As we gather for the seventy-seventh opening of the General Assembly, the unique and indispensable convening power of the United Nations is evident for all of us to see. Having listened to addresses and statements from leaders from around the world, it is equally clear that the Charter of the United Nations continues to inspire and fill us with hope for a better world.
And, still, our world is in crisis. We are, in the words of the Secretary-General, “gridlocked in colossal global dysfunction” (A/77/PV.4, p. 2). Six months ago, war erupted again in Europe. Unprovoked, Russia attacked Ukraine, a neighbour shared by Russia and Europe. The military aggression is a vicious onslaught on the people of Ukraine. Their resilience and bravery in the face of brutality is awe-inspiring.
Throughout the week, we have heard many perspectives on the Russian aggression. We have heard the concerns of fellow Member States geographically remote from the war, worried about being caught in the middle of a new Cold War. And we have heard the despair over the consequences on food supplies and energy prices worldwide. We acknowledge those concerns, but we also feel the need to stress that they are caused by the Russian aggression, not by international sanctions.
Importantly, we have heard no one — apart from a few self-interested voices — denying the obvious: that Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is a direct violation of the United Nations Charter. Let me therefore be clear: Russia’s invasion of a neighbouring State, President Putin’s blatant imperial ambitions and his horrifying allusions to using nuclear weapons are unprecedented threats against not only Europe, but international peace and security. We are extremely concerned.
So, yes, we rally fellow States Members of the United Nations to take a stand for the territorial integrity of Ukraine, just as Denmark has stood up in support of the independence and sovereignty of other nations throughout the history of the United Nations, against apartheid and for decolonization. This is an appeal to all Member States to stand firmly on the side of the United Nations Charter, to fight back against an international disorder where might makes right.
We appeal to the rest of the world to see Russia’s aggression for what it is: an attempt to expand its own territory by force, which is completely unacceptable, not just to European neighbours, who rightly worry that we could be next in line if Putin has his way in Ukraine, but also for all who believe in the sanctity of the Charter and the principles of territorial integrity and the political independence of sovereign States. We appeal for the understanding of the General Assembly as a whole: that a war in our backyard, initiated by a permanent member of the Security Council and a nuclear Power, and the resulting influx of millions of Ukrainian refugees to Europe, will obviously exhaust a great deal of our resources and political focus. That will inevitably be the case until the territorial integrity of Ukraine is restored and respected.
Nonetheless, we do not neglect other crises and global challenges. We know that our other joint challenges remain and have in many cases been aggravated by Russian acts of aggression. The most pressing crises of our time are all truly global. Climate, pandemic, violent conflict, instability, forced displacement, food insecurity — we feel them everywhere, regardless of where we live, in our everyday lives, as the price of food and energy rises, inequality increases and extreme weather and climate-induced disasters hit.
Yet, even as those events affect us all, there is no doubt that they are felt most strongly by the most vulnerable, the most fragile and the poorest among us. Developing countries are — unfairly and unjustly — hit the hardest by the global crises of our time. That was and is clearly the case with the coronavirus disease. The lingering repercussions of the pandemic continue to inflict human and economic wounds on societies in the global South.
Collectively, we must do more to address both the problems at hand and the fundamental imbalances of the world we share. And we must do it now, for the sake of both current and future generations. None of us can steer through pandemics or counter the climate crisis alone, and neither should we.
In the twenty-first century, it is — or rather, it should be — clear to us all that the future we share depends on solidarity and on our ability to address and overcome the fault lines and divisions that increasingly drive us apart. Solidarity is an investment in prosperity, in security, in peace. Denmark is one of very few countries that lives up to the United Nations official development assistance target of 0.7 per cent, and we have done so for more than 40 years.
More than anything, today we need climate solidarity. The industrialized world must acknowledge its responsibility to deliver on the climate crisis. Climate solidarity means climate financing. As Denmark strives to reduce its own footprint, we have made major global commitments on climate adaptation and climate financing. We have massively scaled up Danish grant-based climate financing to at least $500 million a year by 2023. We are dedicating 60 per cent to adaptation in poor and vulnerable countries. And we are strengthening our efforts to mobilize public and private financing from other sources. In total, Denmark aims to contribute at least 1 per cent of the collective target of $100 billion dollars — way above our relative share — and we call on others to follow and to do so urgently. If a small country like Denmark can, the Group of 20 also can.
