Argentina

Mr. President:

The world is undergoing a time of change. A new era is dawning while humanity still bears the effects of a pandemic that ended the lives of fifteen million people, laying bare the inequality we face. Meanwhile, the climate crisis subjects our planet to all manner of harsh conditions. Cyclones, tornadoes, unexpected floods or extensive droughts end up affecting millions of human beings in every latitude of the planet. All of this is happening while a war drags on, claiming more human lives and unleashing an energy and food crisis of tremendous proportions.

While all these calamities unfold, we are witnessing a technological revolution that astonishes us. Robotization and the accelerated process of installing artificial intelligence compel us to rethink education, production processes and the preservation of employment. How to be capable of confronting change and harmonizing interests in this new scenario in which we find ourselves is the real challenge we face.

In addressing this Assembly, I feel obliged to speak with absolute frankness. The world's problems demand solutions. We have already diagnosed the problems. We cannot continue talking about them while we walk along a ledge. The risks of perpetuating this present are very high.

We have traveled half the road toward fulfilling the 2030 Agenda knowing that, as ECLAC points out, perhaps only a quarter of the goals will be achieved by that year.

This lack of a sense of a better future sows unease in the world that wants to develop and in which the poorest and most vulnerable people on the planet live.

It is impossible to want to achieve an equitable future while promoting the continuity of the very same logics that have generated the inequality in which we live.

International financial engineering shows itself to be abusive and untouched. How can sustainable development be achieved without financing to help make it happen?

The international financial system shows no willingness to adapt to a world that wants to recover lost equity. On the contrary, it only seeks to impose the same orthodox policies that have deepened inequality and misery in the world.

The global financial architecture only serves to concentrate income and marginalize vast regions of the world. It favors speculation over development. It fosters cheap labor over the dignity of work.

There is no more time for words. It is time to promote social justice in the world.

The International Monetary Fund cannot raise its interest rates every time the American Federal Reserve raises its rates to contain inflation in its own country. In that context, it is shameful that even today surcharges are applied to many countries for whom carrying the burden of external debt has already become unbearable. Ironically, they finance Ukraine in the midst of the war, and in the midst of the war they apply surcharges on the interest they charge it.

We need a new framework for dealing with sovereign debts that has development with social justice as its guiding star. Experience shows that when a people is suffocated by the eternal sentence of indebtedness, its strength wanes, social crises intensify, and debts become uncollectible.

We face the challenge of feeding a growing world population under critical climate conditions. Droughts or floods. Tornadoes or hail. All of this affects food production and supply. We know this from our own experience. Argentina lost more than 20 percent of its total exports due to the worst drought in the last 100 years. No less than three points of its Gross Domestic Product were wiped out.

We also know today that an international food market poisoned by financial speculation only facilitates greater profit for a few and instability and misery for millions of human beings.

To find a long-term solution to the problem of food security, it is crucial to have a fairer, more transparent, more equitable and more predictable international trading system for agricultural products. We must eliminate the distortions produced by subsidies, and we must prohibit food from being subject to financial speculation. Both of these things discourage the investments needed to increase production to help meet growing global food demand.

Argentina regards multilateralism as the best tool for finding shared solutions to common problems. It reflects our vocation to act in solidarity and cooperate in the pursuit of collective well-being.

Hegemonic proposals have only served to fuel distrust, drive arms races, and limit possibilities for economic and scientific-technological cooperation.

At the present juncture, as we know, the effects of more than a decade of accumulated crises converge, ranging from the effects of the 2008 financial collapse to the war unleashed by Russia in occupying Ukrainian territory.

The effects of that war are plain to see. In addition to the terrible humanitarian consequences, the armed conflict is generating historic levels of inflation on a global scale, with a particular impact on food and energy prices.

This present moment also registers tensions less attended to by public opinion, but which deeply affect international peace. As an example of what I am asserting, I highlight Azerbaijan's blockades of the Lachin Corridor, which have been causing a humanitarian crisis that once again punishes part of the Armenian people. Indeed, today, while this Assembly is being held, the news reports that Azerbaijan has launched military operations with the aim of taking control of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The international community cannot remain passive in the face of such a reality. It must act preventively to avoid new ethnic, racial, religious or political persecutions. As we have always done, we continue to call on the parties to find the sanity that will lead them to peace, and on the multilateral bodies to recover the strength they seem to have lost to enforce international rules.

The countries of the Global South have historically shared many views on the international system and on the responsibility that falls to multilateral bodies with regard to development, global peace and security, cooperation and decolonization.

I represent a country that this year celebrates the 40th anniversary of the restoration of democracy. A country that learned from its historical past to say NEVER AGAIN to human rights violations and that has promoted the right to Memory, Truth and Justice as a state policy.

We are proud of these four decades of uninterrupted democracy, in which the promotion and protection of human rights have been a fundamental part of the path traveled. Today UNESCO declared the ESMA Museum and Site of Memory a World Heritage Site, a clandestine center of detention, torture and extermination where the dictatorship perpetrated its greatest atrocities. By actively preserving the memory that the deniers wish to hide, we will prevent that time of pain from repeating itself. In the face of these crimes against humanity, our response was not vengeance but Justice.

