Arab-Pacific Summitの主催国アブダッラー外相のスピーチ全文です。
パレスチナ問題の他に太平洋島嶼国との共通課題として水問題、気候変動、教育などが上げられています。
若い～。37才。
25歳で情報文化大臣。外務大臣になったのは３２、３歳の頃。
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Your Highness
Your Excellencies,
Mr. Secretary General
Distinguished Delegates
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you today to the United Arab Emirates for the inaugural meeting of the Arab League - Pacific Island states. We are honoured to have you all with us - I hope this proves to be the beginning of many exchanges between our two regions on several planes and I hope that as our bilateral relationships grow stronger, so too do our ties in the political, economic, social and cultural arenas.
Through today's meeting we hope to introduce you to the challenges and opportunities that we face in our region, and also to learn from you about the challenges that you face in yours, so that together we can discover our potential and ability to help one another.
In February 2010 1 undertook my first visit to the south Pacific region and I was greatly warmed by the hospitality, generosity and beauty of the islands. I felt that in many ways, although geographically so distant, I had come to a region and a people that greatly resembled our own and that the cultural affinity between our two worlds was far stronger than I imagined.
I am very pleased that in the short time since my visit, the UAE has formally
established diplomatic relations with many more of the Pacific Island states - I hope to encourage my friends from other parts of the Arab world here today to do the same. I am further honoured mat we are sitting together in the presence of Pacific heads of government and cabinet ministers from both worlds each discovering the other's world and communicating between them.
The Arab world is a rich and vast region that stretches from the Atlantic Ocean in the west, to the Arabian Sea in the east, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the north to the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean in the southeast. It is situated at the cross roads of east and west, and atop great networks of global exchange, consisting of 21 countries and a combined population of over 350 million.
The Arab world continues to hold high strategic importance, not just for the world's economy and energy supply, but also from a security perspective, which has made the region synonymous with both great opportunities and great challenges.
Today, in face of these opportunities and challenges, Arabs have begun to draw on their rich past in their response to them: through the prevalent mood of a 'spirit of possibility' - where the countries across the region believe once again that it is possible to develop and implement visions of transformative and far-reaching change.
In many ways the UAE has embodied this experience and this new mood of possibility and change, which has been at the core of the creation of its diverse, tolerant and open society that accepts a multiplicity of ethnicities and communities in one place who can work together to build a better future. This new mood has been central to how the UAE has addressed some of these challenges that face our region today.
Among these challenges, one of most pressing and troubling problems in the Arab world today is the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The UAE has long espoused a peaceful resolution of this conflict, one that is in-line with the Arab Peace initiative that holds a two-state solution - involving a sovereign Palestine and a secure Israel living side by side, with viable borders and economies - is the only way to restore security, peace, and stability to the region.
A big factor driving this spirit of possibility is the realisation that our inter- connectedness in an increasingly globalised world means that as responsible members of this world we must work collectively together to tackle global issues and toward more effective integration.
These big global responses are essential to meeting even seemingly local problems such as that which afflicts the UAE and the Arab world, just as it afflicts so many of the Pacific island countries: the challenge of increasing water shortages. Water supplies are increasingly under stress throughout the countries of the world and the consequences can be devastating. Scarcity of water supplies can dramatically prevent the development of local communities, through hindering the cultivation of food crops, and denying fodder and water for animals on which communities depend. It can also harm the long-term health and well-being of young people, and lead to an increase in waterborne illnesses.
The issue can even provoke conflict between nations. And yet, in spite of the deeply local nature of a country's water balance; it is only as a global community that we can develop lasting solutions. This response should come through discussions between nations experiencing this challenge. It should also come through the sharing of technology and through, joint investments between governments across the world and through the sharing of successful water conservation strategies. This necessity for a global response is central too because while the affects of water scarcity are suffered by individual communities across the globe, it has also a distinctly global origin: and this is the global threat of climate change.
The challenge of global climate change is one of the key global challenges facing us today. And alongside our own efforts toward reducing emissions and developing renewable energies at home, the UAE - despite being a hydrocarbon economy - has led internationally in its achievement in hosting the headquarters of IRENA - in which the support of Pacific Island nations was so important, as a particularly striking example of South-South cooperation demonstrating to the world that the functions of international organisations are more effective when equitably distributed globally.
International organizations - both newly founded institutions such as IRENA, and more established forums such as the UN - will remain at the centre of our efforts toward cooperation for change. As small countries, in organisations whose agendas have long been dominated by big players, we believe that we must come together, discover where our interests are aligned - in meetings and forums such as this one - and ensure that out voices get heard in the larger political institutions of the world.
Another key global challenge is the threat of the spread of nuclear weapons.
The UAE has taken a similar spirit of cooperation in its support of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty regime. At an international level, the UAE has joined other Arab countries in calling for the Middle East to be a weapons free zone, and strongly supported principles of non-proliferation. While, at a national level, the UAE is pursuing a peaceful, civilian nuclear energy program - foregoing domestic enrichment and reprocessing of nuclear fuel - which has been described worldwide as a gold standard for countries interested in exploring nuclear energy for civilian purposes, and also spares the region the danger of a destructive nuclear arms race.
With the world's largest proportion of young people found in Arab countries, the UAE has been hugely focused projects that help young people become valued and productive members of society, and we have invested heavily in what we believe to be the most fundamental resource of any successful society - education.
But we understand that combating global poverty and underdevelopment will be essential too so that children and young people throughout the world have the opportunities to access education. We also have long called for a strong international commitment toward achievement of the Millennium development goals, and have focused our own efforts particularly on alleviating gender discrimination, access to healthcare, and eradicating child labour and human trafficking.
In an increasingly globalized world, our regions no longer seem so far apart.
We believe that cooperation between regions such as the Arab world and the Pacific islands can be a decisive force for change. Today, we are here to explore association with the Pacific Island countries, within the spirit of South-South cooperation that unites us.
I earnestly hope that our engagement and deliberations will add a fresh and modern dynamic to our newfound relations and yield mutually-beneficial results in the decades to come. We are honoured to celebrate these new friendships here today and hope to partner with you in building a fulfilling vision of our shared future.
Thank you
