YouSaid · the spoken record

Sushma Swaraj

lines on the record: 79
first: 2015-09-24
most recent: 2018-09-24
sittings or episodes: 4
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

“Arrogance has no place in our scheme of things; arrogance is counter-productive and self-defeating. Let us work for the benefit of the less fortunate and towards a world that is free from terrorism, tension and violence. That is the universe we envisage. It is with that wish in mind that I end with a Sanskrit shloka or song: May all experience well-being; may all experience peace; may all move towards perfection; may all enjoy prosperity; may all achieve serenity.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“India does not believe that only certain countries should be allowed to fulfil their goal or that we should take decisions on behalf of other countries that are not beneficial to them. We should take every country’s goals into account. This year, India will celebrate the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth. Mahatma’s favourite devotional hymn was “Vaishnav Jan To Tene Kahiye” or “Call those people Vaishnavas who feel the pain of others”. Its essence is that he who understands the pain of another and absorbs it as his own is a good human being. He who sees that pain and helps without becoming arrogant is a good human being. We have to make the Assembly a platform for understanding, assistance and true justice. We have to understand the pain of other nations and work with developed nations to ease and eliminate their pain.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“I feel that, in the Security Council, now is the time to start making much-needed changes. A subject that is often debated is multilateralism. The challenges we face are causing tensions in many countries. I should like to state that India believes that the world is one global family. The United Nations should therefore work as a family. How does a family work? It is shaped by love, not trade; it is nurtured by compassion, not jealousy; it functions by compromising, not by fighting. That is why the United Nations must be based on the principles of the family. It cannot be run using “I”, “me” and “mine”; this forum needs “we”, “us” and “ours”. Only then will it be sustainable.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“I began by highlighting its unique and positive role, but I must add that, step by slow step, the importance, influence, respect for and value of this institution are beginning to ebb. It is time to wonder whether we are wandering towards the fate of the League of Nations, which came to an end because it did not adopt the changes that were needed. It was unwilling to accept the need for reforms; we must not make that mistake. The United Nations must accept that it needs fundamental reform. Those reforms cannot be simply cosmetic; we need to change the institution’s head and heart in order to make both compatible with the contemporary reality. Reform must begin today; tomorrow could be too late. Are all of the challenges that confronted the United Nations at its founding still relevant today?”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“That has allowed terrorists with a price on their head to be celebrated in Pakistan as “freedom fighters”. Their cruelty and barbarism are being advertised as heroism. The country of Pakistan prints postage stamps glorifying such terrorists. How long can we sit quietly and listen to such claims? If we do not act now, we will have to deal with that demon later on, when it sets fire to the entire world. Once again, I appeal to this body to come to an agreement on the draft comprehensive convention on international terrorism and to adopt it as one of the necessary measures in a long-running war. I would now like to make some remarks regarding the United Nations.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Last year, using her right of reply, the representative of Pakistan displayed some photographs as proof of alleged human rights violations by India (see A/72/PV.22). The photographs turned out to be from another country. Similar false accusations have become part of its standard rhetoric. Each year, for the past five years, India has been arguing from this rostrum that lists are not enough if we want to check terrorists and their protectors. We need to bring them to accountability through international law. In 1996, India submitted a document with a draft comprehensive convention on international terrorism at the United Nations. That draft remains a draft today only because we cannot agree on a common language. On the one hand, we want to fight terrorism; on the other, we cannot define it.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“We even accepted the proposal but, within hours of our acceptance, news came that terrorists had killed three of our security personnel. Does that indicate a desire for dialogue? Could such a dialogue ever take place? Time and again, Pakistan has accused India of human rights violations. Who is a greater transgressor of human rights than a terrorist? Those who take innocent lives in pursuit of war by other means are defenders of inhuman behaviour, not of human rights. Pakistan glorifies killers. It refuses to see the blood of innocent victims. It has become something of a habit for Pakistan to throw the dust of deceit and deception up against India in order to provide some thin cover for its own guilt. The United Nations has seen that before.