Mauritania

In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful, And peace and blessings be upon the noblest of the messengers;

Mr. President; Your Majesties, Excellencies, and Highnesses; His Excellency Mr. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations; Excellencies and Honorable Ministers; Ladies and Gentlemen;

I would like at the outset to extend my warmest congratulations to His Excellency Mr. Philemon Yang on his assumption of the presidency of the seventy-ninth session of the United Nations General Assembly, wishing him every success in leading it. I also congratulate His Excellency Mr. Dennis Francis on the wisdom and high competence he demonstrated in presiding over the previous, seventy-eighth session.

I would also like to express my deep appreciation and gratitude for the efforts made by His Excellency the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. António Guterres, to develop our organization, as a genuine expression of our collective will to rise to the various challenges facing our world on the path to achieving comprehensive and sustainable development.

Your Majesties, Excellencies, and Highnesses; Ladies and Gentlemen;

The theme of this summit, calling for "working together to advance peace, sustainable development, and human dignity for current and future generations" without leaving anyone behind, powerfully and clearly encapsulates the goals and purposes of the United Nations Charter, while also reflecting our shared, deep awareness of the need to intensify our efforts and coordinate our cooperation to meet the challenges before us.

What our world has witnessed and continues to witness today, in terms of violent shocks and unprecedented crises across various fields, has considerably weakened our capacity, both individually and collectively, to fulfill the commitments we collectively pledged under the 2030 Agenda.

The current international situation has had a profoundly negative impact on efforts to achieve sustainable development, particularly on our African continent, which already suffers from structural and circumstantial imbalances and obstacles that hinder its development efforts and slow the pace of its progress toward achieving the harmonized 2030 and 2063 Agendas.

Our continent continues to suffer from poverty, fragility, and unemployment, as well as weak health and educational systems lacking in quality and inclusiveness, not to mention the spread of terrorism, armed conflicts, and the growing destructive effects of climate change.

The bleakness of this African picture strongly underscores the urgent need to alleviate the debt burden of African states and to correct the glaring imbalances in the vast system of development assistance, as well as in international political and financial governance, and to strengthen multilateral cooperation in general. All of this would help the continent achieve economic takeoff in a way that doubles the effectiveness of its efforts to fulfill the commitments its states have made, together with the international community, to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

We, in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, in fulfillment of this commitment, have made the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals a central objective, with all our public policies working in an integrated manner toward its realization.

We have managed, albeit modestly, to improve the indicators of many of the Sustainable Development Goals in our country, as reflected in the improvement of our ranking among nations in the 2024 UN Sustainable Development Report.

This is due only to the intensive efforts we have made to establish the rule of law and strong institutions, to promote democracy and individual and collective freedoms, to adopt dialogue and consultation as a permanent approach to managing public affairs, to support the independence of the judiciary, to embrace transparency, and to combat bribery and all forms of corruption, whether administrative or financial.

It is also thanks to our continued efforts to protect and promote human rights, through combating the vestiges of slavery and its modern forms, human trafficking, protecting the rights of women and children, and combating irregular migration and transnational crime.

In addition, with the help and strength of God, and thanks to the effective implementation of our integrated security strategy, we have been able to maintain security, peace, and stability, despite the violence, terrorism, and political and social turmoil prevalent in our regional and international environment.

We have also given great attention to the role of youth in advancing nations and driving the wheel of development and progress, focusing on developing plans and strategies to ensure their training, qualification, and integration into active life, and to strengthen their presence in various positions of public administration.

All of the foregoing has played a positive role in consolidating our national unity and strengthening our social cohesion, which we have worked to reinforce through intensive efforts to eliminate various forms of exclusion, injustice, and vulnerability, by building a broad and diverse social safety net aimed at easing the burden of daily life pressures on the poor, enhancing their resilience, and enabling them to access all public services.

We have also launched a promising reform process for our education system, aimed at establishing a republican school that embodies the values of equality and fairness, guaranteeing everyone equal access to high-quality education that serves as a lever for social advancement.

