About one week ago. I stood on the other side of the world in Viet Nam. on soil once bloody with war. I met a small group of veterans — Americans and Vietnamese — whom I watched exchange personal artifacts from that war: identification cards and a diary. It was deeply moving to see the reaction of the Vietnamese and American soldiers. It was the culmination of 50 years of hard work on both sides to address the painful legacies of war and to choose to work together towards peace and a better future.
Nothing about that journey was inevitable. For decades, it would have been unthinkable for an American President to stand in Hanoi alongside a Vietnamese leader and announce a mutual commitment to the highest level of a partnership between countries. But it is a powerful reminder that our history need not dictate our future. With concerted leadership and careful effort, adversaries can become partners. Overwhelming challenges can be resolved. And deep wounds can heal. Let us never forget that. When we choose to stand together and recognize the common hopes that bind all of humankind, we hold in our hands the power to bend that arc of history.
We gather once more at an inflection point in world history. But the eyes of the world are upon all of us. As President of the United States. I understand the duty my country has to lead in this critical moment and to work with countries in every region, linking them in a common cause, and to join together with partners who share a common vision of the future of the world — in which our children do not go hungry and everyone has access to quality health care, workers are empowered and our environment is protected, entrepreneurs and innovators everywhere can access opportunity everywhere and conflicts are resolved peacefully and countries can chart their own course. The United States seeks a more secure, more prosperous, more equitable world for all people because we know that all our futures are bound together. Let me repeat that: we know that all our futures are bound together, and no nation can meet the challenges of today alone.
The generations that preceded us organized this body, the United Nations, and built international financial institutions and multilateral and regional bodies to help to take on the challenges of their time. It was not always perfect, but working together, the world made some remarkable and undeniable progress and improved the lives of all people. We avoided the renewal of global conflict, while lifting more than 1 billion
people out of extreme poverty. We. together, expanded access to education for millions of children. We saved tens of millions of lives that would have otherwise been lost to preventable and treatable diseases such as measles, malaria and tuberculosis. HIV/AIDS infections and deaths plummeted in no small part because of the work of the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in more than 55 countries, saving more than 25 million lives. It is a profound testament to what we can achieve when we act together, when we take on tough challenges, and an admonition for all of us to urgently accelerate our progress so that no one is left behind because too many people are being left behind.
The institutions we built together at the end of the Second World War are an enduring bedrock of our progress, and the United States is committed to sustaining them. This year, we are proud to rejoin UNESCO. We also recognize that, to meet the new challenges, our decades-old institutions and approaches must be updated to keep peace in the world. We have to bring in more leadership and capability, which exists everywhere, especially from the regions that not have not always been fully included. We have to grapple with challenges that are more connected and more complex. And we have to make sure we are delivering for people everywhere, not just people somewhere.
Simply put. twenty-first century results are badly needed to move us along. That starts with the United Nations. That starts right here in this Hall. In my address to this body last year (see A/77/PV.6). I announced that the United States would support expanding the Security Council by increasing the number of permanent and non-permanent members. The United States has undertaken serious consultations with many Member States and will continue to do its part to push more reform efforts forward, look for points of common ground and make progress in the year ahead. We need to be able to break the gridlock that too often stymies progress and blocks consensus in the Council. We need more voices and more perspectives at the table.
The United Nations must continue to preserve peace, prevent conflict and alleviate human suffering. We embrace nations stepping up to lead in new ways and to seek new breakthroughs on hard issues. For example, on Haiti, the Caribbean Community has facilitated a dialogue among Haitian society. I thank President Ruto of Kenya for his willingness to serve as the lead nation of a United Nations-backed security support mission. I call on the Security Council to authorize that mission now. The people of Haiti cannot wait much longer.
The United States is working across the board to make global institutions more responsive, more effective and more inclusive. For example, we have taken significant steps to reform and scale up the World Bank, expanding its financing to low- and middle-income countries so it can help to boost progress towards meeting the Sustainable Development Goals and better address interconnected challenges such as climate change and fragility.
