Excellencies,
Your Excellency Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, and President of the Fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States.
I wish to express solidarity with a member of our family – Papua New Guinea – following the landslide that has devastated the country. I send condolences to the victims and their families. And I hope, in the coming hours, more survivors will be rescued, and families will be reunited.
With your permission, I would like to draw attention to the most worrying of developments in the Middle East. As we speak, Israel is defying the ICJ’s order to immediately halt its attack on the Palestinian people in Rafah. We, the world leaders at this Conference, must unite in calling on Israel to stop the war. Stop the apartheid. And stop the genocide immediately.
It is time for Israeli leaders to face justice and be held accountable for their crimes.
As Small Island Developing States, we know all too well the feeling of being helpless.
Being vulnerable.
Feeling like the international system does not care about us.
Let us express our collective solidarity with the people of Palestine.
Mr. President
I wish to thank you and the people and the Government of Antigua and Barbuda, for the warm Caribbean hospitality – we feel very much at home.
The International Summit on SIDS in Barbados in 1994 adopted the first Programme of Action for SIDS.
And today, we gather to adopt the fourth such Programme.
Thirty years is NOT a short time. And it begs the question – What have we achieved over the past three decades?
Poverty still exists.
The climate crisis is devastating.
The natural environment is dying.
External debt is rising.
Injustice and inequality are rampant.
We are losing faith – and hope - in the global mechanisms.
I could go on and on.
I took office as President of the Maldives last November. And perhaps my novelty allows me to say this.
I believe it is time that SIDS start believing in their own ability to navigate the perils of development. Our vulnerabilities should not be our downfall. They should be our armour. Our rallying call.
At the same time, we will continue to look to the international community – not to dictate to us, but for support.
Let me highlight three ways in which such support could be deployed.
First, the international community must provide SIDS with credit enhancement measures and reduce costs of borrowing.
Bilateral partners must employ more innovative solutions including retractive financing, especially at times of shocks.
Private sector lenders must partner with official creditors in lowering borrowing costs and higher maturities.
Our experience with global climate funds is that they are insufficient, failing to align with the scale of the impacts.
What we ask today is for increased ambition.
Ambition in formulating our next set of NDCs, to course correct to the rapidly narrowing pathway to 1.5-degree target.
Ambition in finalising the New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance, which must include adequate finance for adaptation.
Second, it is high time that the UN system, the global development institutions, and the private sector financiers, adopt a shared and synergistic approach to support SIDS.
The Maldives was proud to have led the formulation of The Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS with New Zealand.
This Agenda requires coordinated, strengthened, and effective support from the international community. It needs to be integrated into the Cooperation Frameworks at the national level. And most importantly we need to overcome silos in implementation.
At the same time, we need to ask ourselves whether a ten-year programme is able to take into account the rapid changes that transform SIDS.
Wouldn’t it be wise to have a five-year programme and make it closely aligned with other global development agendas?
Third, SIDS should take the lead.
We insist for investment in our state and productive capacities.
We should leverage the private sector. Make our institutions stronger.
We should transform the delivery of public service, improve transparency and accountability.
We should demand a seat at the global centres of power if we want the decisions by these bodies to reflect our realities.
This is why the Maldives is seeking membership of the UN Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and other UN bodies.
We should stand stronger. Be more vocal.
Mr President:
The future is intelligence driven.
This is why my government is investing in digital infrastructure and leveraging digital technologies to enhance information, education, healthcare, and financial services – and ensuring they are smart, safe, and resilient.
These will also be the inherent features of our biggest-ever new eco city, Ras Malé.
Ras Malé aims to alleviate our housing crisis, utilising modular housing for the first time in the Maldives.
It will be more climate friendly and energy efficient - ultimately reaching net-zero emissions.
It will be connected digitally as well as through a state-of-the-art transportation system, accessible for all.
Ras Male’ will open an era of prosperity and development in the Maldives.
Mr President:
SIDS can, and SIDS must lead!
We may be small but size DOES NOT dictate our destiny. We can shape and steer our future.
SIDS must stand as beacons of resilience and innovation. Setting examples for the world to follow
The future begins with the choices we make today.
Together, we can protect our world—a world that is as resilient, interconnected, and as beautiful as the islands that urge us to act.
I thank you.