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“There have been many Governments of numerous parties in India. Every Government has tried the peace option. By inviting the Heads of State of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation to his swearing-in ceremony, Prime Minister Modi began his attempt for dialogue on his very first day in office. On 9 December 2016, I personally went to Islamabad and proposed a comprehensive bilateral dialogue. But soon afterwards, on 2 January, Pakistan-sponsored terrorists attacked our air force base in Pathankot. It is clear that we could not pursue talks in the middle of terrorist bloodshed. Even now, after the new Government in Pakistan came to power, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, wrote to Prime Minister Modi suggesting a meeting between our Foreign Ministers in New York.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Pakistan’s commitment to terrorism as an instrument of official policy has not abated one bit, nor has its practice of hypocrisy. The killers of 11 September met their fate but the mastermind of 26 November, Hafiz Saeed, continues to roam the streets of Pakistan with impunity. What is heartening is that the world is no longer ready to believe Islamabad. The Financial Action Task Force, for instance, has put Pakistan on notice with regard to the funding of terror. We have been accused of sabotaging the process for talks with Pakistan. That is a complete lie. We believe that talks are the only rational means by which to settle even the most complex disputes. Accordingly, talks with Pakistan have been initiated many times. When they failed, it was only because of Pakistan’s behaviour.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Our neighbour’s expertise is not restricted to serving as a spawning ground for terrorism; our neighbour is also an expert in trying to mask malevolence with verbal duplicity. The most startling evidence of that duplicity was the fact that Osama Bin Laden, the architect and ideologue of 11 September, was given safe haven in Pakistan. America had declared Osama Bin Laden to be its most dangerous enemy and had launched an exhaustive, worldwide search to bring him to justice. What America could perhaps not comprehend was that Osama would find sanctuary in a country that claimed to be America’s friend and ally, namely, Pakistan. Eventually, America’s intelligence services discovered the truth of that hypocrisy, and its special forces delivered justice. But Pakistan continued to behave as if nothing had happened.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“If that goal is achieved, we will be witness to a major revolution in the energy sector, which will represent a major milestone in combating all phenomena related to climate change. I mentioned terrorism as the second existential threat to humankind. We imagined that the advent of the twenty-first century would see an age of common good characterized by cooperation but, here in New York, the horrific tragedy of 11 September and, in Mumbai, the catastrophe of 26 November became nightmares that shattered our dreams. The demon of terrorism now stalks the world at a faster pace in some places, and at a slower one in others, but it is life-threatening everywhere. In our case, terrorism is bred not in some faraway land but across our border to the west.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities was reiterated in the 2015 Paris Agreement. Prime Minister Modi, together with the Prime Minister of France, launched the International Solar Alliance. Sixty-eight nations have become members of the Alliance so far. In March, India and France chaired the founding conference of the Alliance, in which 120 countries participated. I am pleased to inform the Assembly that Prime Minister Modi has been acknowledged as a champion in that area. He is also working towards realizing the principle of one sun, one grid, since he believes that, as there is only one sun, there should also be a single universal grid.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“That India will be a clean, healthy, prosperous, secure, educated, developed, energized and strong India. That is our horizon for India in 2022, and we will reach it, as we are sparing no effort to meet that goal. The greatest challenges of our era are the existential threats of climate change and terrorism. Underdeveloped and developing nations are the most affected victims of climate change. They have neither the capacity nor the resources to meet that crisis. The countries that have exploited nature for their short-term needs cannot abdicate their responsibilities in that matter. If we wish to save the world from the adverse effects of climate change, the developed nations must lift up the deprived with financial and technical resources.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Last year, I spoke about the Ujjwala programme (see A/72/PV.19), through which, I am happy to report, 50 million free liquid-gas connections have been provided so far. Another such initiative is the maternity benefit programme, in which women in India are provided with 26 weeks of paid leave to care for their newborns. As a woman, Madam President, you will understand better than most how vitally important that programme is for every mother. Some developed nations with huge economies do not provide more than six weeks’ paid leave, thereby leading to a continuing struggle for more time off. In India, we have implemented what women across the world need, namely, 26 weeks of paid maternity leave. In 2022, free India will be 75 years old. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged to build a New India by then. What kind of India will that be?”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Two extremely effective programmes have also been initiated to increase the skill levels of those waiting to be employed through the National Skill Development Corporation and the Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) programme, which seeks to turn the poor into entrepreneurs. I stress that more than 140 million Indians have taken out MUDRA loans. The most significant aspect of the MUDRA scheme is the fact that 76 per cent of its beneficiaries are women. At the heart of Prime Minister Modi’s transformative vision is a radical idea, which is that uplifting any nation is best achieved through the comprehensive empowerment of women. All the programmes that I have just mentioned have the welfare of women at their core.