Under the new President of the World Bank, change is already taking root. Last month. I asked the United States Congress for additional funds to expand World Bank financing by $25 billion. At the Group of 20 (G20). we rallied the major economies of the world to mobilize even more funding. Collectively, we can deliver a transformational boost to World Bank lending. And because the multilateral development banks are among the best tools we have for mobilizing transparent high- quality investment in developing countries, reforming those institutions can be a game-changer.
Similarly, we proposed making sure developing countries have a strong voice and representation at the International Monetary Fund. We are going to continue our efforts to reform the World Trade Organization and preserve competition, openness, transparency and the rule of law. while at the same time equipping it to better tackle modern-day imperatives such as driving a clean energy transition, protecting workers and promoting inclusive and sustainable growth. And this month, we strengthened the G20 as a vital forum, welcoming the African Union as a permanent member.
However, upgrading and strengthening our institutions is only half the picture. We must also forge new partnerships and confront new challenges. Emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, hold both enormous potential and enormous peril. We need to be sure they are used as tools of opportunity, not as weapons of oppression. Together with leaders around the world, the United States is working to strengthen rules and policies so artificial intelligence technologies are safe before they are released to the public to make sure we govern the technology, not the other way around — having it govern us. I am committed to working through this institution and other international bodies and directly with leaders around the world, including our competitors, to ensure
we harness the power of artificial intelligence for good while protecting our citizens from its most profound risk. It is going to take all of us. I have been working at this for a while, as many Member States have. It is going to take all of us to get this right.
In every region of the world, the United States is mobilizing strong alliances, versatile partnerships, common purpose and collective action to bring new approaches to our shared challenges. In the western hemisphere, we united 21 nations in support of the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, launching a region-wide approach to a region-wide challenge to better uphold laws and protect the rights of migrants.
In the Indo-Pacific. we have elevated our Quad partnership with India. Japan and Australia to deliver concrete progress for the people of the region on everything from vaccines to maritime security. Just yesterday, after two consultations in diplomacy, the United States brought together dozens of nations across four continents to establish a new partnership for Atlantic cooperation, so that the coastal Atlantic countries can better cooperate on science, technology, environmental protection and sustainable economic development. We brought together nearly 100 countries in a global coalition to counter fentanyl and synthetic drugs to reduce the human cost of that affliction, and it is real.
As the nature of the terrorist threats evolves and the geography expands to new places, we are working with our partners to bring capabilities to bear, to disrupt plotting, degrade networks and protect all our people. Additionally, we convened the Summit for Democracy to strengthen democratic institutions, root out corruption and reject political violence. In this moment, in which democratically elected Governments have been toppled in quick succession in West and Central Africa, we are reminded that this work is as urgent and important as ever. We stand with the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States and other regional bodies to support constitutional rule. We will not retreat on the values that make us strong. We will defend democracy — our best tool to meet the challenge that we face around the world. And we are working to show how democracy can deliver in ways that matter to people’s lives.
The Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment addresses the enormous need and opportunity for infrastructure investment in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Africa. Latin America and South-East Asia, through strategic targeted public investments. We can unlock enormous amounts of private sector financing. The Group of Seven has pledged to work with parties to collectively mobilize $600 billion in infrastructure financing by 2027. The United States has already mobilized more than $30 billion to date. We are creating a race to the top. with projects that have high standards for workers, the environment and intellectual property, while avoiding the trap of unsustainable debt. We are focusing on economic corridors that will maximize the impact of our collective investments and deliver consequential results across multiple countries and multiple sectors.
For example, the Lobito corridor will extend across Africa — from the western port of Angola, to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to Zambia—boosting regional connectivity and strengthening commerce and food security in Africa. Similarly, the groundbreaking effort we announced at the G20 to connect India to Europe through the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia. Jordan and Israel will spur opportunities for investment across two continents.
