Statement at the 14th NAM Summit, Kuba: “Shared Responsibility forCommon Prosperity

“Shared Responsibility for
Common Prosperity”

Statement by

H.E. Dr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
President of the Republic of Indonesia

At the 14th NAM Summit
Havana – Cuba

Havana, 15 September 2006


Bismillahirrahmaniirrahim

Mr. Chairman,
Before all else, I wish to thank and commend you and the Government and people of Cuba for hosting this important summit. I join all leaders in this room in praying for the speedy recovery of His Excellency Dr. Fidel Castro Ruz. I also congratulate His Excellency Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi of Malaysia for his wise leadership and a very successful tenure as Chair of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are today confronted by old persistent challenges as well as by new threats to global security. Let me name a few: inter-state and intra-state conflicts, terrorism, the proliferation of all kinds of weapons, transnational crime, poverty, pandemics, and natural disasters.

The only way to effectively address these problems is by strengthening multilateralism in world affairs.

Our Movement can strengthen this multilateralism by reaffirming the purpose and principles of the Non-Aligned Movement as enunciated in 1961 when our Movement came to birth. We must also reaffirm our faith in the Ten Principles of Bandung—or the Bandung Spirit—articulated by the first generation of African and Asian leaders that inspired the birth of our Movement.

It may be recalled that the Non-aligned Movement was founded at the height of the Cold War, in the post-colonial era. The founders of the NAM avoided getting trapped into joining either of two ideological blocs and instead aimed for global peace, justice and prosperity.

We gather here today to rekindle the spirit of Bandung and non-alignment and to continue our historic march toward a common destiny for humankind—marked by peace, justice and prosperity for all.

Thus, as we chart our course for the future, we do not have to reinvent the wheel. We need only to reaffirm our commitment to the principles of independence, peace, justice and equality. And we need to figure out how to operationalize these purpose and principles of our Movement to the realities and challenges of our time.

The most persistent of these security challenges is the conflict in the Middle East. Diplomacy must now be given a chance to succeed. The Roadmap to peace must be revived. And Palestine and Lebanon must be rebuilt.

Another challenge that has burdened our predecessors and one which we must continue to address with vigor is the threat of poverty.

Neither peace nor security can be assured on the long term while 80 percent of humanity controls only 20 percent of the wealth. Democracy is meaningless to the eight million human beings who will die in 2006 because they are too poor to live.

Among the dire consequences of not dealing with poverty is a sense of deprivation and resentment among the poor that leads to prejudice, hatred and conflict. Thus, violence can spread out all over the world.

We must therefore conquer poverty before it kills our future. And the only way to conquer it is for the developed and developing world to carry out a contract of partnership that defines their respective obligations to each other, including our own partnership and cooperation.

That contract already exists—in the form of the outcomes of the social and economic summits that were held by the international community during the past decade and a half. We need only to affirm our commitment to that contract and find the political will to carry it out to completion.

For their part, the countries of the developed world must fulfill four basic obligations—starting with the opening up of their markets to the products of the developing world, especially agricultural products. In this regard, let us admit that the Doha Round of negotiations within the WTO is on the brink of failure, and take strong, collective steps to salvage it.

Second, the developed countries must earnestly address the critical need of the developing world for debt relief. Many developing countries fail to fund their socioeconomic development programmes because their budgets are bled dry by debt servicing ~ debt trap that in many cases are not the fault of the borrowing countries. The developed countries must be bolder and more innovative in extending debt relief. Emphasis should be given to debt for environment swaps because they bring about the double benefit of debt relief and environmental sustainability.

Third, the developed countries must see to it that sufficient volumes of financial flows—especially in the form of foreign direct investments—are channeled to the developing world. Development needs capital. Building schools, hospitals, irrigation, electricity, roads, telephone lines need capital. And capital must move to where it can do the most good for both the receiver and the source. It is as simple as that.

Like capital, technology is essential to development. But the technology that the developing world needs is in the hands of the developed countries. The developed countries must therefore find ways of sharing technology with the developing countries in a way that strikes a balance between social responsibility and respect for intellectual property rights.

Partnership is a two way street. On the part of the developed countries this is the time for compensating for the resources they extracted from the world that they once colonized. This can be done by assisting the developing countries and building partnerships with them. Fairness and justice demands that the history of nations and the suffering they underwent must be taken into account. The developing countries must take an active part in writing the new rules of the game in a globalized world.

The developing countries, in turn, must fulfill a set of responsibilities that match those of their developed partners.

The first obligation of a developing country is to practice good governance. Public and corporate officials must be accountable in a regime of transparency. This means that a determined battle must be waged against corruption. This is not an easy thing to do but it must be done.

The second obligation of developing countries is to enhance the important form of capital that is in abundant supply in the developing world—human capital. We must therefore pursue a vigorous programme of universal education and human resources development. We must guard and promote the health of our peoples so that they can become the authors as well as beneficiaries of their own development.

Third, we must provide a climate hospitable to foreign direct investments. This means not only packages of incentives. It also requires legal certainty, sound economic policy, bureaucratic efficiency, stability, adequate infrastructure and, of course, good governance.

Fourth and finally: we must ensure the sustainability of our environment. We must use our resources with wisdom so that these are not depleted in a way that will rob our future generations of their birthright.

If both the developed and developing countries live up to these obligations, our developing economies will be sustained and empowered. We will attain our Millennium Development Goals.

Having done that, we will become stronger partners of the developed world.

In such a prosperous world, it is easier to keep the guns silent. Peace has the best of chances. And democracy has a wider space to march on. These are the ultimate goals of our Movement. And the cherished dreams of the human race.

I thank you.