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Similarly, Ayushman Bharat Yojana, the world’s largest health insurance programme, was launched by Prime Minister Modi a few days ago, on 23 September. That revolutionary scheme will benefit 500 million Indians, who will receive insurance coverage of 500,000 rupees per family annually. We have a prayer in India — Sarve Santu Niramaya — which means “May all be free from illness”. The Ayushman Bharat Yojana, or National Health Protection Scheme, is the answer to that prayer. Similarly, we have launched the largest-scale housing programme in the world aimed at ensuring that everyone has a roof over their head. Under the programme, we have set for ourselves a target of nearly 21 million homes by 2022. So far, more than 5 million homes for the poor have already been built.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has initiated an unprecedented economic and social transformation that will help our country achieve its SDG benchmarks well before the deadline. I will provide an overview to illustrate the world’s largest-scale exercise in poverty elimination and social transformation. Through the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana, the world’s largest financial inclusion scheme, more than 320 million Indians who had previously never seen the inside of a bank now have bank accounts. The programme has enabled the poor to receive direct benefit transfers from the Government’s welfare programmes into their personal accounts, thereby stopping waste and corruption within the system.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“I would also like to assure them that India will cooperate in helping them during this trying time. The United Nations is the world’s principal multilateral organization, where nations seek balm for the wounds of history and a platform for solutions and where less developed nations sit with their more fortunate brethren to formulate plans that can correct skewed economic imbalances. In 2015, we established 2030 as a critically important horizon for 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A common refrain since 2015 has been that we will reach that horizon only if India finds its way to that destination; otherwise, we will fail. I assure the General Assembly through you, Madam President, that India will not let us fail. We are totally committed to achieving those objectives for our own people.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“On my own behalf and on behalf of my country, India, I should like to begin by congratulating you, Madam President, on your election as President of the General Assembly at its seventy- third session. As a woman, I feel doubly proud that this honour has been bestowed on you. I also recall, with equal pride, that the first woman to occupy this eminent position was an Indian — Mrs. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit — in 1953, at the General Assembly at its eight session. I also thank former President Miroslav Lajčák for successfully presiding over the seventy-second session of the General Assembly. We received the tragic news this morning of a tsunami and an earthquake, which occurred simultaneously. From this rostrum, on behalf of India, I wish to convey our deep condolences to the Government and the people of Indonesia.”
2018-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 73 (2018)
“The issues that the President of the General Assembly has chosen are relevant to the Charter of the United Nations as well as to the ancient traditions of my land. My country’s culture and thought have been shaped by a history and philosophy that believes in peace as humankind’s only rational and practical objective. We truly believe that the world is one family, and we hope that every member of this family deserves that elixir of life that is happiness. Let me end by reciting a verse that is a synthesis of our thought: “May all be happy; may all be healthy; may all see what is good; may all be free from suffering”.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“I hope that under the enlightened leadership of the new President of the General Assembly this will become a priority. If it does, that will be a significant achievement. We also have high expectations of the new Secretary- General. If he wants to reform the Organization’s peace and security architecture, he will also have to address the reforms related to United Nations peacekeeping that have long been demanded. Without such improvements, it will be impossible for him to achieve that goal. There is no shortage of issues and problems that should be acknowledged from this rostrum. But time is not always on the side of those who would like to raise issues and problems in the interests of a better, more peaceful and progressive future.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“It seems to believe that there is no need for it to make changes in the precepts and perceptions that brought about its birth. On 18 September, I participated in a meeting in New York on United Nations reform and witnessed a clear desire for change and action. But I should also remind the Assembly that at the 2005 World Summit there was a consensus that reforming the Security Council as soon as possible was an essential element of our overall effort to reform the United Nations. Efforts to conduct text-based negotiations on reforming and expanding the Security Council were initiated during last year’s session, and more than 160 nations expressed support for them. If we are serious, the least we can do is to produce one text that can be the basis for negotiation.