have also gradually moved forward on management and budgetary reforms.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)
“At the outset, Madam, let me join previous speakers in welcoming your election as President of the General Assembly at its sixty-first session. On India’s behalf, I would like to assure you of our constructive support and wholehearted commitment to work with you to achieve both the larger goals of the Charter and the more specific goals of the reform of this Organization that were set out in last year’s World Summit Outcome Document. The topic of this general debate is “Implementing a global partnership for development”. It is difficult to contest its relevance or topicality.”
2006-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 61 (2006)