Spain

Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General, Heads of State and Government, Ambassadors, Delegates,

I speak on behalf of a country committed to the values that this institution embodies and to an international order based on the rules and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations.

A country, Spain, that believes in international mechanisms of accountability. That fights against impunity from the standpoint of experience and historical memory; a defender of institutions such as the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, which are fundamental to peace, security, justice and reparation for victims.

A country that acts and conducts itself according to a fundamental principle: the value of consistency. That leads us to say the same thing about Ukraine, about Gaza and about any other place: defense of peace, of human rights and of a rules-based international order. And that, faced with the doubts of others, responds with greater confidence in multilateralism.

That same multilateral system, the one that the world built piece by piece from the ashes of barbarism, is today under enormous pressure. A pressure that fully impacts three aspirations essential for the progress of nations: peace, democracy and development.

Three aspirations that cannot be achieved separately, one without the others. Peace is incompatible with tyranny.

And democracy, in turn, needs to provide wellbeing and development in order to legitimize itself as what it is: the most advanced form of social and political organization that humankind has created in history.

Peace without democracy is the peace of prisons. Democracy without development or progress is the antechamber of autocracy, as attested by a past rich in lessons that we should never forget.

Working actively for peace—the first of these three aspirations—is today much more than a moral imperative. It is an existential necessity.

For the first time in two decades, the number of conflicts is increasing. The number of countries involved in wars beyond their borders is growing, to levels unprecedented since 1945.

The number of victims, of wounded, of maimed and displaced persons is rising. And so is the economic impact of violence: up to 13% of global GDP, according to some studies.

That is, the equivalent of all the wealth created in one year by 180 countries combined.

These figures not only give voice to a great collective failure. They are evidence of a global disease that is eroding both the foundations of the multilateral system and those of an international order based on principles and rules. Principles that, until recently, seemed inviolable: respect for sovereignty, political independence and territorial integrity of countries.

This is happening in Ukraine at this very hour, while we are here. Thirty-one months have passed since the beginning of an aggression that Putin's Russia is directing not only against the Ukrainian people, but against the entire international community.

An aggression that should not continue for a single day longer.

The recent Conference on Peace in Ukraine, held in Switzerland, has laid the groundwork for building a just and lasting peace, respectful of international law and the Charter of the United Nations, as proclaimed by President Zelensky's Peace Formula.

I invite all countries that have not yet done so to join this initiative, and to work on the next step: the recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine. This year, Spain will increase humanitarian and demining funding to 14 million euros, and in 2025 Spanish cooperation will incorporate a specific line of work on recovery and reconstruction, focused on health, energy and water.

This is happening in Palestine, where, for almost a year now, we have witnessed an unbearable spiral of death and devastation that has now spread to Lebanon. This represents an escalation of the conflict of the utmost gravity. We firmly condemn the death of innocent civilians and I therefore wish to make a renewed call for de-escalation and easing of tensions. International law and international humanitarian law must be respected.

Only by putting an end to the war in Gaza and addressing the root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will we be able to successfully resolve the rest of the regional hotspots of instability.

Everything we see daily in Gaza, and now in Lebanon, makes us reflect on the very validity of international humanitarian law, precisely as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions.

Spain will continue to devote all its efforts to humanitarian aid for the population, with UNRWA as a key actor on the ground. However, everything will be insufficient without a ceasefire. I make a renewed call to achieve a ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and access for humanitarian aid.

In any case, the evidence is unequivocal: we cannot go back to the previous situation. It is imperative and urgent to implement the two-State solution, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security. This is the only possible solution to a conflict that has lasted decades and has claimed so many innocent lives. Moreover, the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, requested by this General Assembly, has established the illegality of the occupation of the Palestinian territories. An occupation that must end immediately.

The time has come to work on the stabilization phase, which can only fall to the government of the Palestinian Authority, which Spain is committed and determined to support and strengthen.

Ladies and gentlemen, Spain made the decision to recognize the State of Palestine this past May 28. It is a decision shared by the vast majority of Spanish society, and one that seeks only to contribute to the search for peace in the region. A longing that goes back a long way.

In 1949, a Spaniard, Pablo de Azcárate, served as the first representative of the United Nations mediator in Palestine. Even today, it is moving to read his notes on that mission, filled with bitterness in the face of the catastrophe he sensed was coming. Azcárate was an exile. A Spanish republican, prevented by a dictatorship from returning to his homeland. Perhaps that is why he empathized like no one else with the suffering of that land.

His figure today well deserves to be honored in this house, 75 years after those events.