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Through Hurricane Harvey, Nature sent its warning to the world even before the world’s leaders gathered at the United Nations in New York. After our gathering had already begun, an earthquake struck Mexico and a hurricane landed in Dominica. We must understand that this requires more serious action, not more talk. The countries of the developed world must listen more carefully than others, because they have more capacities than others. The developed world must help the less fortunate through technology transfer and Green Climate Fund financing. That is the only way to safeguard future generations. We have been discussing turmoil and change around the world, but the one Organization created to address world affairs is beset by its own problems.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“It is an outcome of a philosophy that is at least 5,000 years old. Our Prime Minister has, on his personal initiative, launched the International Solar Alliance as witness to our abiding commitment to this cause. When we talk of world peace, we mean peace not only among human beings but also with nature. We understand that human nature is sometimes inimical to nature, but we would like to amend human nature when it tends in the wrong directions. When we inflict our greed on nature, nature sometimes explodes. We must learn to live with the imperatives, cycles and creative urges of nature. In that lies our own salvation. We have just witnessed hurricanes and earthquakes, rains that inundate and storms that terrify. That is not mere coincidence.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“If even the Security Council cannot agree on the listing of terrorists, how can we fight together? In all sincerity, I would like to ask the Assembly, through you, Madam, to stop seeing this evil with self- defeating, indeed meaningless nuance. Evil is evil. Let us accept that terrorism is an existential danger to humankind. There is absolutely no justification for such barbaric violence. Let us display our new commitment by reaching an agreement on a comprehensive convention on international terrorism this year. I have identified climate change as one of the significant dangers to our existence. India has already said that it is deeply committed to the Paris Climate Change Agreement. That is not because we are afraid of any Power, influenced by friend or foe or tempted by some imagined greed.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“The question is what we do about it. We must all look within ourselves and ask whether the action we are taking even approaches the level of our talk about it. In bilateral and multilateral discussions we all condemn this evil and piously declare our determination to fight it. The truth is that these statements have become rituals. The fact is that when we are required to fight and destroy this enemy, the self-interest of some makes them duplicitous. That has been going on for years. Although India had proposed a comprehensive convention on international terrorism as early as 1996, two decades later the United Nations has not been able to agree on a definition of terrorism. If we cannot agree on a definition of our enemy, how can we fight together? If we continue to differentiate between good terrorists and bad, how can we fight together?”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Pakistan’s terrorist organizations are not only attacking India, they are also affecting two of our neighbours, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. In the history of the General Assembly, it may be a first that a country has asked for a right of reply in order to respond to the statements of three different countries. Does that simple fact not illustrate the reality of Pakistan’s actions? If Pakistan had spent on development what it has spent on developing terror, both it and the world would be safer and better off today. Terrorism is at the very top of the list of problems to which the United Nations is searching for solutions. We are the oldest victim of this terrible, even traumatic terrorism. When we first began pointing to this menace, many of the world’s great Powers dismissed it as a law-and-order issue. Now they know better.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“We have marched ahead consistently, without pause, creating integrated management systems, education and technology services and AIMS foundations in education, health, space and the entire range of human welfare. We have established scientific and technical institutions that are the pride of the world. But what has Pakistan offered the world or, indeed, its own people, apart from terrorism? We have produced scholars, doctors, engineers and scientists. It has produced terrorists and terrorist camps — Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Hizbul Mujahideen and the Haqqani Network. What has Pakistan created? It has created terrorists and jihadists. Doctors save people from death; terrorists send them to their death.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Abbasi must answer why that proposal withered, because Pakistan is responsible for aborting that peace process. I would just like to ask Pakistan’s politicians why it is that although India and Pakistan became free within hours of each other, today India is recognized as an information-technology super-Power and Pakistan only as a pre-eminent exporter of terrorism? Have they ever thought about what the reason for that might be? There is only one reason for it. India has risen despite being the principal destination for Pakistan’s nefarious export of terrorism. There have been many Governments under many parties during the 70 years of Indian freedom, because India has maintained its democracy. Every Government has done its bit for India’s development.