At the same time, we have doubled our efforts to expand and improve the provision of health services, ensure access to medicines, and established a fund to cover the costs of health insurance for citizens not covered by traditional insurance programs, in addition to providing free basic medical services, particularly for mothers, the elderly, and persons with disabilities.

Furthermore, aware of the negative repercussions of climate change and environmental challenges in general on our planet, as well as their economic and social impact with strong political and security implications, particularly on the African continent in general and the Sahel region in particular, we have worked to reduce carbon emissions by 11% and to raise the share of renewable energy in our total energy consumption to 50% by 2030. Our efforts in this field will be further reinforced by an extensive program to develop green hydrogen.

In addition to our efforts to promote clean energy, which today covers 48% of our total energy consumption, our country continues to combat desertification within the framework of the Great Green Wall Initiative and the Joint Committee to Combat the Effects of Drought in the Sahel region.

In this context, I would like to highly commend the outcomes of the 28th session of the Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP28), hosted by the United Arab Emirates at the end of last year, hoping that these environmental gains will be reinforced during the upcoming COP29 session to be hosted by Azerbaijan this year. We fully hope that industrialized nations will honor their commitments to reduce emissions and fulfill their pledges made at the Paris Summit in this regard.

Your Majesties, Excellencies, and Highnesses; Ladies and Gentlemen;

We, in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, hold a firm conviction that cooperation among states can only be fruitful and effective to the extent that it is based on friendship, trust, and mutual respect.

Accordingly, we have built our foreign policy on the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of states, working to strengthen international cooperation and friendship, maintaining international peace and security, and supporting just causes on the basis of international law and the charters of the United Nations, the African Union, the League of Arab States, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

In this context, we wish to affirm the following:

• Our strong condemnation of the genocidal war being waged by Israel against the defenseless Palestinian people, in flagrant violation of international law and international humanitarian law. We demand its immediate cessation and declare our commitment to the right of the Palestinian people to dignity and sovereignty within the framework of an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with the Arab Peace Initiative and the relevant international resolutions;

• Our condemnation and denunciation of the ongoing Israeli attacks on Lebanon, and our call for their immediate cessation;

• Our call for a solution that preserves the unity and sovereignty of brotherly Libya, and our insistence on strengthening African and international efforts in this regard;

• Our support for the security and stability of brotherly Sudan and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its lands, and our call for prioritizing dialogue and reason to resolve the issues at hand, in a manner that leads to an immediate cessation of the war, ends the humanitarian suffering of the brotherly Sudanese people, and ensures respect for international humanitarian law;

• Our commitment to earnestly pursuing a political solution that preserves the unity and independence of the brotherly Syrian Arab Republic, the dignity of its people, and their right to live in security and peace;

• Our support for legitimacy in brotherly Yemen and our call for pursuing peaceful solutions in accordance with Arab initiatives and relevant international resolutions;

• Our firm position on the conflict in Western Sahara, and our support for United Nations efforts and all relevant Security Council resolutions aimed at achieving a sustainable and mutually acceptable solution;

• Our concern over the continuation of the Russian-Ukrainian war, and our call for a solution that ends the war and takes into account the concerns of both parties in accordance with international law and the United Nations Charter, sparing the region and the world further tragedy and destruction.

Your Majesties, Excellencies, and Highnesses; Ladies and Gentlemen;

The Summit of the Future, which concluded yesterday, revealed the depth of our shared awareness of the magnitude of our collective responsibility toward our common future. It also confirmed, through the plans and measures adopted, that it remains within our power to make this future one of security, peace, prosperity, and comprehensive sustainable development that leaves behind no people and no nation.

Let us, therefore, strengthen trust among ourselves, intensify our multilateral cooperation, and accelerate the reform of our international political and financial governance frameworks, making them more just, balanced, and equitable. Only then, God willing, will we be able to rescue our planet from peril and secure a bright future for our current and future generations.

Thank you, and peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you.