Fiji’s Foreign Minister Hon. Ratu Inoke Kubuabola met separately with his counterparts from Indonesia, Italy and the United Arab Emirates on Fiji’s role in advancing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and in particular SDG 14, the ‘Oceans Goal’.
Minister Kubuabola informed the Ministers that Fiji would host the first Triennial conference in partnership with Sweden in 2017 in order to give SDG 14 the needed momentum. He told Minister Retno Marsudi of Indonesia, Minister Reem Al-Hashimy of the United Arab Emirates and Italy’s Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs Mr Miro Giro that SDG 14 was important to Fiji and the Pacific region.
The meetings were held at the margins of the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly where the Fijian Prime Minister Hon. Voreqe Bainimarama also raised the need for more support towards the development and protection of the oceans.
“In the Pacific Ocean, for too long now we have observed the decline in our ocean's health, as evidenced by dying coral, marine pollution, damaged coastal ecosystems, declining fish-stocks and ocean acidification. Those of us who are old enough to remember our ocean in much healthier times must do more than lament that our grandchildren may never see the ocean as it was created. We must do all we can to make sure that they know the ocean as it was when our forebears bequeathed it to us”, the Prime Minister said.
“As a founding member of the UN's Group of Friends of Oceans & Seas, Fiji has been working to establish a high-level global platform to ensure that we meet SDG14. I am proud to say that we have found a strong ally in the Government of Sweden to establish the Triennial UN Conferences on Oceans & Seas, with five international conferences spanning the fifteen years of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.”
Minister Kubuabola also spoke Fiji’s nomination to the Presidency of the UN General Assembly. He called on the support of his counterparts towards this process.
The Ministers also discussed strengthening relations between Fiji and their respective countries.