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“The reality is that Pakistan’s politicians remember everything but conveniently manipulate those memories. They are masters at forgetting facts that undermine their version of events. Pakistan’s Prime Minister spoke of a comprehensive dialogue between our two countries. I would like to remind him that on 9 December 2015, when I was in Islamabad for the Heart of Asia Ministerial Conference, a decision was made by his leader, Mian Nawaz Sharif, then still Prime Minister, to renew dialogue between us through what he called a comprehensive bilateral dialogue. The word “bilateral” was used consciously to remove any confusion or doubt about the fact that the proposed talks would be between our two nations and only our two nations, without any third party present. Mr.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Pakistan’s Prime Minister claimed that his nation’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, bequeathed a foreign policy based on peace and friendship. I would like to remind him that while it remains open to question whether Mr. Jinnah actually advocated such principles, what is beyond doubt is that from the moment India’s Prime Minister Modi took his oath of office, he has extended the hand of peace and friendship, and Pakistan’s Prime Minister must answer why his nation has spurned that offer. Prime Minister Abbasi recalled old decisions that have long been overtaken by events, but his memory conveniently failed him where it matters. He has forgotten that under the Simla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration, India and Pakistan resolved to settle all outstanding disputes and issues bilaterally.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“I am happy to report that this year India has launched an India-United Nations Development Partnership Fund. Regrettably, while we are fully engaged in fighting poverty, our neighbour Pakistan seems to be engaged only in fighting us. On Thursday, from this rostrum, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi wasted rather too much of his speech (see A/72/PV.14) complaining about us, accusing India of State-sponsored terrorism and violations of human rights. Those listening had only one comment to make — “Look who is talking.” The country that has been the world’s greatest exporter of havoc, death and inhumanity has become a champion of hypocrisy by preaching about humanity and human rights from this rostrum.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“India has now also passed legislation for a goods and services tax under which there is one tax throughout the country, without the disorganized and punishing system of multiple taxes under different categories in different parts of the country. Our Save the Girl, Educate the Girl campaign is reducing gender inequality. Our Clean India programme is generating what can only be described as a revolutionary change in social attitudes and habits. At this point, I would like to note that nations with rising capabilities can generate these kinds of change, but the developed world must become an active partner in helping vulnerable countries that are still mired in stagnant poverty to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) horizon by 2030. That is why the principle of global partnership was included in the SDGs.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“I am particularly pleased to be able to say that 70 per cent of those loans have gone to women. Unemployment spreads despair. Through Skill India, Start-Up India and Stand-Up India, poor and middle-class youth are being trained to match their talents with bank credit and become self-employed as small-scale entrepreneurs. Ujjwala is one of the Government’s signature schemes. Poor women who had to work hard in the kitchen were sometimes left blinded by the smoke from their stoves. The poor are being provided with free gas cylinders so that women do not have to suffer the dangerous consequences of wood-fired kitchens. Uniquely, gender emancipation is at the creative core of that programme. Demonetization was a courageous decision to challenge the black money that disappeared from circulation and was one of the by-products of corruption.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“No other country in the world has enabled even those with no money to have a bank account and passbook. That impossibility has now become possible in India. At least 300 million Indians — almost the equivalent of the population of the United States — who had never crossed the threshold of a bank now have bank accounts. That was, understandably, not easy to complete in three years, but our banks have achieved that visionary goal set by our Prime Minister. While some have still to be included, the target has been set. Every Indian family will have a bank account. Mudra Yojana has enabled the Government to fund the unfunded. Today, through Mudra, people who had never dreamt that bank credit could be an option for them are getting soft loans without collateral to begin micro-businesses.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“The traditional method is through incremental levels of aid and hand-holding, but our Prime Minister Narendra Modi has chosen the more radical route, through economic empowerment. The poor are not helpless; we have merely denied them opportunity. We are eliminating poverty by investing in the poor. We are turning them from job-seekers into job-providers. All of our economic programmes have one main purpose — empowering the poor. Jan Dhan, Mudra, Ujjwala, Skill India, Digital India, Clean India, Start-Up India, Stand-Up India — describing them all would take more time than I have at my disposal. I shall therefore dwell only on three core programmes. The Jan Dhan plan must surely count as the world’s largest financial inclusion scheme. Those who had no money were able to open bank accounts with no balance.