The year
2014 is a special one for Europeans — a special year
of commemoration. In the summer 100 years ago,
European diplomacy failed and the world slid into the
First World War. Seventy-five years ago, Germany
attacked its neighbour Poland, plunging the world into
the Second World War. Twenty-five years ago, the
Berlin Wall fell, bringing an end to the world’s decades-
long division into East and West.
However, merely to look back and remember would
not be enough in this year of commemoration. On the
contrary, we must ask ourselves: what have we learned
for the future? The most important lesson learned
from that history was the establishment of the United
Nations, for the United Nations embodies the world’s
hope for peace. That hope derives from an idea which
is as simple as it is revolutionary: there is peace when
the world sets rules for itself and replaces the law of
force with the force of law, when conflicts are resolved
at the negotiating table and not on the battlefield, when
the world renounces, step by step, the cynical logic of
violence.
To date, the United Nations has provided a universal
foundation for the hope for peace. But that universality
is under threat from the ghosts of the past and from new
demons.
In 2014 our world seems to be unraveling. Crises are
coming at us thick and fast. That is why it is not enough
simply to call upon the United Nations. No, we need to
breathe life into that call. Hope will remain but a hope,
an unattainable goal, unless States are prepared to take
on responsibility. The United Nations is not a forum
onto which we can shrug off responsibility. The United
Nations is a forum whereby we assume responsibility.
Germany, embedded in a united Europe, is prepared
to take on responsibility in and with the United Nations.
First and foremost we have a responsibility to the people
bearing the brunt of the suffering in the crises.
Next month Germany will host a conference in
Berlin to mobilize urgently needed humanitarian
assistance for the millions of Syrian refugees. My
country will play its part, and I sincerely hope that
many others will follow suit. Support is needed above
all by Syria’s neighbours. They are doing a tremendous
job but are also under tremendous strain due to the huge
influx of displaced persons and refugees from Syria.
The Ebola epidemic is raging in West Africa.
It is bringing suffering and death into the homes of
individual families. It is endangering the cohesion
of entire societies. That is why we are sending
humanitarian and medical assistance and setting up an
airlift to the region. I am delighted that many volunteers
in my country have responded to the call, saying, “I
want to go there to help on the spot”.
Above and beyond the immediate solidarity,
however, we need a long-term commitment. We need
the expertise of the World Health Organization and
the coordinating umbrella of the United Nations,
particularly in the long term as we try to strengthen
States and health-care systems. Germany will contribute
to both of those goals. We cannot bring the dead back to
life, but we may be able to prevent far too many more
people dying of Ebola who ought not to be dying if they
were treated. And we must certainly make sure that the
next epidemic does not have consequences as deadly as
the one we are still fighting.
If we are to move towards the hope of peace, we need
many small steps — the commitment of individuals,
bilateral diplomacy and regional initiatives. But none
of that can replace the United Nations. Only the United
Nations can provide a universal foundation for the hope
of peace. That foundation is international law, to which
everyone who belongs to the community of nations in
the United Nations, and those who want to belong, has
subscribed. That is what must be preserved; that is the
core of our hope for peace.
That is why I must here mention the conflict
in Ukraine. Some people in the Hall may regard it
as nothing more than a regional conflict in Eastern
Europe. But I am convinced that that view is incorrect.
I believe that that conflict affects each and every one of
us. Not just any State, but a permanent member of the
Security Council — Russia — has, with its annexation
of Crimea, unilaterally altered existing borders in
Europe and has thus violated international law. We
must counter that dangerous sign, because we must not
allow the power of international law to be eroded from
the inside. We must not allow the old divisions between
East and West to re-emerge in the United Nations.
Because so much is at stake in that conflict, not
only for the people of Ukraine but also for the future of
international law, Germany and its partners have taken
on responsibility and committed themselves vigorously
to defusing the conflict. I am under no illusion: a
political solution is still a long way off. However, just a
few weeks ago we were on the brink of a direct military
confrontation between Russian and Ukrainian armed
forces. I am happy to say that diplomacy prevented the
worst. Now the priority must be to bring about a lasting
ceasefire and achieve a political solution, one based on
the principles of the United Nations and preserving the
unity of Ukraine.
I am not discussing only Ukraine. As long as that
conflict is simmering and as long as Russia and the
West are in a dispute over Ukraine, there is a threat
of paralysing the United Nations. We therefore need a
Security Council that is able and willing to act to tackle
the new and, in the long term, far more important tasks
we are facing. The world of 2014 is plagued not only by
the old ghost of division, but also by new demons.
We are all shocked by the unspeakable brutality of
the terrorists who misuse the name of God in carrying
out their evil deeds. My question is, ought we not to
be particularly worried that the preachers of hate are
drawing in young people who have grown up in the
midst of our own societies?
That is why that, too, is not exclusively a regional
conflict — a problem in Iraq or in Syria or in Africa,
where terrorists are stamping on the fundamental rights
of women and girls in particular. That barbarity is
directed against every one of us, and against everything
for which the United Nations stands.
Precisely for that reason, our response needs
to go much further than the immediately necessary
humanitarian and military response. Germany is
making substantial contributions to both, including
militarily. But all that must be part of a political alliance
against the terror of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
My country is strongly committed to that alliance, and
I very much hope in particular that the societies of the
Middle East, realizing that far more is at stake than just
their security, will also join.
In a world haunted both by old ghosts and new
demons, we have to be able to pursue both paths. On the
one hand, we must steadfastly continue to work towards
political solutions in Ukraine, in the Middle East, in
Syria, but at the same time we must tackle the huge
tasks of the twenty-first century.
I am referring to the fight against climate change.
Germany is contributing $1 billion dollars to the Green
Climate Fund. And we will support our closest partner,
France, on the road to a successful Paris climate summit
in 2015 and to a universal and legally binding climate
convention, which we urgently need.
I am also referring to the digital age. Yes, the
Internet should be a global, free, open and safe space.
But that is not a matter solely for Government agencies
or big companies. That global, free, open and safe space
must be shaped by society as a whole. If we fail to act,
the vast technological possibilities will sweep aside the
human dimension. We need an international law for the
digital world. Resolution 68/167, which we introduced
together with Brazil, has made a start in that direction,
I hope, at the United Nations.
I am also referring to the post-2015 agenda, because
the fight against poverty begins with asking how we
actually create value. How do we create prosperity?
That question is not only directed at a few countries
in need of help. Rather, it is a call to the whole world
for more sustainable economic activity. With its shift to
renewable energies, Germany has set out on a path that,
although not easy, is one the world must take if we want
to preserve our natural resources and if the fight for
scarce resources, water and arable land is not to become
the major conflict of the twenty-first century.
Our children will judge us by those huge tasks.
They will look back, just as we are looking back at
our forebears in this year of commemoration. Having
learned from two World Wars, our forebears established
the United Nations as their lesson to us. If we want to
continue that lesson, if we want to master the tasks
facing us, then we must further develop this institution.
The United Nations is not a finished product. Perhaps it
will never be a finished product. It must evolve further,
so that in all its parts, including the Security Council, it
reflects today’s world.
I believe that the United Nations is worth every
effort, for in it lives the world’s hope for peace and a
legal order. I assure the Assembly that my country will
play its part in making that hope a reality, step by step.