UN General Assembly
2022

I take this rostrum with a heavy heart, more pessimistic than I was last year and more cynical and disappointed. We have come to depend on the multilateral system that has the Charter of the United Nations at its centre. Where is the collective will to adequately address the challenges of our time? Where is our shared conviction to work together for the betterment of humankind? Where is the hope? Today there are conflicts on several continents; geopolitical tensions are heightened. The unjustified, unprovoked and illegal attack on Ukraine by the Russian Federation has shaken the foundations of the multilateral system. That is wrong. The consequential crises that we face are not confined to the battlefield in Europe; they are global and affect us all. Democratic norms and human rights, even where thought to be firmly rooted, are being rolled back. Poverty is on the increase. The planet is being destroyed by climate change. International cooperation and solidarity have been supplanted by nationalism and unilateralism.