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“In 2015, we set ourselves the target date of 2030 for finding solutions to many of the challenges on our agenda. Two of those years have already passed. Surely it is already time to ask how much has happened. If complacency ends up defining the next 13 years, we will be in danger of losing control. We need a sense of urgency, as well as unshakable fortitude, if we are to take the decisions that can avert catastrophe. I am pleased that India has displayed the courage and leadership needed to take such tough decisions and launch its interlinked process of sustainable development. My Government’s most important priority is the complete eradication of poverty, and there are two ways of addressing that curse.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“The evil of terrorism and the ideas that provoke it are spreading like wildfire. Climate change stares us in the face, and its threat is growing. Maritime security is an increasing worry. For many compelling and terrible reasons, people are leaving the psychological, cultural and economic comfort of their homes to seek refuge on distant shores, giving rise to global anxiety. A large part of the world’s population still suffers from hunger and poverty. Young people are beginning to lose hope as they confront unemployment. Women, historically the victims of discrimination, are demanding what they should have — gender empowerment. The danger of nuclear proliferation is back in the headlines. Cybersecurity has become a source of deep insecurity.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“Let me begin by offering my heartiest congratulations to Foreign Minister Lajčák on assuming the presidency of the General Assembly at its seventy-second session. For those of us fortunate enough to represent our nations as Foreign Minister, it is a particularly happy event that one of us has this honour. I addressed the Assembly last year as well (see A/71/PV.22). This year has seen much change both in the Assembly and the world it represents. We have a new Secretary-General at the United Nations who is determined to prepare and strengthen the United Nations to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. We welcome his efforts and see in him a leader who can give practical shape to a vision. Our world today is trapped in a deluge of troubles of which the most dangerous is surely the relentless rise of violence.”
2017-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 72 (2017)
“We must move forward substantively through the intergovernmental negotiations towards a text-based negotiation. If both of the long-pending issues that I mentioned are addressed during the presidency of Mr. Thomson, then the success of the seventy-first session will be assured. The twenty-first century has begun in the shadow of turmoil, but we can turn it into a golden age in the history of civilization through united and concerted efforts. But we must remember that what happens tomorrow will depend on what we do today.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“I therefore appeal to the General Assembly that it act with fresh resolve and urgency to adopt that critical convention. The second pending task is Security Council reform. Just as we need a more contemporary approach to combating terrorism, we also need a less outdated Security Council, which currently reflects the world order of a bygone era. The vast majority of nations share the belief that the United Nations should not remain frozen in 1945, which serves only the interests of a few. Whether it is a question of institutions or issues, we must come to terms with present-day realities and the challenges we have before us. An expansion in the permanent and non-permanent Council categories of membership in order to reflect contemporary realities is therefore an urgent necessity.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Pakistan persists in the belief that such attacks will enable it to acquire the territory it covets. My firm advice to Pakistan is to abandon that dream. Let me state unequivocally that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and will always remain so. That is why Pakistan should abandon that dream. As I said at the outset, we will be judged by both our action and our inaction. What goals have we achieved and what objectives remain unfulfilled? The first pending task for the Assembly is the adoption of the comprehensive convention on international terrorism, which was proposed by India in 1996. In 2016, despite the fact that two decades have elapsed, we have yet to conclude an agreement. As a result, we are unable to develop a standard under which terrorists shall be prosecuted or extradited.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“What are we talking about? We took the initiative to resolve issues not on the basis of conditions, but on the basis of friendship. That is the truth. We have in fact attempted to establish an unprecedented paradigm of friendship in the past two years. We conveyed Eid greetings to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, wished success to his cricket team and extended good wishes for his health and well-being. Did any of that come with preconditions attached? And what did we get in return? Pathankot, Bahadur Ali and Uri? Are we imposing preconditions or are the Pakistanis now going in a different direction? Bahadur Ali is a terrorist in our custody whose confession is proof of Pakistan’s complicity in cross-border terror. But when confronted with such evidence, Pakistan continues to deny it.