That is part of our effort to build a more sustainable, integrated Middle East. It demonstrates how Israel’s greater normalization and economic connection with its neighbours is delivering positive and practical impacts, even as we continue to work tirelessly to support a just and lasting peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, with two States for two peoples. Now let me be clear — none of these partnerships are about containing any country; they are about a positive vision for our shared future.
When it comes to China. I want to be clear and consistent. We seek to responsibly manage the competition between our countries so that it does not tip into conflict. As I have said before, we are for de-risking, not decoupling with China. We will push back on aggression and intimidation and defend the rules of the road — from freedom of navigation to overflight, to a level economic playing field, which have helped safeguard security and prosperity for decades — but we also stand ready to work together with China on issues where progress hinges on our common efforts.
Nowhere is that more critical than the accelerating climate crisis. We see it everywhere —record-breaking heat waves in the United States and China, wildfires ravaging North America and southern Europe, a fifth year of drought in the Horn of Africa and tragic flooding in Libya that has killed many thousands of people. My heart goes out to the people of Libya. Together, those snapshots tell an urgent story of what awaits us if we fail to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and do not begin to climate-proof the world. From day one. my United States Administration has treated this crisis as an existential threat, from the moment we took office — not for us only, but for all of humankind.
Last year I signed into law in the United States the largest investment ever and anywhere in the history of the world — to combat the climate crisis and help move the global economy towards a clean energy future. We are also working with the Congress to quadruple our climate financing in order to help developing countries reach their climate goals and adapt to climate impacts. And this year, the world is on track to meet the climate finance pledge made, collectively, under the Paris Agreement — to raise $100 billion.
But we need more investment from the public and private sector alike, especially in places that have contributed so little to global emissions, but face some of the worst effects of climate change, like the Pacific Islands. The United States is working directly with the Pacific Island Forum to help those nations adapt and build resilience to the climate impact, even as we lead the effort to build innovative new partnerships that attack the global challenges from all sides. Those range from the First Movers Coalition, which is mobilizing billions of dollars in private sector commitments to create a market demand for green products in carbon-intense sectors like concrete, shipping, aviation and trucking; to the Agricultural Innovation Mission for Climate, which is bringing farmers into the climate solution and making our food supply more resilient to climate shocks; to the Global Methane Pledge, now endorsed by more than 150 countries, which expands our focus beyond our carbon emission targets to reduce the potential greenhouse gases in our atmosphere by 30 per cent in this decade. It is all within our capacity.
We need to bring that same commitment, urgency and ambition as we work together to meet the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Those Goals were adopted at the United Nations in 2015 (resolution 70/1) as a road map for improving lives around the world. But the hard truth is that for decades of progress, the world has lost ground these past years, in the wake of the coronavirus disease pandemic, conflicts and other crises.
The United States is committing to doing its part to get us back on track. All told, in the first two years of my Administration, the United States has invested more than $100 billion to drive development progress and bolster food security, expanding access to education worldwide, strengthening health-care systems and fighting disease, and we have helped mobilize billions more in private sector investments.
But to accelerate our forward progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, we all have to do more. We need to build new partnerships that change the way we tackle this challenge in order to unlock trillions of additional financing for development, drawing on all sources. We need to fill the gaps and address the failures of our existing system, exposed by the pandemic. We need to ensure that women and girls benefit fully from our progress. We must also do more to grapple with the debt that holds back so many lows- and middle-income countries. When nations are forced to service unsustainable debt payments over the needs of their own people, it makes it harder for them to invest in their own futures. And as we work together to recover from global shocks, the United States will also continue to be the largest single community donor country of humanitarian assistance at this moment of unparalleled need in the world.
