Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says Fiji stands ready to serve its community of nations in every way it can, by way of peacekeeping and way of international climate and oceans diplomacy.
In his virtual statement at the 75th General Assembly of the United Nations today, Bainimarama said Fijians still look to the UN as a beacon for hope, a force for peace and an anchor of stability.
He also called for global solidarity, commitment and urgency in rebuilding the global economy suffering from the twin devastations caused by climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bainimarama said climate change and the coronavirus may be very different beasts but the inequities they have exposed are all-too-familiar for Small Island Developing States.
The Prime Minister shared with the world leaders Fiji’s progress efforts in tackling two crises at once – the containment of COVID-19 and the devastation caused by Tropical Cyclone Harold which made landfall on our shores early this year.
He says Fiji's disaster authorities and health officials sprang into action, taking every step in-line with everything the experts could tell us about how to stop the spread of this highly contagious virus, and they saved lives from TC Harold’s devastation, even evacuating entire communities, all without allowing a single new case in relation to the storm.
Bainimarama says Fiji was proud to mark 150 days of zero community transmission as a result of this concerted national action.
Bainimarama says while Fiji has contained the coronavirus, we have not been spared from its economic devastation.
The Prime Minister says the recovery from this pandemic must mark a transition to a decarbonized, climate-resilient economic system.
He says together with its partners, Fiji has been working for the past several months to explore how the global community can recover faster, recover better, recover bluer, recover greener and recover together.
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