Rarely have the foundations of this institution been shaken as strongly as in the early hours of 24 February, when various cities throughout Ukraine felt the terror of Russian bombardments. More than six months later, we still witness the horror of an invasion that evokes times we believed we had left behind in Europe. Yesterday Putin continued his headlong rush with totally unacceptable statements.
From this rostrum and what it represents, I want to condemn in the strongest terms the announcement of the annexation referendums in the occupied territories of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson. Those false referendums constitute a further violation of international law by Vladimir Putin. Let me be clear: the results will never be recognized. We will continue to support what we have supported since the beginning of this dispute — the freedom, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. It is precisely now when we must act united in defence of the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and in support of an attacked country, Ukraine.
This war seeks to rob the sovereign people of Ukraine of their legitimate right to exist in peace and freedom, and it has condemned the entire world — because it is a global crisis — to an era of uncertainty. And it has done so at the very moment when we were on the cusp of a well-deserved era of optimism, just after humankind had successfully set in motion the greatest large-scale scientific and humanitarian cooperation effort in its history in order to combat the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). In these uncertain times, the economic and social consequences of the war are a threat to global prosperity, especially for the most vulnerable countries. The food crisis, which has been central to the debate of the General Assembly, is being compounded by an energy crisis provoked by an autocrat who will stop at nothing and utilize any and every instrument as a weapon of war in order to stay in power. The impact on prices, already rising due to the supply chain crisis last year, threatens to leave the world’s poorest even poorer.
It is not hard to understand why many people feel that they have had enough. Young people, born at the start of this new millennium, in particular represent a generation that, in addition to confronting this new crisis in their lives, is living under the very real threat of the climate emergency and its consequences for the world they will inherit.
Despite everything, however, I am certain that precisely where the danger lies, there too lies our salvation. That is why today I want to extend an unequivocal message of hope and confidence — hope in the capacity of the international community to overcome any adversity, and confidence in the strength of an institution such as the United Nations to rise up against challenges that know no borders.
Allow me to focus this reflection on five major challenges: the commitment to global health, the food crisis, the environmental transition, the digital transition and true and effective gender equality.
In matters of global health, it is essential that we learn from the lessons of our fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. On 9 November 2020, the whole world celebrated the news that the first vaccine against the virus was proving successful. Barely six weeks later, the first doses began to be administered. With those vaccines, not only did we begin to invert the trend of the pandemic, but we also reversed the pessimism of a world that had come to doubt whether things would ever return to normal.
The vaccine represents many things, but above all — in my view — it represents the triumph of the human spirit over adversity. I say that because, in just two years, the world has managed to develop not one or two, but 40 vaccines against COVID-19. Through the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility, more than 2 billion doses have been allocated for developing countries. Massive vaccination campaigns have enabled us to control the spread of the virus and return to normality in many countries. However, it is clear that much remains to be done and that many lessons must be drawn from the handling of the pandemic. The degree of inequality between countries with regard to access to the vaccine is, quite simply, insulting. That inequality, moreover, is to the detriment of humankind as a whole because a virus cannot be eradicated if its spread is not halted in each and every country around the globe.
Spain, which was very affected at the beginning of the pandemic due to our strong tourism sector, seeks to be part of the global solution to the enormous challenge that this pandemic and future pandemics represent. We will contribute €15 million to the Financial Intermediary Fund for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response, and we support the adoption of a legally binding international instrument to that end by the World Health Organization. In that way, we will strengthen a key organization in the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our debt to science also demands that we take action in areas neglected during our race against the virus. We must step up efforts and promote scientific research in order to guarantee universal access to medical care and treatment. Over the next three years, Spain intends to allocate more than €237 million of its official development assistance funds to health-related issues, including €130 million for the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
The second major challenge I wish to share is the food crisis currently threatening millions of human beings. It is a complex problem that has the potential to deteriorate in 2023 if we do not act. The crisis has been exacerbated both by Russia’s blockade of grain exports from Ukraine and by selfish decisions to erect barriers to trade in agricultural products and fertilizers.
Two days ago, as co-sponsor of the Leaders Network Reinforcing Multilateralism Together, I co-chaired — together with the President of Senegal and Chairperson of the African Union, the President of the European Council and the United States Secretary of State — the Global Food Security Summit, on the current food crisis affecting the entire planet. It brought numerous world leaders from all regions, especially those most affected by this crisis, and we adopted a joint declaration renewing our commitment to deal with the crisis.
