King Charles calls for new Franco-British entente for sustainability

Jeddah - Yasmine El Tohamy - WASHINGTON: Mauritania has made significant progress in meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and ensuring the nation develops a resilient economy, President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani said at the UN on Wednesday.

Speaking during the General Debate of the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly, he said: “Our world is going through overlapping crises such as poverty, high inflation and violence. However, our fate is intertwined, therefore we should accelerate sustainable development goals by 2030.”

The SDGs are 17 inter-linked objectives that cover poverty, education, healthcare, economic growth, gender equality, peace and justice. 

Ghazouani said Mauritania has made the implementation of the UN’s SDGs the main goal of its developmental efforts.

“We remain hopeful that depending on our collective capacity and multilateralism we can find (an) effective mechanism for funding sustainable development,” he added.

He said that despite regional and international crises, his government was close to meeting key SDG indicators including universal healthcare for citizens, and improving agricultural production.

He said his government was “working on strengthening the rule of law and social cohesion and good governance, human rights and equality. 

“We are fighting against all contemporary forms of slavery,” he said.

Speaking on the impact of climate change, Ghazouani called on the world’s industrialized nations to honor their commitments to reduce greenhouse emissions and the pledges they made during the Paris Summit that took place earlier this year.

He said that the upcoming international climate change conference in the UAE, or COP28, was a “great source of hope” for all nations.

On the political front, the Mauritanian leader said his country continues to support the Palestinian people and their right to have a free and independent state.

“I would like reaffirm the right of the Palestinian people to have their own independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital according to the relevant resolutions of the United Nations,” he said.

He said his country supports all solutions that will preserve the peace, stability and territorial integrity of fellow Arab nations, including the embattled countries of Syria, Yemen and Libya.

He also called for an end to all hostilities in Sudan, and for the parties to reach a political solution to the current civil war that broke out this year between the government and its former ally the Rapid Support Forces.

He added that his country supports the UN’s efforts to find a lasting solution to the conflict in the neighboring Western Sahara region between Morocco, which claims sovereignty over the vast territory, and the Polisario Front which seeks to establish an independent nation.