Distinguished members of the media,
Good morning.
Let me start with a few words about the succession of military coups we have seen in recent months particularly in the African continent.
Many countries face deep-seated governance challenges. But military governments are not the solution.
They aggravate problems. They cannot resolve a crisis; they can only make it worse.
I urge all countries to move quickly to establish credible democratic institutions and the rule of law.
Distinguished members of the media,
Tomorrow marks the start of an intensive month of multilateral diplomacy – both here in New York and around the world.
As preparations intensify for the High-Level week of the General Assembly, I will be travelling to the Africa Climate Summit in Kenya, to the ASEAN-UN Summit in Indonesia, the G20 Summit in India, and the Summit of the G77 and China in Cuba.
This multiplicity of summits reflects the growing multipolarity of our world.
Power is more diffuse.
Different countries exert influence in different spheres.
The Africa Climate Summit will focus on climate action in a region that is paying a high price for an emergency it did nothing to create.
The UN-ASEAN Summit will be an opportunity to further our cooperation in a dynamic and ever-changing part of the world.
The G20 gathers the world’s largest economies. And the G77 is the voice of the Global South – the largest group of countries on the international stage.
Taken together, these summits demonstrate the vitality of our multipolar international community.
But multipolarity in itself does not guarantee peace and stability.
On the contrary: without strong multilateral institutions, multipolarity could be a factor for escalating geostrategic tensions, with tragic consequences.
Unless we strengthen and reform our multilateral frameworks, fragmentation is all but inevitable.
And with fragmentation, confrontation can come.
Multilateral institutions will only survive if they are truly universal.
And I will therefore be carrying the same message to all these meetings – a strong call for reforms to bring our outdated multilateral institutions and frameworks in line with the economic and political realities of today’s world, based on equity and solidarity.
Taking each meeting in turn:
At the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, I will address two of the burning injustices of the climate crisis.
First, countries across the African continent have contributed almost nothing to global heating – and yet, they are on the frontlines of today’s super-charged storms, droughts and floods.
Second, many African governments struggle to invest in renewable energy when abundant resources – solar, wind, hydro power and critical minerals – are on their doorstep. High levels of debt and high interest rates obstruct their access to the needed finance.
We need global efforts to put Africa at the forefront of the renewables revolution.
From Nairobi, I will attend the 13th ASEAN-UN Summit in Indonesia.
ASEAN is well positioned to build bridges of understanding between countries and cultures at a time of raised tensions and risks between East and West.
My discussions will also focus on supporting ASEAN’s five-point plan and efforts to engage all sides of the conflict in Myanmar in dialogue, while stressing that the de facto authorities must release all detained leaders and political prisoners, and launch an inclusive process to return to the democratic institutions.
From Jakarta, I will go on to Delhi for the G20 Summit.
My message to the world’s biggest economies – that are the biggest emitters – is that as climate chaos gathers pace, the world is looking to them.
They need to step up, accelerating their reduction of emissions – they account for 80 per cent of them – and supporting countries that are already paying the price for decades of heating caused by fossil fuels.
G20 countries also need to look seriously into reform of global financial institutions, rules and frameworks, to adapt them to today’s realities and more effectively enable developing countries to access the resources they need to invest in the Sustainable Development Goals.
We must overcome the inequalities and divisions that blight our world today, including here at the United Nations.
Unless we act now, the Sustainable Development Goals could become an epitaph for a world that might have been.
This issue is vitally important to the G77 and China. At their summit in Cuba, I will focus on getting the 2030 Agenda back on track; using science and technology for good; and ensuring that multilateralism delivers for all countries.
I look forward to engaging with global leaders at these four very different summits before the world comes together for the opening of the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York.
Diplomacy is more important than ever to navigate the tensions of our emerging multipolar world.
Dialogue remains the only way to find joint approaches and common solutions to the global threats and challenges that we face.
Thank you.
**Questions and Answers
Spokesperson: Sherwin Bryce-Pease, South Africa.
Question: Secretary-General, Sherwin Bryce-Pease, South African Broadcasting. You just returned from the African continent. In the context of growing coups and growing intractable conflicts, I wonder what your reading of the situation is in Africa right now. We see a growing anti-Western sentiment. We see the foothold that has been created by the Wagner Group and, of course, the lack of development and the growing militant elements in the region. What’s your assessment of what is going on right now given the fact that the institutional reforms you are calling for are not going to happen overnight? You and I both know that. So what can be done in the interim? Does the world lack a muscular diplomacy that is required for this moment?
Secretary-General: I think on one hand, we need to strengthen our capacity to support the different African institutions, the African Union, the different regional organizations in their diplomatic efforts to bring peace, stability, and democracy to the African continent. But at the same time, we need to create the conditions to allow the Africans to address the root causes of the problems they face. And the most dramatic of those roots causes are in the lack of adequate development. Development is a central objective if we want to create conditions for peace and stability in Africa. And that is the reason why it is so important to advocate for the SDG Stimulus. It is so important to advocate for that relief. It’s so important to advocate for the re-channelling the special drawing rights. And it’s so important to advocate for reforming our international financial architecture to make it coincide to the power and economic relations of today’s world. If we have more equity, more justice in the way the global economy is run, Africa will enjoy better conditions to address the root causes of the many situations of political instability and, unfortunately, of the coupd’états that we have been witnessing.
Spokesperson: Michelle Nichols, Reuters.
Question: Thank you, Secretary-General. Michelle Nichols from Reuters. A question on the Black Sea grain deal. You wrote to Foreign Minister Lavrov earlier this week, I believe. What is contained in your new proposal to him to revive the Black Sea grain deal?
Secretary-General: We presented a set of concrete proposals in a letter I’ve sent to the Russian Foreign Minister. We presented a set of concrete proposals allowing to create the conditions for the renewal of the Black Sea Initiative. We believe that the Black Sea Initiative has given a very important contribution to make the food markets more adequate to our objectives of food security. It has brought down prices. It has created conditions for access to the global markets of many countries, namely the developing world. And we believe it would be extremely important to renew it. At the same time, we took into concern the Russian requests. And I believe we presented a proposal that could be the basis for a renewal, but a renewal that must be stable. We cannot have a Black Sea Initiative that moves from crisis to crisis, from suspension to suspension. We need to have something that works and that works to the benefit of everybody.
Question: Can you give us any details on those specific proposals?
Secretary-General: The proposal is relating to the need as I said to re-establish the Black Sea Initiative. And at the same time, we have some concrete solutions for the concerns allowing for a more effective access of Russian food and fertilizers to global markets at adequate prices. And I believe that working seriously, we can have a positive solution for everybody, for the Ukraine, for the Russian Federation. But more important than everything else, for the world in a moment in which so many countries are facing enormous difficulties in relation to guarantee the food security of their populations.
Spokesperson: Pam Falk, CBS.
Question: Thank you very much, Steph. Thank you, Secretary-General. It’s Pamela Falk from CBS News. Do you have hope for any breakthroughs with three weeks to go for the high-level General Assembly in terms of breakthroughs that would occur at the General Assembly with so many world leaders coming, such as peace in Ukraine, any talks you expect to have? Thank you.
Secretary-General: Hope never ends. But I would, of course, be lying if I would say that I believe that we are seeing in the immediate horizon a possibility of peace in Ukraine. I think that we are not yet there. And that is why it is so important to take measures to reduce the dramatically negative impacts of this war in relation to the world.
Spokesperson: Thank you very much. And we’ll see you for a press conference on the 13th.