The meeting had a very clear purpose — to address this challenge and to seek solutions as a matter of urgency. At the meeting, I announced that Spain would lead by example by mobilizing €151 million in donations, and a further €85 million in loans over the next three years. That step is consistent with my country’s commitment to combating inequality and poverty the world over. That commitment has been made visible through our new law on cooperation, which anchors our promise to allocate 0.7 per cent of our gross national income to official development assistance by 2030.
The third major challenge I wish to discuss is related to the climate emergency and the need to advance the ecological transition with urgency and determination. It is clear that the current energy crisis is pushing us towards making a decisive commitment to far more sustainable energy models, reducing our dependencies and becoming more resilient. Diversifying, electrifying and decarbonizing our energy mix will be essential for
two reasons. First, we must prevent certain countries from using their resources as a weapon of war, as Putin’s regime is doing. Russia believes it has the right to blackmail the entire planet, helping to increase inflation and jeopardize the crucial recovery of the many economies that have suffered greatly due to the pandemic. Secondly, it is necessary because if we are to respond to climate change, which is the fundamental and increasingly obvious challenge facing our and future generations, we need to redouble our commitment to the transition to renewable energy.
I believe that the current situation is pushing us to even greater determination to deliver on our societies’ commitment to decarbonizing our economies. It is not a question of whether or not to do so but to do it fairly and at the speed demanded by the scientific certainty that time is running out. In that regard, Spain also wants to contribute to concrete solutions within the framework of the United Nations. Together with Senegal, we will support the creation of an international alliance for drought resilience to promote innovation, technology transfer and the mobilization of resources for countries exposed to this threat, which includes Spain. We will present that initiative in Egypt in November during the twenty-seventh Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, together with the secretariat of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification and other interested countries.
I believe that the energy crisis is severely testing all European societies, including mine, essentially because of the harshness with which it is attacking the social majority of our societies, the middle and working classes. Every measure taken to reduce its impact should be based on the principle that this time the burdens and sacrifices should not fall on the shoulders of the great majority who were mistreated in previous crises, in particular the financial crisis. In that context, Spain has pushed for far-reaching regulatory reforms to reduce the impact of gas prices. But we are also aware, as the Secretary-General has said, that we must continue working — as we have been doing so for more than a year now — on vitally urgent reform of the electricity sector throughout the European Union. It is time to move forward by adjusting the sector to the current reality and distributing and limiting the costs and benefits of price increases in a fairer way. That is a commitment that my country will adhere to and uphold.
The fourth major challenge I want to mention relates to the digital transition and its impact on education and labour rights, now and in the future. On Monday, Spain participated in a session of the Transforming Education Summit dedicated to the digital transformation. We once again evoked the lessons learned during the pandemic and how technological solutions made it possible for the benefit of our children to bridge the gap of the in-person presence that was impossible at the time. Spain wants to play a leading role in that regard. We will be hosting the Giga Technology Centre, a United Nations programme for the digitalization of education to be established in the beautiful city of Barcelona, thanks to Spain’s collaboration with UNICEF and the International Telecommunication Union. Education is the path to a more educated, better informed, freer, more inclusive and more egalitarian society. If we want to continue advancing our human rights agenda, it is essential that we continue to support the right to education for all, but especially for girls. For it is at school where the agenda for gender equality and the empowerment of women — half of the world’s population — begins.
In that connection, my fifth and final point concerns the feminist agenda and real and effective equality between men and women. We live in times when stating the obvious sounds revolutionary. The global threats to women’s sexual and reproductive freedom are yet another example of the exasperatingly slow progress the world is making in ensuring full equality between men and women. Worse still, we are seeing that previous achievements are fragile, with women falling victim to an inexplicable regression in some advanced democracies in the twenty-first century. Spain will continue to be at the forefront on the matter, with the adoption of a new law guaranteeing sexual freedom and a future law on sexual and reproductive health to ensure public health care for women and all their needs across the entire country. In that area, I would also like to announce that Spain will lead by example and contribute €100 million over the next three years to organizations working for gender equality and with a focus on reproductive and sexual rights, including UN- Women. I believe it essential that we listen to women’s voices and remove every obstacle in their path so that they can occupy their rightful spaces in business, Government and peacebuilding.
I invite members to participate in a simple exercise and contrast pictures from 20, 30 or 40 years ago. Compare family photographs at home with the images that appeared then in the national media. For example, in my country, Spain, it is surprising and indeed amusing to see how our fashion, appearances and habits
have changed — including smoking indoors. All of that has changed. However, when we compare those images, we see one particularly intolerable difference, which is the presence of women in family photographs and their absence in public images reflecting the political or economic news of the day. We have come a long way towards achieving equality between women and men, but there is still a long way to go. Besides, not everything can be guaranteed, as we saw a few months ago in Afghanistan with the Taliban’s rise to power.