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“I can say only that those accusing others of human rights violations would do well to look within and see what egregious abuses they are perpetrating in their own countries, including in Baluchistan. The brutality against the Baluch people represents the worst form of State oppression. The Prime Minister of Pakistan also said that India had come up with preconditions for talks that he found unacceptable. What preconditions was he talking about? Did we impose any preconditions before extending an invitation to him to attend our Government’s oath- taking ceremony? Did we impose any preconditions when I went to Islamabad for the Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process and agreed to commence the comprehensive bilateral dialogue with Pakistan? Did we impose any preconditions when Prime Minister Modi travelled from Kabul to Lahore? What preconditions?”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“There are nations in our midst that still speak the language of terrorism. They nurture it, peddle it and export it. Sheltering terrorists has become the calling card of such nations. We must identify those nations and hold them to account. The nations in which United Nations-designated terrorists roam freely and which lead demonstrations and deliver their poisonous sermons of hate with impunity are as culpable as the very terrorists whom they harbour. There should be no place for such countries in the community of nations. On 21 September, the Prime Minister of Pakistan used this rostrum to make baseless allegations about human rights violations in my country (see A/71/ PV.11).”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“We will not be able to win the fight against terrorism by making specious distinctions between the problems of one group and the problems of others — between terrorists who attack some and those who attack others. We do not know who will be the next victim of Frankenstein’s monster. If we want to defeat terrorism, therefore, there is only one way, that is, to unite despite our differences, add steel to our resolve and inject urgency into our response. We need to forget our prejudices and join hands to draw up an effective strategy against terror. That is not an impossible task, provided that we have the will. We can do it, and we must do it; otherwise, future generations will forever hold us to account. And if any nation refuses to join the global strategy, then we must isolate it. That is my simple demand.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Having gone far beyond affecting individuals or nations, it is a crime against humanity itself. But it is important to ask: who is behind this and who benefits from it? Terrorists do not own banks or weapons factories, so let us ask the question of who finances these terrorists, who arms them and who provides them sanctuary. Similar questions were asked by the Vice-President of Afghanistan from this rostrum a few days ago (see A/71/PV.11). History proves that those who plant the seeds of extremist ideology reap a bitter harvest. The contagion of evil seen in small terrorist groups has grown into a hydra-headed monster backed by technological sophistication that threatens the peace and harmony of our world.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Tragically, less than 15 days ago, another attempt at killing innocents was made in an act of terror on this same city. We, who have suffered in Uri, Kashmir, recently, understand the pain inflicted by the same forces. The world has been battling this scourge for a very long time. However, despite the blood and tears of innocent victims, attacks this year alone in Kabul, Dhaka, Istanbul, Mogadishu, Brussels, Bangkok, Paris, Pathankot and Uri, as well as the daily barbaric tragedies in Syria and Iraq, remind us that these malevolent forces have yet to be defeated. We must acknowledge that terrorism is undoubtedly the greatest of all violations of human rights. We must accept this fact as a first principle. Terrorism targets the innocent and kills indiscriminately.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“Additionally, our ground-breaking initiative for an International Solar Energy Alliance is intended to make efficient solar technology available for all. I assure the General Assembly that India will continue to play a leading role in combating climate change. We have carefully chosen the date to submit our instrument of ratification of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, which will be 2 October, the anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, who epitomized a lifestyle with the smallest possible carbon footprint. Let me now turn to a subject of critical importance, and which deeply concerns every member of the Assembly. This month we marked the fifteenth anniversary of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attack on this city.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)
“I would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude for the unprecedented global response to the International Day of Yoga, which has been celebrated for the past two years. In the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities has been acknowledged and accepted. That makes it clear that, while our responsibility is common, our obligations are different. Developed nations must discharge their responsibility in the search for the common good through finance and technology transfer. India has launched an ambitious domestic effort to transform our energy mix and attain 40 per cent energy from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030. The massive investments required entail a predictable and stable environment, towards which we are actively working.”
2016-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 71 (2016)