Mr. President,

I have the honor to speak on behalf of the 12 members of the Pacific Small Island Developing States namely the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

At the outset, the PSIDS we would like to thank Mr. Thembile Joyini of South Africa, Mr. Andreas Kravik of Norway, Mr. Pablo Arrocha of Mexico and Ms.Kate Neilson of New Zealand for their able leadership in bringing these negotiations to their successful conclusion and we are pleased to support the adoption of these resolutions on Oceans and the Law of the Sea, Sustainable Fisheries and BBNJ.

Mr. President,

We attach particular importance to this agenda item. As we have often said, we consider the ocean the lifeblood of our economies and our societies. We are therefore keenly attuned to the mounting negative impacts on its health, driven by human activity. Overfishing, as well as illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, marine pollution including from microplastics, the destruction of marine habitats and other threats to marine biodiversity, including climatechange driven impacts such as ocean acidification are among a number of serious threats to the health and resilience of our shared ocean.

These serious and mounting impacts are not merely threats to our ocean, but constitute a serious challenge to our sustainable development and our ability to meet the aspirations encompassed in the 2030 agenda. Healthy, productive, and resilient oceans and seas are critical for inter alia, poverty eradication, access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food, economic development, and essential ecosystem services.

Mr. President,

The PSIDS were at the forefront of those advocating for the inclusion among the SDGs of a standalone goal dedicated to the Conservation and Sustainable Use of our Oceans and Seas.

This was reflected in SDG 14 in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and we look forward to the critical work of implementation to meet the targets on protecting marine ecosystems, on addressing acidification, ending IUU fishing, and increasing benefits to SIDS and LDCs among others. In this regard, we welcome the first United Nations Conference to support the implementation of SDG 14 and its outcomes. The Call for Action should help guide our work towards meeting the targets which we have established. We were pleased that the final Call for Action recognizes the special case of SIDS and the unique relationship which SIDS have with the ocean. We congratulate the co-facilitators of the process, the H.E. Mr. Alvaro Mendonya Moura of Portugal and H.E. Mr. Burhan Gafoor of Singapore for their stellar work.