At the outset, I would like to congratulate Mr. Abdulla Shahid on his election as President of the General Assembly at its seventy-sixth session. I would also like to congratulate Mr. Antonio Guterres on his reappointment as Secretary-General for a second term. Both of them can count on Finland’s full support for their important work.
Finland warmly welcomes the ambitious approach put forward in the report of the Secretary-General entitld “Our Common Agenda” (A/75/982). It is easy to agree with one of the key statements in that document:
“In our biggest shared test since the Second World
War, humanity faces a stark and urgent choice: a
breakdown or a breakthrough” (ibid., Summary).
We are indeed at a critical juncture. If humankind is to make the right choice — a breakthrough, rather than a breakdown — we have to shoulder our human responsibilities and take responsibility for our common future.
The task may seem daunting. The past years have witnessed continued and even growing turbulence in the world. Volatility and uncertainty may easily lead to despair. Common solutions may seem far out of reach.
At the same time, many trends highlight how interconnected our world is. The pandemic has had an impact on every one of us. The same will increasingly be true of both climate change and emerging technologies.
Conflicts no longer remain local or regional. They have consequences, direct or indirect, across the globe. All of these cross-border challenges are crying for a global response. With the right mindset, such a response is within reach.
In 1975, 30 years after the United Nations was founded, 35 Heads of State and Government gathered in the Finnish capital to sign the Helsinki Final Act. The letter of that document, still valid today, focused on security and cooperation in Europe. But if we succeed in reviving and expanding the spirit that arose from that meeting, it can have a more global significance.
The willingness of adversaries and competitors to engage in dialogue, build trust and seek common denominators was the essence of the Helsinki spirit. Its potential today is by no means limited to the area within the purview of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. It is precisely that kind of spirit that the entire world and the United Nations urgently needs.
I am convinced that the more we speak about the Helsinki spirit, the closer we get to rekindling it and to making it come true, which will bring us closer to solving our common challenges together.
Over a year and half since the beginning of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, we still live in its shadow. Fortunately, there is now some light at the end of the tunnel in many countries. Yet we should resist the temptation to think about health security on a national basis alone. The scientific community has shown a better example than Governments.
To end this pandemic, the solution has to be global. For a global response to succeed, we need to ensure equitable access to effective remedies. Working through the COVAX Facility, Finland is strongly committed to vaccine solidarity. Global action is also needed to be better prepared for future pandemics.
It is high time to take concrete steps to improve our common health security beyond the current challenges. To improve our resilience, we need a One Health approach. Enhancing international collaboration on research and development and exchanging information on emerging threats are both vital. We must ensure the effective functioning of multilateral global health institutions, such as the World Health Organization.
We must also pause to reflect upon the longterm ramifications of COVID-19. It has led to an increase in extreme poverty and inequality and resulted in a deterioration of gender equality. It has seriously affected many countries’ ability to reach the Sustainable Development Goals. We must intensify our
efforts to ensure that the most vulnerable are not left further behind.
The pandemic has shown that a severe enough concern can push us to take unprecedented steps. In a very short order, we all took more extreme measures to change our behaviour than anyone of us could have imagined before. What would be a sufficient wake-up call for us to do the same for the health of our planet?
With the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Paris Climate Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity, we already have plenty of documents and road maps to rely on. But talk is not enough. We need to act, and the time for action is now.
The rapidly proceeding loss of biodiversity alone should be a cause for immediate global concern. In addition, we now know that climate change is proceeding even faster than was previously thought. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we are already likely to reach the 1.5°C temperature rise in the early 2030s.
It is not an exaggeration to say that we are facing a global climate emergency. And yet, that urgency is still not reflected in our deeds. The national determined contributions that we, the signatories of the Paris Agreement, have made so far may still put us on track for a 2.7°C temperature rise by the end of this century. The consequences for the planet and for future generations would be catastrophic.
We have to use the upcoming twenty-sixth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to put ourselves on a sustainable course. It is our common responsibility — that of Governments, institutions, companies and individuals — to step up. Well ahead of the meeting in Glasgow, we need more ambitious emission-reduction plans, and we must speed up the ongoing transition away from fossil fuels.
To succeed, we need adequate climate financing. As a global community, we have to increase the quality, quantity and accessibility of climate finance, especially to the least developed countries and the small island developing countries.
We must also encourage Finance Ministers to take climate change into account in all of their decision-making. The Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action, co-chaired by Finland and Indonesia, already has more than 60 members. It currently focuses on green recovery, carbon pricing and biodiversity. We invite more countries to join the work of the Coalition.
The dramatic events in Afghanistan in the past weeks have again reminded us of the fragility of peace and security. The humanitarian needs in the country are immense, and it is critical that we act together to ensure that the people have access to humanitarian assistance. The United Nations entities staying on in Afghanistan play a key role in this regard, and the international community must be steadfast on this issue. Women and girls in Afghanistan must not be forgotten or made invisible.
Yet, unfortunately, Afghanistan is just one example. Conflicts, old and new, continue to cause human suffering across the world. The diplomatic toolbox of the Charter of the United Nations needs to be used to its full potential to build peace where needed and to prevent conflicts where possible. For Finland, conflict prevention and mediation are strong priorities. We continue to be ready and willing to offer our good services for constructive dialogue in this regard.
In its foreign policy, Finland has long underscored the importance of the universal and binding nature of human rights. Our own experience is that a society flourishes when everyone has an active, equal and meaningful role in it. Finland is a candidate for a seat on the Human Rights Council for the period from 2022 to 2024. As a member of the Human Rights Council, we would do our best to make our human rights priorities work for the benefit of peace, stability and prosperity across the world.
In our human rights policy, we pay special attention to the rights of those in the most vulnerable situations — the ones most exposed to discrimination. Promoting the rights of persons with disabilities is a cross-cutting priority for Finland. Another key theme for us is the rights of all women and girls. The recently launched Generation Equality campaign in which Finland co-leads the action coalition on technology and innovation, has an important role to play in mobilizing different actors for gender equality.
In an era of intensifying great power, competition and rapid technological progress, we are also faced with the serious risk of a new arms race. If the unraveling of the international arms control system is allowed to continue, it will reduce predictability and increase the likelihood of unintended escalation. That will make all of us less secure. We urgently need to remedy the
situation. The most important task is to uphold and strengthen the existing arms control architecture.
But at the same time, we also need to think ahead with an open mind. We have to develop new solutions to respond to emerging challenges and technologies by strengthening confidence-building, verification and transparency.
In nuclear-arms control, Finland welcomes the extension of the New START Treaty. Yet it is also clear that engagement between all the nuclear Powers would be beneficial for global security.
The need to come together and save the planet for future generations has rarely been greater. For Finland, the United Nations system is at the core of the rules-based order that we want to defend and the multilateralism that we want to strengthen. No other organization has the same legitimacy or the same normative impact. No other organization gives hope to so many people for a better world. No other organization can deliver the future we want and the future we deserve.
But the United Nations can only succeed if we, its States Members, want to come together and do what is needed and expected of us. That requires more dialogue. That requires more trust. That requires more Helsinki spirit from all of us. In this spirit, Finland continues its unwavering support for the United Nations.