Precisely because we know the horror involved in the disappearance of 30,000 human beings, I take this opportunity to reiterate the call to accede to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. We need more States committed to ensuring that this crime is completely eradicated.

The challenge before us is to consolidate and advance the rights agenda, which means achieving democracies with greater equity and equality among their citizens.

Human rights are integral and admit no kind of regression. If there is regression, the proponents of authoritarianism win and hate speech proliferates. In this way, democracies become delegitimized and the resulting crisis of representation ends up jeopardizing the institutional framework of the rule of law.

Preserving the rule of law is a shared view across our continent. That is why we view with concern what is happening in Guatemala. The international community must activate the relevant mechanisms to guarantee respect for the popular verdict.

The climate crisis is a reality that has altered temperatures and weather phenomena throughout the world, imposing restrictions and obstacles to development. It is imperative to resolve the problem without further delay by applying a fair, transparent, equitable multilateral environmental financing architecture, based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.

Argentina reaffirms its commitment to gender equality and diversity as an indispensable condition for growth and sustainable development at the national and international levels, with a human rights approach.

We have developed regulatory frameworks and public policies to promote equality for all women and diversities. Currently, our country is implementing the National Plan for Equality in Diversity.

As part of the integrationist vocation embodied in Mercosur and Unasur, over these four years we have set out to resume a path of integration with Latin America and the Caribbean and to strengthen dialogue with all our partners through political concertation, with a spirit of solidarity and cooperation.

As the construction of the European Union once was, the various instances of integration in Latin America and the Caribbean are a heritage that the region contributes to humanity in the pursuit of peace, cooperation and justice.

Our region faces a historic opportunity. It has the energy and the food that the world demands. Our development depends on our capacity to make the most of these resources. It is essential that we work together to carry out infrastructure projects that allow us to compete industrially from this region.

Argentina condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Its acts constitute a threat to peace, international security and human dignity. Terrorism must be fought within the framework of the rule of law and full respect for international law.

Argentina has ratified its commitment to the Inter-American Convention against Terrorism and to most of the international instruments on terrorism, seeking to implement all the measures contained therein as the most effective way to end this threat.

For our part, we continue fighting against impunity, investigating the attacks we suffered in 1992 against the Israeli Embassy and, in 1994, against the AMIA headquarters, which claimed the lives of 107 people and left hundreds injured. We want those responsible for such atrocious attacks to be identified, tried and convicted.

Once again, we urge the Islamic Republic of Iran to cooperate with the Argentine judicial authorities to move forward with the investigation into the AMIA attack. We also call on the international community to join us in this struggle by refraining from receiving or sheltering any of the accused, even when they hold diplomatic immunity. We must recall that international arrest warrants and Interpol Red Notices are pending against them.

Argentina firmly opposes the use of unilateral coercive measures and the adoption of discriminatory trade practices. The perpetuation of the blockade against Cuba is inadmissible.

Year after year, this General Assembly demands, by an overwhelming majority, the need to put an end to that blockade. Likewise, we once again request the removal of Cuba from the list of countries that allegedly sponsor international terrorism.

In the same way, the sanctions imposed by the United States on Venezuela must cease immediately. Their prolongation over time has only harmed the living conditions of its people and driven millions of Venezuelans into exile, emigrating from their homeland in search of a better life.

I also wish to reaffirm the legitimate and imprescriptible sovereignty rights of the Argentine Republic over the Malvinas Islands, South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas. They form an integral part of Argentine national territory and have been illegally occupied by the United Kingdom for almost two centuries. In accordance with the resolutions of this General Assembly and its Special Committee on Decolonization, the way to resolve the colonial situation of the Islands is through sovereignty negotiations between Argentina and the United Kingdom.

We regret that the United Kingdom continues to refuse to resume negotiations. We question its continued unilateral exploration and exploitation of natural resources in the disputed area, in contradiction of this Assembly's resolution 31/49, as well as its military presence in the South Atlantic.

Argentina maintains a firm commitment to the peaceful resolution of this anachronistic colonial situation. We have proposed to the United Kingdom a renewed bilateral agenda on the South Atlantic involving a formal process of dialogue that includes, among other matters, the question linked to the resumption of sovereignty negotiations. We have also expressed our willingness to continue the work of identifying former combatants, within the framework of the obligations arising from International Humanitarian Law and for the purpose of offering answers and comfort to the families. Unfortunately, the United Kingdom rejected our proposal.

Nonetheless, Argentina reiterates its request to the Secretary-General that, within the framework of his good offices, he redouble his efforts to bring both parties to the negotiating table.

The motto of the 2030 Agenda is that no one should be left behind. That no one should permanently lose the path to justice and development.

We are convinced that this is a noble objective that holds true for individuals and for peoples alike. But please, let us not turn it into a dead letter. Afterward, repentance does not repair ruined lives, lives without a future, lost lives.

Thank you very much.