Full statement: Sushma Swaraj at the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly

"We are accused of sabotaging the process of talks. It's a complete lie, "said Sushma Swaraj at the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly. (Photo PTI)

In a fierce response to the Pakistani accusation that India was sabotaging the dialogue process, Foreign Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said Saturday that negotiations could not be continued in the middle of the year. a "terrorist bloodbath" with a country "glorifying the killers" and refusing to see the "blood". innocent. "During the debate of the 73rd General Assembly of the United Nations, the Minister of Foreign Affairs stated that, despite the many extensions of the olive branch, India should be stopped only because of the behavior of the neighboring country. Read | Sushma Swaraj confronts Pakistan in UN General Assembly, says India could not continue negotiations with country "glorifying killers"

Full statement by Sushma Swaraj at the 73rd debate of the UN General Assembly:

Your Excellency Madam President,

I would like to begin by congratulating you on your election as President of the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, on my own behalf and on behalf of my country, India. As a woman, I am doubly proud of your honor. I also recall, with equal pride, that the first woman to hold this distinguished chair was an Indian Smt. Vijayalakshmi Pandit, in 1953 during the 8th session. I would also like to thank the outgoing President, Mr. Miroslav Lajcak, for successfully conducting the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Madam President, we received very bad news this morning, namely that there was an earthquake and tsunami. These tragedies occurred simultaneously. From this forum, on behalf of my country, India, I would like to express my sincere condolences to the people. and Indonesian Government; and at the same time, I would like to express the assurance that India will cooperate in this tragic period.

Madame President,

The United Nations is the first multilateral organization in the world:

1: where nations seek a balm for history's wounds and a platform of solutions.

2: where the least developed nations sit with their luckiest brothers to formulate plans to correct the economic imbalance.

3: where new goals are defined and route maps are defined to make our world a better place.

In 2015, we established 2030 as an extremely important horizon for 17 sustainable development goals. A common chorus, starting in 2015, has been that we will only reach this horizon if India is heading towards this destination. Otherwise, we will fail.

I assure this august gathering, ma'am, that India will not let you fail. We are fully committed to achieving these goals for our own people. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has embarked on an unprecedented economic and social transformation that will help it achieve its sustainable development goals well before the hour.

Allow me to offer some insights to illustrate the world's largest poverty eradication and social transformation exercise:

Thanks to the Jan Dhan Yojana, the largest financial inclusion program in the world, more than 320 million Indians, who had never been in a bank, now have a bank account. This allowed the poor to receive allowances from the government's welfare programs on their personal accounts, through the direct transfer of benefits, which ended the waste and corruption in the system.

Similarly, Ayushman Bharat, the largest health insurance program in the world, was launched by Prime Minister Modi a few days ago on 23 September. This revolutionary regime will benefit 500 million Indians, who will benefit from an insurance coverage of 500,000 rupees per family per year. We have a prayer in India: Sarve Santu Niramaya, which means that everything should be in good health. Aayushman Bharat Yojana is the answer to this prayer.

Likewise, we have launched the world's largest housing program to ensure everyone has a roof over his head. Under this program, we have set a goal of 21 million housing units by 2022. To date, more than five million housing units for the poor have already been built.

Similarly, two highly effective programs have been put in place to increase the skill level of those who are waiting to be employed in the Skills Development Program and to transform the poor into entrepreneurs through the Mudra program. I want to point out that more than 140 million Indians have contracted Mudra loans. The most significant aspect of the Mudra program is that 76% of the beneficiaries are women.

At the heart of the transformative vision of Prime Minister Modi, there is a radical idea: the recovery of any nation is best achieved through the global empowerment of women. All the projects I just mentioned are based on the well-being of women. Last year, I talked about the Ujjawala project, in which I'm happy to report that 50 million free gas connections have been provided so far.

Another initiative of this type is the maternity benefits program, in which women are entitled to 26 weeks of paid leave to care for their newborns. Madam Speaker, as a woman, you will understand better than anyone how vital this program is for all mothers. Some developed countries with huge economies do not offer more than six weeks of paid leave, which leads to a continuing struggle to get more free time. In India, we have put in place what women around the world need.

Madame President

In 2022, free India will be 75 years old. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to building a new India by then. This new India will be:

1: Swachh Bharat, Swasth Bharat (Clean India, Healthy India);

2: Samarth Bharat, Surakshit Bharat (Prosperous India, Secure India);

3: Shikshit Bharat, Viksit Bharat (India educated, India developed);

4: Urjawan Bharat, Shaktiman Bharat (Energized India, Strong India).

This is our horizon for India in 2022. We will reach this horizon.

Madame President:

The greatest challenge of our time comes from the existential threats of climate change and terrorism.

Underdeveloped and developing countries are the worst victims of climate change. They have neither the capacity nor the resources to deal with this crisis. Those who have exploited nature for their immediate needs can not give up their responsibilities. If we are to save the world from the harmful effects of climate change, then developed countries must help the poor with financial and technical resources. The principle of common and differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities was reiterated in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

India has risen to meet the challenge of climate change. Prime Minister Modi, in partnership with France, launched the International Solar Alliance. The United Nations acknowledged their contributions and conferred on Prime Minister Modi and President Macron the honor of the United Nations Champions of the Earth. I am happy to inform you that 68 countries are now members of ISA. In March of this year, India and France chaired the ISA Founding Conference in which 120 countries participated.

Our Prime Minister described his vision of sustainable energy available in a generally relevant phrase: One Sun, One Grid. This innovative concept can become the solution we seek to solve these problems.

