From this rostrum at the United Nations. I would like, first, to offer our most heartfelt condolence s to the Governments of the Kingdom of Morocco and Libya, and to express our feelings of fraternal solidarity with the peoples of those two friendly countries.
I would like to congratulate Mr. Dennis Francis, from Trinidad and Tobago, for his election as President of the General Assembly at its seventy-eighth session. I wish him much success during his term. I would also like to congratulate his predecessor. Mr. Csaba Korosi of Hungary, for the results achieved during his presidency. I also congratulate Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on his achievements in promoting peace and development in the world.
The speakers who preceded me at this rostrum presented important analyses and observations on current challenges and the international scenario. Therefore. I will focus on concrete actions that, in my view, are expected from us — the United Nations.
For Guinea-Bissau, the best response to the challenges that confront the international community includes strengthening multilateralism and international cooperation. In our view, multilateralism is an indispensable instrument and a moral imperative if we wish to build, together, a world of solidarity and well-being for all. To that end. we welcome the choice and significance of the theme for this session of the General Assembly, which stresses the importance of global trust and solidarity, prosperity, progress and sustainability for all.
We are expected to take coordinated actions to implement our decisions, such as the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union’s Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want, to ensure development financing and to collectively protect and improve our planet. To that end. we must comply with the Paris Agreement and the agreement reached at the twenty-seventh Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change agreements, including the loss and damage fund for vulnerable countries, particularly island nations such as my country. Guinea-Bissau.
We must introduce the changes required in the international peace and security architecture and in the world financial system to enable them to respond to the current international scenario. Security Council reform, which has long been deemed as necessary, must consider the position of the African Union in order to ensure a realistic and fairer representation consistent with the increasingly preponderant role of Africa in building and maintaining balance in the world.
Since I became President of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau in 2020. we have focused on dialogue, peace-building and political stability, as well as social and economic development in our country and in the West Africa subregion and beyond. Those principles also guided us during our term as Chairman of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States, which we accepted with determination and a heightened sense of responsibility, and which ended last July. To that end. we wish to reiterate our great concern about the recurrence of coup d’etats and reversals in democracy and the rule of law in some countries in our subregion, in flagrant violation of the populations’ freedom of choice as expressed through ballot boxes.
Despite the harmful effects of the prolonged embargo imposed on the people of Cuba, our sister nation has always supported and continues to support the countries of Africa. We reiterate our appeal for an end to that unjust and irrational embargo, which is an obstacle to the fulfilment of the legitimate aspirations of the Cuban people. The same is true for our brothers and sisters in Venezuela, whom we must also not forget and to whom we must show our solidarity.
As you know, it has been a year since I took office as Chair of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance. As Heads of State and Government, we continue, in Africa, to give priority to the struggle against malaria. As a result of that effort, more than 1.5 billion cases of malaria have been avoided and 10.5 million lives have been saved in Africa since 2000. I call on Africa and the international community to take action. If we wish to achieve our global goals for 2030 of ending malaria epidemics and achieving universal health coverage, we must act now.
This year, the people of the Republic of Guinea- Bissau are celebrating 50 years of existence as an
independent and sovereign State. Thus, as an emissary of the nation of Guinea-Bissau. I am thankful for the extraordinary aid provided by the former Soviet Union, the Republic of Guinea-Conakry. Cuba. Algeria. Morocco. Sweden and other countries to our struggle for liberation, as well as the United Nations in its historic visit to our liberated regions, confirming the existence of effective political, administrative and military control. On this solemn occasion of 50 years of independence, the people of the Republic of Guinea- Bissau will strengthen their determination and energy to consolidate national unity and mobilize even more, as enshrined in the national anthem of Guinea-Bissau, to build peace and progress in our everlasting homeland.
At this historic juncture in the history of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, and before I finish my remarks. I would like to reaffirm, on behalf of our Government and the people of Guinea-Bissau, from this rostrum and before the world, our continuous engagement and availability to continue to work with the United Nations and to cooperate with all friendly Governments and peoples for global peace and development and to protect our planet.