Cooperation and partnership are the keys to progress on the challenges that affect us all. and the baseline for responsible global leadership. We do not need to agree on everything to keep moving forward on issues like arms control, the cornerstone of international security. After more than 50 years of progress under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Russia is shredding long-standing arms control agreements, including announcing the suspension of the New START Treaty and withdrawing from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. I view it as irresponsible; it makes the entire world less safe. The United States is going to continue to pursue good-faith efforts to reduce the threat of weapons of mass destruction and lead by example, no matter what else is happening in the world.
This year we safely destroyed the last chemical-munitions stockpile in the United States, fulfilling our commitment towards a world free of chemical weapons.
We condemn the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s continued violation of Security Council resolutions, but we are committed to diplomacy to bring about the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.
We are working with our partners to address Iran’s destabilizing activities, which threaten regional and global security, and remain steadfast in our commitment that Iran must never acquire a nuclear weapon.
Even as we evolve our institutions and drive creative new partnerships, let me be clear. Certain principles in our international system are sacrosanct — sovereignty, territorial integrity and human rights. Those are the core tenets of the Charter of the United Nations, the pillars for peaceful relations among nations, without which we cannot achieve any of our goals. That has not changed, and that must not change.
Yet. for the second year in a row. this gathering, dedicated to the peaceful resolution of conflicts, is darkened by the shadow of war — an illegal war of conquest brought, without provocation, by Russia against its neighbour. Ukraine. Like every nation in the world, the United States wants this war to end. No nation wants this war to end more than Ukraine. And we strongly support Ukraine in its efforts to bring about a diplomatic resolution that delivers just and lasting peace. But Russia alone bears responsibility for this war. Russia alone has the power to end this war immediately. And it is Russia alone that stands in the way of peace because Russia’s price for peace is Ukraine’s capitulation. Ukraine’s territory and Ukraine’s children.
Russia believes that the world will grow weary and allow it to brutalize Ukraine without consequences. But let me ask the Assembly this. If we abandon the core principles of the United Nations to appease an aggressor, can any of the members of this body feel confident that they are protected? If we allow Ukraine to be carved up. is the independence of any nation secure? I would respectfully suggest that the answer is no. We have to stand up to that naked aggression today and deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow. That is why the United States, together with its allies and partners around the world, will continue to stand with the brave people of Ukraine as they defend their sovereignty, territorial integrity and freedom. It is an investment not only in Ukraine’s future but in the future of every country that seeks a world governed by basic rules that apply equally to all nations and uphold the rights of every nation, no matter how big or how small. Sovereignty and territorial integrity are the fixed foundations of this body and universal human rights are its North Star. We cannot sacrifice either of them.
Seventy-five years ago. the Universal Declaration of Human Rights captured a remarkable act of collective hope — I repeat, a collective hope drafted by a committee representing different regions, faiths and philosophies, and adopted by the entire General Assembly. The rights contained in the Declaration are elemental and enduring, and while we still struggle to uphold equal and inalienable rights for all. they remain ever steady and true. We cannot turn away from abuses, whether in Xinjiang. Tehran. Darfur or anywhere else. We have to continue working to ensure that women and girls enjoy equal rights and equal participation in their societies; that indigenous groups, racial, ethnic and religious minorities and people with disabilities do not have their potential stifled by systemic discrimination; and that LGBTQI+ people are not prosecuted or targeted with violence because of who they are. Those rights are part of our shared humanity. They are absent when they are absent anywhere, and their loss is felt everywhere. They are essential to the advancement of the human progress that brings us together.
Let me end with this. At this inflection point in history, we are going to be judged by whether or not we live up to the promises we have made to ourselves, to each other, to the most vulnerable and to all who will inherit the world we create, because that is what we ourselves are doing. Will we find within ourselves the courage to do what must be done to preserve the planet, protect human dignity, provide opportunity for people everywhere and defend the tenets of the United Nations? There can be only one answer to that question. We must, and we will. The road ahead is long and difficult, but we can persevere and prevail if we keep the faith in ourselves and show what is possible. Let us do this work together. Let us deliver progress for everyone. Let us bend the arc of history for the good of the world, because it is in our power to do it.