UN General Assembly President-elect Abdulla Shahid thanks India for support; says top focus on containing COVID-19

In his first-ever interview since his massive victory for the post of President of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly or UNGA, Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid has listed dealing with the covid crisis, UN reforms among his five key priorities. He received 143 votes at the general assembly during Monday's votes, far higher than the 96 votes that are required with his one-year tenure all set to begin from September of this year.

Speaking to our Principal Diplomatic Correspondent Sidhant Sibal from New York, Abdulla Shahid speaking on the COVID crisis said, "We need to make sure we provide vaccines to all" and hoped that a common "definition would be reached by the membership" when it comes to the issue of terrorism as envisaged under the comprehensive convention on international terrorism or CCIT. India has proposed CCIT in 1996 and while it calls for a common definition on the issue of terrorism, it continues to languish due to a lack of consensus.

He thanked India for the support of his candidature saying, "India recognized important role country like the Maldives can play in the international stage". India had backed the candidature of Foreign Minister Abdulla, with the announcement being first made during India's foreign secretary Harsh Shringla's Maldives visit in November to the country. Again during the visit of EAM Jaishankar's visit to the Maldives in February of 2021, India reiterated its continued backing for Maldives FM's candidature.

Q: Your reaction to being elected for the post of president of the United Nations General Assembly?

Abdulla Shahid: Sidhant, I am deeply humbled, by this election. I am also at the same time a proud Maldivian today. This is a great honor for the Maldivian people, for the nation. The Maldives is a small country, but we have been responsible and committed members of the United Nations for the last 55 years. We became the member of the United Nations, 3 months after we became independent, and I think this election has clearly shown that the current President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih's foreign policy is well respected and received by the international community. It is indeed a great honor for the Maldives. 

Q: You got more than 140 votes at the United Nations General Assembly, what does it show and how has the process been?

Abdulla Shahid: The number of votes we received indicated, how the international community has received the Maldives. The international community has received the presidency of hope, that I proposed to the international community. You would know, last year has been a year of despair, death, sorrow, and pain for the entire world across the globe. I proposed the Presidency of Hope, which I promised will help us, overcome these difficult times. We should be aiming to go over the hill and had proposed that together the United Nations can lead this effort. I believe the membership was also eager to take on this presidency of hope and give it to their constituents, the citizens of the world. 

Q: The Presidency of hope has five-point agenda. If you can list these priority areas...

Abdulla Shahid: I proposed my presidency, the presidency of hope will be built on 5 rays of hope. The first ray of hope is recovering from COVID 19, it is going to dominate, the international agenda for several years to come, but we need to concentrate on 3 main points. 

Number 1 is a clear pathway in dealing with COVID 19, with the ultimate aim of eradicating it. 

Number 2 is vaccine equity, no one is safe until everyone is safe. We need to make sure we provide vaccines to all. 

Number 3 is dealing with the economic impact; it has created on all our country. My second ray of hope is rebuilding sustainably. We started the new decade with the launching of the decade of action, but the pandemic has really dampened the decade of action and now we have to start, reset the clock, and restart building back better, building back greener, and stronger and I believe we can do it. We need to reset the clock and put into the recovery phase and make it into a decade of recovery as well. 

The third ray of hope of my presidency would be responding to the needs of the planet, both Sidhant, you and me, everyone, here we can feel and see our mother earth planet in pain. We need to address it. The pandemic once again has taken focus again from climate-related issues, but these are not the issues we can put on the back burner. We need to start addressing it now, many many major conferences coming now. COP26 is coming, the oceans conference is coming up, the COP15 on biodiversity is coming up, the energy summit is coming up. All these conferences are going to create momentum which I am proposing United Nations General Assembly should harness and turn into action. 

The fourth ray of hope, I am proposing is, respect the rights of all, human rights have to be the center of all developmental issues and all issues. I believe, united nations human rights commission, and human rights council, and the united nations general assembly should together be conscious of the international community on human rights issues. We should prioritize such issues, like issues of gender-based violence, violence against children, general parity. We need to prioritise youth-related issues. These are the issue we should start addressing while respecting the rights of all. 

The fifth and the final ray of hope are revitalizing the United Nations. UN needs to be stronger, it needs to be transparent, accountable, it needs to be efficient in order to deliver to the nations. UNGA needs revitalization, it's a process that has been ongoing, we need to continue with the reform of the security council, we need to make sure the economic and social council is stronger. These are my 5 rays of hope, I believe that the clear vote that was cast yesterday should that the membership wanted this presidency of hope to be there so that Presidency could be built on 5 rays of hope. 

Q: On the issue of terror,  what will be the key focus? Especially when it comes to consensus on the comprehensive convention on international terrorism, something that has been languishing since 1996 due to lack of consensus?

Abdulla Shahid: Well, the United Nations General Assembly 6 committee, the legal committee has been working on this definition, as you said, for a very long time. I hope the definition would be reached by the membership soon. Because we need a clear definition of terrorism to be reached soon. 

Sidhant Sibal: Would push for greater physical meetings? What are your plans to invite global leaders back to New York for the UN High-Level Week?

Abdulla Shahid: I have spoken to the secretary-general on this, I have also spoken to President about it. The secretariat and the current President are working on it. I will be consulting with them in detail again during this week. We need General Assembly to come back in some forms of meetings that are important. Yesterday we had a session in person, 1+1, meaning in the General Assembly hall, each delegation is represented by one plus one which is a very limited number of people in the hall. Social distancing has to be followed, wearing of the mask has to be followed. Under these difficult circumstances, we would want the general assembly to be functioning, but we cannot afford the general assembly to be a supercluster. So all precautions will be taken, but it is important that we have some form of the high-level week this year.

Sidhant Sibal: Any signature events that you want to do as the President of the General Assembly?

Abdulla Shahid: I will be meeting my core team, I will be meeting them before my travel back to the Maldives and by September, I will be able to give my detailed input. 

Sidhant Sibal: How do you see India's support? India had extended the support as early as November 2020.

Abdulla Shahid: Well, I thank the Indian government, the Prime Minister, the foreign minister and the foreign secretary for the outstanding support for Maldives candidature. They were very kind, and I think India recognized the important role a country like the Maldives can play on the international stage, especially as the President of the General assembly. I am also grateful to many-many other countries, who have so kindly expressed their support and continued backing me during the campaign. 

Sidhant Sibal: After a long time, a South Asian is at the post, so how will it increase the positioning of South Asia?

Abdulla Shahid: As you said, it has been a while since a south Asian diplomat has presided over the General Assembly, it is indeed a great honor for me and I will try my best to keep the high level of diplomats that South Asia has created.