France

Mr. President of the General Assembly, Ladies and Gentlemen Heads of State and Government, Ladies and Gentlemen Ministers, Excellencies Ambassadors,

It is an honour for me to bring before you the voice of France.

I do so keenly aware of how much this common Assembly, this Assembly of all our nations, is our shared possession. Here, Nations have decided to freely unite their destinies and to act for the common good.

It is in this spirit that I address you. The spirit of those who, nearly eight decades ago, sought, amid the rubble of the world, to bring relations between States into a new era.

An era in which everyone understands that defending one's interests requires respecting shared principles.

An era in which everyone understands that today's strong may be tomorrow's weak.

An era in which law constrains power.

An era in which the common challenges of Humanity are finally met together, and not through a policy of every man for himself.

It is this spirit of the United Nations that animates France's international action—the spirit of a power confident in its principles, in solidarity with others, and always ready to act collectively for the common good.

1/ What are our principles?

They are those that this Assembly reaffirmed by overwhelming majorities when it condemned Russian aggression against Ukraine, already on three occasions. Nothing—morally or legally—can ever justify invading a neighbouring territory, attempting annexations through unworthy manoeuvres, and subjecting its population to torment.

France defends the simple principles of equality among States, respect for their territorial integrity and their sovereignty—principles on which no one can or should compromise.

France also defends the principle of food security. Who can believe, despite the confusion and propaganda that some are all too eager to spread, that whoever destroys grain and grain silos has the slightest interest in global food security, when in fact he is its enemy?

What we are witnessing is an expression of pure brutality, capable of using every weapon, even hunger, to try to resurrect its imperialist chimera.

Faced with this, others—including France—are acting concretely.

Acting by financing WFP deliveries for the benefit of the most fragile countries.

Acting by facilitating the export of Ukrainian grain through the European Union's solidarity corridors.

Acting by financing, throughout the world, ambitious programmes for the development of local agriculture or in support of school canteens.

France also defends the principle of the inviolability of nations' historical heritage, this legacy of humanity's cultures. In Mosul and Timbuktu yesterday, in Odessa today, or in Lviv, France everywhere supports the actions of those who defend the historical treasures of countries threatened with being overwhelmed by hatred.

Finally, and of course, France supports the principle of fighting impunity for crimes.

Our support for the International Criminal Court is expressed everywhere: in the Sahel, to prosecute the jihadists whom France had made yield yesterday and who once again threaten an entire region; in Ukraine, of course, where war crimes are committed daily against the population.

What is at stake in Ukraine concerns us all. If we allow our shared principles to be violated there, they will be violated everywhere; if we allow aggression to be rewarded, others will follow, there or elsewhere.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

2/ Russia's war of aggression is also a blow struck against the most vulnerable countries. It imposes on us today a redoubled duty of solidarity.

In 2022, France became the fourth largest contributor to this solidarity effort, joining three friendly powers: the United States, Japan, and Germany. This is the result of patient investment that I am proud to present to you.

France stands in solidarity with those threatened by hunger.

The appeal launched a few days ago to preserve agricultural infrastructure, the massive increase in our food aid to 900 million euros benefiting 67 countries—including, again this week, Nigeria and Sudan—the upcoming hosting of the School Meals Coalition in Paris on 18 and 19 October, and the replenishment conference for the International Fund for Agricultural Development in December, with a target of 2 billion dollars, all bear witness to this.

Our solidarity effort also aims to enable everyone's access to the financing needed to fight poverty and to support energy transitions, in line with the United Nations' ambitious agenda for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

The President of the French Republic thus took the initiative of convening the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact, held in Paris on 22 and 23 June, which made it possible to chart a path for raising public and private financing to the scale of the challenge of international solidarity.

This summit produced immediate positive results, such as the signing of a Just Energy Transition Partnership (JET-P) with Senegal, and the agreement reached on Zambia's debt.

Commitments for which France has been working for years were able to be fulfilled.

This is the case, for example, with the reallocation of 100 billion in Special Drawing Rights.

The "Paris Pact for People and the Planet," which emerged from this summit, sets out clear principles for confronting poverty, climate change, and biodiversity loss all at once and head-on, ensuring that no country has to choose between these objectives.

I call on all States that have not yet done so to endorse this Pact.

Our solidarity effort is also that of a country that has exceeded its climate financing commitments by more than one billion euros, raising them to 7.6 billion euros in 2022.