Madame President

I had described terrorism as the second existential threat to humanity. We imagined that the arrival of the 21st century would bring an era of common good, defined by cooperation in the search for peace and prosperity. But here in New York, the horrible tragedy of September 11, and in Mumbai, the disaster of 26/11 became the nightmares that broke our dreams. The demon of terrorism is now watching the world, at a faster pace somewhere, a slower pace elsewhere, but threatening life all over the world.

In our case, terrorism does not develop in a distant country, but on the other side of our western border. Our neighbor's expertise is not limited to the spawning grounds of terrorism; He is also an expert in trying to mask malevolence with verbal duplicity.

The most surprising proof of this duplicity is the fact that Osama bin Laden, the 9/11 architect and ideologue, has taken refuge in Pakistan. America has declared Osama Bin Laden the most dangerous enemy and has launched a comprehensive and global search to bring him to justice. What America might not understand is that Osama would get a refuge in a country that claimed to be America's friend and ally: Pakistan. Eventually, US intelligence discovered the truth about this hypocrisy and its special forces did justice. But Pakistan continued to behave as if nothing had happened. Pakistan's attachment to terrorism as an official policy instrument has not diminished at all. Neither one nor the other has its belief in hypocrisy. The killers of September 11 have known their destiny. But the 26/11 brain, Hafiz Saeed, still roams the streets of Pakistan with impunity.

What is encouraging is that the world is no longer ready to believe Islamabad. The FATF, for example, has warned Pakistan of its financing through terrorism.

Madame President

We are accused of sabotaging the negotiation process. It's a complete lie. We believe that negotiations are the only rational way to resolve the most complex disputes. Talks with Pakistan began several times. If they stopped, it was only because of Pakistan's behavior. There have been many governments in India, by many different parties. Every government has tried the option of peace. Prime Minister Modi, by inviting SAARC country leaders to his swearing-in ceremony, began his dialogue attempt on his first day in office. On December 9, 2016, I personally traveled to Islamabad to propose a comprehensive bilateral dialogue. But soon after, Pak-sponsored terrorists attacked our air base at Pathankot on January 2nd. Explain to me how we could continue the talks in the midst of the terrorist bloodshed? Even now, after the new government came to power, Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan wrote to Prime Minister Modi, proposing a meeting of foreign ministers in New York. We accepted the proposal. But only hours after our acceptance, the news told us that terrorists had killed three of our jawans. Does this indicate a desire for dialogue?

Time and time again, Pakistan accuses India of human rights violations. Who can be a greater violator of human rights than a terrorist? Those who take innocent human lives in the pursuit of war by other means are advocates of inhumane behavior and not human rights. Pakistan glorifies killers; he refuses to see the blood of the innocent.

In Pakistan, it has become a habit to throw dust of deception and deception on India in order to conceal some of its guilt. The United Nations has seen this before. Last year, the representative of Pakistan, using her right of reply, presented photographs as "evidence" of "human rights violations" by India. The photographs turned out to come from another country. Fake similar accusations are now part of his usual rhetoric.

Madame President:

Every year, for the last five years, India has been saying since the podium that lists are not enough to control terrorists and their protectors. We must hold them accountable through international law.

In 1996, India proposed a draft document on the CCIT at the United Nations. Until today, this project has remained a project because we can not agree on a common language. On one side, we want to fight terrorism. on the other, we can not define it. That is why the terrorist countries, which are still members of the United Nations, celebrate their finances and are armed as heroes of liberation. Cruelty and barbarity are presented as heroism. The country prints postage stamps glorifying terrorists. If we do not act now, we will have to deal with the fire later. Once again, I appeal to this body of the month of August that it will soon reach an agreement on the CCIT, one of the necessary measures in a long-running war.

Madame President

I began by highlighting the unique and positive role of the UN: but I must add that step by step, the importance, influence, respect and value of this institution begin to decrease. It is time to ask ourselves if we are lost to the destiny of the League of Nations. If 2030 is the agreed deadline for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, it also marks the cancellation of the League's one hundred years. Surely there is something to learn from this coincidence? The league collapsed because she did not want to accept the need for reform. We must not make this mistake.

The United Nations must accept that it needs fundamental reform. The reform can only be cosmetic. We need to change the mind and heart of the institution to make them compatible with contemporary reality.

Reform must begin today. tomorrow could be too late. If the UN is ineffective, the whole concept of multilateralism will collapse. During this session, multilateralism has been the subject of much debate. We will never weaken the multilateral mechanism. India believes that the world is a family and that shared discourse is the best way to solve it. A family is shaped by love and is not transactional; a family is nourished by consideration and not by greed; a family believes in harmony and not in jealousy. Greed generates conflict; consideration leads to resolution. That is why the United Nations must be based on the principles of the family. The United Nations can not be led by the "I", it only works through the "we".

India does not believe that the United Nations should become the instrument of the few at the expense of many. India believes that we must move forward together or we sink into the swamp of stagnation.

Madame President

This year, India will celebrate the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The favorite bhajan of Mahatma was "Vaishnav Jan to Tene Kahiye". The essence is deeply moving and of paramount importance: the one who understands the pain of another and who absorbs it as his own is a good human being. The one who sees this pain and helps without becoming arrogant is a good human being.

Madame President

We must make this assembly a platform for understanding, assistance and true justice. We need to understand the pain of other countries and work with developed countries to mitigate and eliminate this pain. The arrogance has no place in our scheme of things; arrogance is counterproductive and counterproductive. Let's work for the benefit of the less fortunate. Let us work for a world of peace, serenity and shared prosperity; a world free from terrorism, tension and violence.

It is with this wish in mind that I end with a shloka of our Sanskrit scriptures:

That all experience well-being;
May everyone experience peace;
May all advance to perfection;
May all profit from prosperity;
May everyone reach serenity.

Thank you, Madam President.

New York
September 29, 2018

Warning: This is the approximate translation. The speech was delivered in Hindi.

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