Coverage of Timor Leste at the UN General Assembly

September 18th, 2024

New York City, United States of America

Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão came up to the podium of the United Nations Headquarters. Facing 193 delegations, he begins his speech with his gratitude for representing the Timorese people and instantly goes into his observations, pressing struggles, and dreams for the future of the United Nations and the world.

Timorese Journey Towards Independence

Prime Minister Gusmão started off the body of his speech with a brief historical segment about Timor-Leste’s rough battle for independence and how the country has transformed into a vibrant democracy — stating that his nation is “a democracy that has embraced peace, dialogue, human rights, and the rule of law”. Reconciliation was stressed in this part when discussing internal reconciliation between the Timorese citizens and external reconciliation with Timor-Leste’s only neighbor: Indonesia. While further exemplifying Timor-Leste’s hardships by touching on the nation’s War of Independence, the Prime Minister continued to prove how necessary reconciliation and trust are in the current world to keep peace flourishing. 

Ongoing Global Conflicts and the Importance of Peace

“There has never been so much hopelessness, uncertainty, instability, and distrust as in today’s world” expressed Prime Minister Gusmão as the topic shifted to issues the world is facing. Additionally, Gusmão mentioned the desire of G7+ (which includes Timor-Leste) to append the 16th Sustainable Development Goal, “Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions”, to the 2030 Development Agenda — aiming to target global efforts of achieving human rights, dignity, justice, etc. Seeing as Timor-Leste is a smaller nation, he claimed that leaving no one behind meant prioritizing fragile, developing nations.

Global Successes & Struggles

The G7+ recently held a side summit discussing the ongoing positive and negative situations occurring in their respective nations. G7+ is an intergovernmental organization comprised of conflict-struck countries united for the goal of peace and prosperity. While Timor-Leste has made substantial progress domestically, nations worldwide have struggled with disastrous tragedies like hunger, which is currently affecting 800 million people. The Timorese Prime Minister contrasted this horrific statement with a sentiment describing that more than 2.4 trillion USD is spent on global military funding. This number is even more alarming when organizations like the World Food Program USA predict that 40 billion USD is necessary to eradicate world hunger annually.

Timorese Goal of Economic Diversification & Ecosystem Preservation

Further along the speech, PM Gusmão discussed Timor-Leste’s plans to diversify economically as a nation. These efforts were deemed important to enhance food security and improve the livelihood of the Timorese people. The government has placed a heavy desire to start increasing agricultural production and start a blue economy —  an economy centered on conserving oceans and the organisms inhabiting them. Climate change and unsustainable activities in the ocean are the two main issues Timor Leste is currently struggling with. Mentioning the Coral Triangle, Gusmão announces that the nation has ratified The Agreement on Marine Biodiversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction or the BBNJ Agreement. This agreement ensures that sustainable practices are occurring in waters past countries’ borders.

Call for Increased Global Funding & Awareness

“We recognize that small islands developing states, and least developed countries face enormous challenges in achieving SDGs”

After a recent SIDS conference held in Antigua and Barbuda, Prime Minister Gusmão realized that various other small island nations share a similar economic, historical, and geographic disadvantage as Timor-Leste; these nations cannot attain financial conditions, capacity building, and technology transfers which hinder their ability to try to achieve SDG goals, locally and internationally. The Lost and Damage Fund concluded that COP ‘28 needs to acquire more contributions from developed nations for a better chance at eliminating climate change.

Self-Determination Struggle

Switching to a sociopolitical lens, Gusmão explains how international disputes— whether about borders, sovereignty, or cooperation— affect the world negatively. He started with the unjust occupation of Western Sahara by the Kingdom of Morocco. As mentioned in his speech, Western Sahara is a Non-Self Governing Territory by the International Court of Justice. Moreover, The European Union Court and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights have both stated that the territory is separate from The Kingdom of Morocco and therefore their own country. In 2002, a UN Security Council referendum for Western Saharan independence was postponed and 22 years later, has yet to commence. In fact, as of October 31, 2024, the referendum has been pushed back an additional year. Prime Minister Gusmão addresses his concern for this situation as the Sarawahi people have not been able to express their self-determination the way other nations have. He stated that war is not the answer to problems and that it adds to them; he hopes for a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Russo-Ukrainian War.

Amplifying Smaller Nations’ Voices 

Timor-Leste has contributed many ideas, conferences, and other benefactions while being a smaller nation of the world. As many other small countries have as well, the Timorese Prime Minister expressed concerns about how these smaller countries are being represented in the United Nations. Additionally, Gusmão later states that countries in Latin America and Asia are not being taken into account when larger and wealthier countries make decisions that could alter the future of the entire world. He describes that change is necessary for fewer conflicts and disasters to occur and that every country’s message is deserving of a voice.