We also need to step up and listen to those affected the most by climate-induced damages. We were proud to be the first contributor to the Santiago Network for Averting, Minimizing and Addressing Loss and Damage at the twenty-sixth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 26), and this week we have followed up with several new initiatives for those hardest hit and the world’s poorest. As we look towards COP 27, Denmark will also be among the founding members of the Systems Observations Financing Facility — an initiative taken by Secretary-General Guterres to ensure that early- warning services reach everyone in the next five years. It is a small step, but it is important, because it will make a difference in the lives of people and societies living on the brink.
The United Nations most essential task is to save the world from the scourge of war. That might sound like a lofty ideal, but in essence it is about providing space for difficult conversations, restoring trust and finding spaces for common ground on those issues where we stand far apart. The United Nations needs to deliver on that, but the United Nations is all of us, and the United Nations is only as good as what we as Member States put into it. We all need to put in the work and take responsibility to ensure that the trenches between us do not grow deeper. There is no free ride on multilateralism. We must not neglect to maintain and protect the global common that the United Nations is. Denmark is ready to do its part.
Just a few hours ago, Denmark announced that it is running for a seat on the Security Council for the period of 2025 to 2026. If elected to the Security Council, Denmark will do all it can to help ensure that the Council fulfils its vital mandate of maintaining international peace and security. As a small country with a long history of global engagement and international solidarity, Denmark takes pride in being a bridge builder. We know — simply by virtue of our smallness — that if we want to achieve anything, we must work with others. And we must do so on the basis of partnership and dialogue. We pursue cooperation where all voices are heard. We seek honest conversations with partners about the challenges we face. And we work to find ways of confronting them together. That is the spirit of cooperation, and we hope to bring that spirit also to the Security Council.
Our candidature is a natural extension of our long-standing and unwavering commitment to multilateralism in general and to the United Nations in particular. We all need a United Nations-system that is fit for the future and able to deliver effectively for today. Denmark is a long-time advocate for United Nations reforms — both at the highest level and in everyday workings of the Organization. We championed the reform of the United Nations development system. We continue to support the implementation of the reforms, both financially and politically.
Earlier this week, we launched the Pledge to Predictable Payments initiative. It is a small, yet pragmatic step, paving the way for a United Nations that is better able to act. We urge all delegations to help the United Nations help us all, by recommitting to the goal of making our payment patterns predictable and transparent. Giving the United Nations that predictable and transparent ability is a small act with no cost to us as individual Member States, but it is of significant value to the United Nations ability to serve us.
The United Nations, however, also needs more fundamental reform. In particular, it needs a Security Council that better reflects the world of today. During the seventy-sixth session of the General Assembly, Denmark co-facilitated the intergovernmental negotiations on
Security Council reform. We will continue to advocate for reform towards a more accountable, representative, transparent and effective Council.
That also means that, even as we call on fellow Member States to stand up for the Charter of the United Nations and its universal principles and aspirations, we must not settle for simply defending the status quo. We need to do more. We need to do better. And we need to do it together.
The good news is that we know what needs to be done. The Secretary-General has presented us with a sobering analysis of the state of the world in Our Common Agenda (A/75/982) and presented a clear path forward. Denmark fully supports the Secretary- General’s vision and remains unwavering in its commitment to a revitalized multilateralism with the United Nations at its centre. We look forward to working with fellow Member States in translating that vision into reality. And we will do our part to ensure that we — as a collective — make the most of the upcoming sister summits: the Sustainable Development Goal summit in September 2023 and the Summit of the Future in 2024, because those two agendas — the 2030 Agenda and Our Common Agenda — are mutually reinforcing.
The twin agendas and the sister summits provide us not only with a sense of direction, but also with the tools to get there if we work together. Moving forward together on the twin agendas of those summits provides a way out of the current gridlock of global dysfunction, a way for us to live up to the expectations of future generations.
And let us not forget that this remains the decade of action, so let us act.