Before this year ends, Spain and Palestine will hold the first Intergovernmental Meeting to expand and deepen our bilateral relationship. I also want to highlight the importance of the recent meeting in Madrid of the Euro-Arab/Islamic Group to advance the peace process and bring about the two-State solution. There is an urgent need to hold a peace conference with the parties and the international community, supported today by more than 90 countries. A peace conference that would restore that spirit of dialogue that Madrid hosted in the early 1990s, when Israelis and Palestinians sat down together at the same table to negotiate.

In as complex a context as this one, I want to reaffirm Spain's commitment and unconditional contribution, as evidenced by the nearly 670 Spanish troops deployed in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon under the command of a Spanish general.

The work of peace missions is instrumental in many other settings, such as Western Sahara, where Spain will continue to support the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in reaching a mutually acceptable solution within the framework of the United Nations.

But it is clear that, beyond peace missions, we must address the underlying causes of conflicts, as pointed out in the Secretary-General's New Agenda for Peace, which Spain firmly supports.

In this regard, the Indo-Pacific has become a center of gravity, and we must all contribute to maintaining peace in the region and demand respect for basic principles of international law such as freedom of navigation at sea. Spain is ready to cooperate in maintaining stability and security there.

While this turbulent panorama may lead us to discouragement, we can look to the European project as an example of hope. No one would have imagined that in just a few decades the geopolitical landscape in Europe would change so radically. And that is why, as part of the European Union, Spain is committed to this agenda for peace.

In December 2020, Spain and the United Kingdom reached a bilateral understanding regarding Gibraltar in the framework of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union.

We have continued working intensively since then, now with the new British government, so that this understanding may lay the groundwork for a future relationship between this territory and the European Union, trusting that an agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom on Gibraltar can be reached as soon as possible. This agreement must fully respect the United Nations doctrine on this territory, with which Spain fully aligns itself.

And it must also fully respect my country's legal position regarding sovereignty and jurisdiction in relation to it. We wish to work toward the development of a prosperous social and economic area encompassing the entire space of Gibraltar, and also the Campo de Gibraltar.

Alongside threats to peace, the world faces a real risk of democratic backsliding. This is the second aspiration I wish to address.

Rights that were thought to be firmly established are today being questioned or reversed. A global reactionary agenda is gaining ground, fueled by distrust in institutions, polarization and the invocation of an invented past, as false as its proclamations.

Democracy is fighting a battle for its survival. And let us be clear: it continues to lose ground to its enemies. Democracy cannot hope to win this battle with one hand tied behind its back.

Because it faces unscrupulous people: activists of lies, hoaxes and hatred, ready to split societies in two in order to impose their regressive agenda.

It is essential to raise a shield to protect democratic institutions from those who seek to deliberately undermine them. It is no longer enough to proclaim the moral superiority of democracy. It is necessary to acknowledge mistakes and work for its internal regeneration, for example by strengthening transparency and accountability.

And by making citizens feel that democracy is something close to them, something of their own, something alive.

Spain will promote this vision through our co-chairmanship of the Open Government Partnership, which will hold its ninth Global Summit in October of next year in Vitoria.

In such a context, the relationship between the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean takes on renewed significance. These are two regions called upon to work together with a shared vision of the world.

The situation in Venezuela, following the elections of July 28, is enormously worrying. I want to reiterate once again Spain's unwavering commitment to democracy and the defense of human rights in that country, and to condemn any detention or threat against political leaders. It is imperative that the will of the Venezuelan people be respected, with a count of the electoral results carried out in conditions of total transparency.

I am convinced that we need more common spaces for dialogue. That is why Spain supports the holding of the next Ibero-American Summit in November in Cuenca, Ecuador. And we will host the thirtieth Ibero-American Summit in 2026.

Spain will also continue to pursue a feminist foreign policy. Out of consistency, and because, above all, to speak of feminism is to speak of human rights.

Today I want to say loud and clear that the time is now. Both the Secretary-Generalship and the Presidency of this Assembly, in the next renewal of these positions, should go to women. Spain supports and will firmly support gender alternation in this organization and will work to put an end to a situation that is simply unacceptable.

For peace and democracy to prevail, it is essential to advance the third aspiration I referred to at the beginning: the sustainable development agenda.

Democracy, like peace, is legitimized by results: by its capacity to provide wellbeing, to combat inequality in all its forms, to advance social justice, to promote human dignity.

But it is not only about meeting material needs in the present. It is about doing so without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own. It is about our sons and daughters. It is about linking development and sustainability as an existential necessity, not merely as a moral imperative.

