by William M. Reilly
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- Most of the 194 scheduled speakers at the UN General Assembly's General Debate on Saturday touched on shared global challenges, with many calling for greater cooperation to address issues affecting their regions.
The global topics ranged from multilateral diplomacy, one of the reasons for the world body's creation, to Security Council reform and the development and possible regulation of artificial intelligence. While regional concerns were widely represented, much attention focused on water.
Vice President Aren Palik of Micronesia said his people were seeing a rise in illnesses linked to marine life and vector-borne diseases. The country is therefore strengthening its health capacity.
"The ocean is the heart of Micronesian identity," he said, urging UN member states to fortify ocean governance, sustainable fisheries management and effective marine biodiversity conservation.
Palik said plastic pollution threatens to degrade Pacific ecosystems and communities, calling on the international community to respond with renewed political resolve, scaled-up financing and accelerated implementation.
"Let us choose cooperation over division," the vice president said.
Cabo Verde Prime Minister Francisco Carvalho said that for his country and other small island states, "the climate crisis is not a distant threat; it is a present reality," referring to droughts, desertification, water scarcity, ocean acidification and rising sea levels.
"Just look at what is happening on the island of Sal, where, only two days ago, rising sea waters flooded the avenue in front of the hotels," he said. That is also a question of justice, he added, because those who have contributed the least to this crisis cannot continue to bear some of its most serious consequences.
Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin was another speaker whose country had a keen interest in water.
As a mountainous country, home to thousands of glaciers, Tajikistan knows the "value of water" and its vulnerability, he said, adding that "water has remained at the heart of Tajikistan's international engagement."
He said a UN Water Conference will take place in Abu Dhabi later this year, followed by a high-level preparatory meeting in New York in 2027, a UN Water Conference and a final comprehensive review of the Water Action Decade in the Tajik capital Dushanbe in 2028.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla said Cuba is facing multidimensional aggression from the United States, describing it as a continuation of hostility spanning almost seven decades of an economic blockade.
He said the situation has worsened since January due to Washington's fuel blockade of the island, which he characterized as an act of war under international law, and further alleged that the United States has blocked aid from reaching Cuba and intimidated foreign entrepreneurs into abandoning their investments in the country.
Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Prak Sokhonn, who also serves as minister for foreign affairs and international cooperation, said his country is now combating online fraud, which has become "one of our highest national priorities," highlighting efforts to strengthen its legal and institutional framework and intensify law enforcement operations against scam centers and the criminal networks behind them.
No country can succeed alone in tackling the problem, since criminal networks operate across borders, said Prak, calling for collective and coordinated action at the national, regional and global levels to disrupt and eradicate online scam operations.
Lao Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Thongsavanh Phomvihane pointed to his country's heavy contamination by wartime unexploded ordnance (UXO) from more than five decades of hostilities. Clearance is central to its development agenda.
Removing UXO is not merely a technical task, but is also about restoring safety, securing agricultural land and reclaiming development opportunities for communities, he said. ■