Last month, I had the privilege of visiting the Memory, Peace and Reconciliation Center in the Colombian capital of Bogota. I was able to observe first-hand the efforts of an entire people, and especially its women, to move forward by providing reparations to victims and building a society free of violence. Colombia is entering a new stage of hope in its efforts to continue building peace, and Spain will stand by its side, ready to support it. The countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have a fundamental role to play in the world and in the multilateral order, starting with the defence of democracy. However, we must be aware that the region also needs international support, including in the fight against drug trafficking. Spain is committed to supporting Latin America and the Caribbean and we will work to achieve greater rapprochement between the region and the European Union under our presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of next year. We want Europe to reaffirm its broad and strategic outlook towards Latin America and the Caribbean, aimed at achieving very simple objectives that make sense, such as revitalizing a fundamental alliance between the two regions. We must also pay greater attention to our own southern neighbourhood.
We are ready to take up the baton at a key moment for Europe. We seize it with enthusiasm and hope, aware of the challenges ahead and the responsibility it represents. We want the priorities I have just outlined to permeate and direct our action in the second half of 2023. The green transition and digitalization, as well as the social transition, will resolutely guide the path we wish to follow during our presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Europe is a project for stability, peace, freedom, democracy and harmony. It is a project for peace that we want to see projected into other parts of the world, starting with Ukraine. It is clear that we must continue to work to ensure that other areas, in addition to Ukraine, also regain stability. We are making progress in negotiations to reach a nuclear deal in Iran, in which I believe the European Union is playing a key role. However, we have recently seen how tensions in the East China Sea are threatening the status quo in a region that is key to humankind’s present and future. The importance of Asia in the field of global security was underlined at the NATO Summit in Madrid in June, which brought NATO’s Pacific partners together at the top level for the first time and endorsed a new strategic concept for the organization for the next 10 years. In Madrid, we welcomed two new full and democratic members, Sweden and Finland, and approved a new strategic concept for NATO that will guide the future of the alliance for the next few years. The concept makes a fine-tuned diagnosis of an increasingly complex strategic environment. It gives significant attention to the South and the Sahel in particular, a region affected by growing instability and increasing terrorism. We must focus on the serious risks in the area such as irregular migration flows and the threat of terrorism, which could be exacerbated by the conjunction of the food and energy crisis, the climate emergency and demographic trends.
We cannot carry over conflicts from the past century. For that reason, with regard to Western Sahara, an area of great importance to Spain, we support a mutually acceptable political solution within the framework of the Charter of the United Nations and in line with the relevant Security Council resolutions. In that regard, we consider the work of the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for Western Sahara to be fundamental, and I want to assure him of the Spanish Government’s full support. My country will continue to support the Sahrawi population in refugee camps, as it has always done, in its capacity as the main international donor of humanitarian aid to those camps.
On the other hand, as I reported during last year’s general debate (see A/76/PV.9), on 31 December 2020, Spain and the United Kingdom reached a bilateral understanding on Gibraltar in the context of the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. We have been working very hard since then to ensure that this understanding serves to lay the foundations for the territory’s future relationship with the European Union, trusting that an agreement will be reached between the European Union and the United Kingdom in relation to Gibraltar as soon as possible. The agreement should fully respect United Nations doctrine on the territory, with which Spain is wholly aligned, as well as for my country’s legal position with regard to its sovereignty and jurisdiction. In any case, we hope to work for the
development of a prosperous social and economic area that encompasses the whole of Gibraltar and the Campo de Gibraltar as well.
In conclusion, I appealed at the beginning of my address to two sentiments — hope for the future and confidence in the multilateral order represented by the United Nations system. Two years ago, we feared we would never again see a world in which people could shake hands or hug or kiss one another. We came to believe that such acts of affection and courtesy would also fall victim to the pandemic. Today the world that seemed unattainable has been restored. It is a logic often repeated in history when societies arrive at a great crossroads. Yet hope always finds away. Sometimes with a push from science and knowledge, as in this case, and sometimes from a desire not to repeat the fatal mistakes of the past. I believe that humankind will always find a way to overcome the blows of fate and move forward. What makes the difference is how we deal with these crises and how we heal the wounds suffered along the way, while at the same time protecting those who are most vulnerable and most exposed.
We must be guided by the values and principles to which we all adhere as Member States of this noble and important Organization, in which Spain reaffirms its full confidence. We must persevere in our efforts to build a freer, more prosperous, fair, diverse and democratic world. In order to do so, it is essential to strengthen rules-based multilateralism and ultimately to guarantee peace — the most valuable asset we have.