I am not going to give a fatalistic speech about the climate emergency. You are well aware of its impact, for example, on the increase in migratory flows and the cost of inaction. But I refuse to fall into the melancholy of one who considers the battle lost. I will not do so.

Science is the answer. A science that puts the human being at the center of its concerns. And science reminds us that there is only one alternative: eliminating fossil fuels, more renewable energy and greater energy efficiency.

If we follow that roadmap, there is not only light at the end of the tunnel; there are great opportunities for development and substantial improvements in global competitiveness.

I know this from my own experience. More than half of the electric power my country produced last year came from renewable sources. At this point in the year, that volume exceeds 60%. Behind those figures there is much more than clean, cheap and accessible energy for millions of households. There are more and better jobs in emerging sectors.

That is why it is so important to strengthen international financing for development: to turn it into a genuine lever of prosperity for the countries that need it. Spain is a country that knows that in order for its 48 million inhabitants to be able to aspire to a better future, we must work so that the 8 billion inhabitants of our planet can have a decent life.

We have avenues from which to act to achieve a deep reform and modernization of international financial institutions and multilateral development banks.

But we must go further. It is imperative to move toward fairer and more inclusive mechanisms, to address the debt problem, to mobilize more sources of financing and, ultimately, to guarantee more aid to those who need it most. We must implement more effective, transparent and fair tax policies that boost the mobilization of domestic resources, including a global minimum tax on great fortunes and the full implementation of the two pillars of the OECD and the G20 on the taxation of multinationals as a basis for a future Framework Convention on Tax Cooperation.

We will have the opportunity to make progress at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, to be hosted by the city of Seville in June 2025. A key event to demonstrate that we are capable of updating our multilateral system to meet the demands of today's challenges. A unique opportunity to accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals: combating poverty, ending hunger, eradicating AIDS or putting an end to discrimination against women and girls, among others.

It is hard to believe, but even today we hear delirious speeches that criticize such noble aims and see ideological impositions where there is nothing but common sense and humanity. Speeches that dismiss this clearly human agenda as a construct of globalist elites. It is the madness of the times we live in.

Spain will be a voice of common sense and will work to ensure that the negotiation process is transparent and inclusive, fostering consensus in order to achieve tangible results.

We will bring to the table the value of our recent experience in reforming the development cooperation system; and with the goal—which I wish to make public today—of increasing our contribution to the United Nations system by at least 25% for the 2025-2027 period.

Within this vision, Africa holds a preferential place for Spain. And I am convinced that it should also hold one for the entire international community.

Not only because of its status as an indispensable partner in facing great challenges, but because there are no more excuses left. The time has come for the African continent to occupy the place it deserves.

That is the spirit driving our new Strategy for Africa. It is not just about strengthening ties with the countries of the region, but about recognizing that our prosperity, security and progress are intensely linked to the inclusive prosperity, security and progress of the entire region.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Humanity faces old challenges such as those I have briefly mentioned. But new ones are also emerging, such as the one posed by the expansion of Artificial Intelligence. As so often in the past, the emergence of a disruptive advance generates fear and distrust. This is not the first time. The invention of writing, some said, would destroy knowledge preserved through memory.

The printing press would limit the depth of thought. Even electricity was seen as a silent killer in the peace of the home. Every disruption is overwhelming. What makes the difference is our capacity to rein in the course of progress. To combine progress with the essential ethics needed for this great leap that will change the world.

A few days ago we learned of the seven key recommendations from the Secretary-General's High-level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence governance. We must support these recommendations and continue moving forward with this common effort, to ensure that decisions on Artificial Intelligence do not remain in the hands of a few, and that its development takes place ethically and responsibly, for the benefit of all humanity.

And, in the face of the apostles of disaster, the data tell us that we know how to do it.

In little more than half a century, infant mortality has fallen from 50% to 4% worldwide.

The number of university students has doubled in just two decades.

The presence of women holding seats in parliaments has reached 27%, double what it was in 1990.

And the world has doubled its installed solar power capacity in four years, while energy produced from fossil fuels is drastically declining.

Let us not accept as inevitable the onset of a new era of violence and wars.

The future is a relatively recent conquest for humanity. Having the capacity to look ahead, to set priorities and to think about what is to come is a privilege that modernity has given us. Let us honor that task by looking to the horizon without fear and with hope.

Let us commit to a refounding of multilateralism that will allow us to leave our sons and daughters a future better than our present. Let us do so with creativity, with boldness, with enthusiasm and with the ambition that our times demand.

Thank you very much.