It is that of a country that will continue to work tirelessly to protect the lungs of our planet.

Our country will host, in June 2025, the United Nations Ocean Conference, which it will co-organize with Costa Rica in order to strengthen, as much as possible, the protection of this essential carbon sink.

I count on your support, as well as your support for our commitment to protect forests and to build partnerships for their conservation.

It is that of a country that will always be committed to promoting and defending human rights.

Next December, we will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in Paris and in Geneva.

This will be an opportunity to pay tribute to those who fight to defend rights and freedoms, to safeguard human dignity—rights to which we all aspire, at every latitude.

I think of women's rights, particularly in Afghanistan, where women are repressed as such by a Taliban regime that has tragically placed a policy of segregation and violence against women at the heart of its political identity.

Our solidarity also goes out to those who commit themselves to others, sometimes at the risk of their own lives.

I think of the Blue Helmets, and I also think of the 116 humanitarian workers who were killed, and those who were wounded or kidnapped in 2022. We must better protect them, and France will remain fully mobilized alongside them, as I did this week with our humanitarian partners.

3/ Strong in its principles, France will always stand ready for collective action in the service of the common good.

On the climate front, we see today what disasters our lack of ambition could produce. Fires, storms, and floods have marked this year, everywhere in the world, causing tens of thousands of victims. The latest IPCC report and the stocktake conducted ahead of COP28 must alarm us.

We cannot look away. On the contrary, we must act, act quickly, and act collectively in the face of these shared challenges, which spare no nation on this planet.

It is urgent, but it is possible.

For this, we have a method. A proven method that has enabled us to achieve results in the past.

It is the method of the Montreal Protocol, which allowed humanity to solve the problem of the ozone layer.

It is the method we deployed to reach, together, the Paris Agreement in 2015.

It is also this method that must bring into force, as soon as possible, the "BBNJ" treaty to protect marine areas, and again the method that will allow us to achieve the ambitious objectives of the Kunming-Montreal Agreement on biodiversity and to adopt a legally binding agreement to eliminate plastic pollution.

This method—the only one worth pursuing to move beyond mere awareness and act with resolve, commitment, and responsibility—is multilateralism.

And in the face of climate destruction, in the face of the demolition of our natural habitat, in the face of the widespread impoverishment of our biodiversity, you can count on France to remain proactive.

The multilateral method is also the one that will enable us to resolve the international crises that are multiplying.

In Nagorno-Karabakh, the international community must ensure that a population subjected to nine months of an implacable blockade, and recovering from a campaign of bombardment and destruction, can finally see its rights and security guaranteed. A diktat imposed on a besieged civilian population cannot be a solution, while the threats made against Armenia itself, and the violations of its territory already observed, must cease.

In Africa, we believe in African solutions to African crises, and we are prepared to support African regional organizations whenever they seek our support. We are doing so in Niger, where France supports ECOWAS in its efforts to restore a constitutional order that has been challenged by force.

In Sudan, a deadly war has been raging for more than five months. Civilians are the first victims of an atrocious and unacceptable conflict.

It is the duty of the international community to continue, tirelessly, to seek solutions for peace. We once again call on the belligerents to cease fighting and to spare civilians, to allow for a humanitarian truce, and to bring about an inclusive political solution.

Nor can we grow accustomed to the conflict in eastern DRC, which for so long has rested on the same drivers and claimed the same victims. There too, France is supporting regional conflict-resolution mechanisms, to facilitate a negotiated and peaceful solution.

In Africa, we believe in African solutions to African crises, and we support African regional organizations whenever they request the backing of their partners.

We are doing so in Niger, where France supports ECOWAS in its efforts to restore a constitutional order that has been challenged by force, ever since the democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, faced an attempted coup.

France is and will remain a reliable and steadfast ally of African regional organizations as they fight for peace, for development, for democracy, and for the security of the continent.

In a Middle East that is being reshaped, France is also playing its part, tirelessly supporting dialogue and cooperation. At the invitation of our Iraqi partner, we will take part, on 30 November next, in the third so-called "Baghdad Conference," in this unprecedented format for dialogue among all the countries of the region. The aim will be to work on concrete projects in the region, in response to the clear need for cooperation among these countries.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,

France, true to its tradition, will be present so that together, our United Nations, we can confront global challenges, threats to international peace and security, and violations of our shared principles.

To this end, the Secretary-General, António Guterres, can count on France's unwavering support.

Now is the time to act, together, for the good of all.

Thank you.