I congratulate His Excellency Mr. Dennis Francis on assuming the presidency of the General Assembly at its seventy-eighth session. We are delighted that a fellow member of the Forum of Small States has been elected to the highest office in the General Assembly. I also thank His Excellency Mr. Csaba Korosi for his adept stewardship of the seventy-seventh session during a very challenging year. Our world is a troubled place. The coronavirus disease pandemic was a global test of equity, governance and preparedness, but. quite frankly, the world came up short. We are still dealing with its sequelae — in health care and education and the long-term impact on the world economy and global solidarity. Recent natural disasters, in fact, underline our common vulnerability as nations on the same planet. Nature is a force that respects no borders. Our hearts go out to the victims of the earthquakes in Morocco and Türkiye and the floods in Libya. There are looming food and water crises, and if we miss our climate change targets, we will heap even more misery upon ourselves and on future generations. Beyond the devastation caused by pandemics and natural disasters, we have created purely human- made tragedies, as well. The Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to rage on. It is a full-frontal assault on the Charter of the United Nations and a flagrant violation of international law. Global food insecurity has been aggravated by the war in Ukraine, as well as by climate change, which will add to inflationary pressures everywhere. In the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — in my part of the world — the violent coup in Myanmar has deprived the people of Myanmar of the peace and development that they so need and richly deserve. Our hearts go out to our brothers and sisters in Myanmar. That perfect storm is aggravated by political dysfunction almost everywhere — fractious hyper-polarized domestic politics, disillusionment with globalization and multilateralism and a lack of strategic trust among countries, especially the superpowers. That dysfunction hobbles our ability to deal with planetary crises that go beyond the ability of any single superpower or even blocs of countries to overcome. In fact, all countries need to work together to build coherent and concrete multilateral solutions. Singapore is a tiny, vulnerable and open island city-State. and we therefore have to strongly support the United Nations and the indispensable rules-based multilateral system. It provides a stable framework for us to thrive, exercise our autonomy and chart our own future for our own people. I was glad to see the urgent focus on those issues during this year’s high-level week. The Sustainable Development Goals Summit has shown that we have fallen behind our targets. The Climate Ambition Summit, the three high-level meetings on health and the preparatory meeting for the Summit of the Future have helped us to recalibrate the multilateral system. I would like to put forward three principles that should guide our collective efforts to make the multilateral system more resilient and ready for the future. First, we should reaffirm our commitment to building a multilateral system that reflects our enlightened long-term interests as a global community. Unfortunately, the world today is marked by even sharper geopolitical rivalry. Free trade is in retreat, and supply chains are being fragmented. That unravels the gains that we have painstakingly made over many decades by competing and contributing to a common global technology stack. We must avoid turning competition into a zero-sum game. Whether we are addressing climate change, outer space or technology standards, it is important for all countries to balance their national interests with the collective long-term interests of our global community. That means that Member States should work constructively and in good faith within the multilateral framework, keeping our enlightened common interests in mind. The need for compromise and mutual understanding is a feature — not a bug — of the multilateral system. And in the light of the planetary challenges we face, there is no winner who can take all. Secondly. Member States should accept and respect the diversity of experiences, systems, concepts and ideas within the multilateral system. This is born out of our rich tapestry of cultures, religions and social norms. We must recognize that there is no one-size-fits-all template for how a country should organize itself. No one has a monopoly on culture or wisdom, and we should resist the arrogant temptation to remake others in our own image. The rich diversity of peoples and nations everywhere can in fact lead to a fruitful cross-fertilization of ideas and the development of even more policy options to deal with the many challenges we face. The United Nations is an indispensable platform in which countries can share our experiences in areas from sustainable development to human rights and in which we can learn from one another. The Summit of the Future gives us an opportunity to strengthen the multilateral system by taking into account diverse points of view and building a common framework for our future. Thirdly, in the midst of the digital revolution and especially the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), we must not only prepare for the risks of those technologies but also distribute their benefits more fairly. In the past year, generative AI such as ChatGPT has captured the popular imagination. But we are actually already on the verge of the next stage: AI agents with the ability to negotiate and transact with each other and humans, and often we will not be able to tell the difference. That has profound implications on all our societies, our politics and economies everywhere. And autonomous weapons systems without human fingers on the triggers are already with us — witness the wars around us. As Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the opening of the General Assembly this week. “Generative artificial intelligence holds much promise, but it may also lead us to cross a Rubicon and into more danger than we can control.” (A/78/ PV.4, p. 5) That is especially so the theatre of war and peace. Al will fundamentally disrupt our assumptions on military doctrine and strategic deterrence. For example, the speed at which Al-enabled weapons systems can be almost instantaneously deployed and triggered will dramatically reduce decision times for our leaders. There will be many occasions when humans may not even be in the firing loop — but we will be on the firing line. That would inevitably heighten the risks of unintended conflicts or the escalation of conflicts. During the Cold War. the sense of mutually assured destruction imposed mutual restraint — although we now know that there were in fact several close shaves. That spectre of nuclear escalation has not disappeared. Yet the advent of artificial intelligence in conflict situations has actually increased the risks exponentially. We therefore must start an inclusive global dialogue, and we must start it at the United Nations. We need to urgently consider the oversight of such systems and the necessary precautions to avoid miscalculations. That is just one of the many facets to consider as we focus our minds on how to harness the potential and manage the risk of AL Singapore welcomes the Secretary-General’s decision to convene a high-level advisory body on Al to explore those critical issues. Singapore is actually optimistic that the United Nations and the multilateral system will be up to the task of establishing norms on those fast-emerging critical technologies. The open-ended working group on security of and in the use of information and communications technologies 2021-2025. which happens to be chaired by Singapore, has made steady progress, and this offers some useful lessons for other areas, including AL Singapore commits to continuing to support all efforts to promote international cooperation and strengthen global rules, norms and principles in the digital domain. We also look forward to the adoption of a global digital compact at the Summit of the Future in 2024. The reality is that many nations are not ready for the wave of digital transformation sweeping our world. We should not forget that even today, more than 2 billion people still have no internet access, and we need to work far harder to bridge that digital divide. As a tiny city-State. Singapore is committed to supporting other small States by raising awareness, sharing experiences and building human capacity everywhere. In 2022. Singapore launched Digital Forum of Small States (Digital FOSS), a platform in which members of the Forum of Small States can learn from one another and mutually support each other in the area of digital technologies. There is no doubt that those technologies are a powerful accelerator for sustainable development in developing countries, and all the more so in small States like mine. But many developing countries and small States will need help to deploy and harness the benefits of those technologies. As the most inclusive and universal body in the world, the United Nations has to be at the centre of our collective efforts to address those global challenges. We can do so. as shown, in fact, by the recent adoption of an international legally binding instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ). Singapore is honoured that Ambassador Rena Lee served as the President of the Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction. She worked tirelessly and closely with all delegations to bring that ship safely to harbour. This week. I was proud to sign the BBNJ agreement on behalf of Singapore, which intends to ratify it as soon as possible. We call on all Member States to sign and ratify the BBNJ agreement so that it can enter into force early, and I am glad that, as of today. 81 Member States have signed the BBNJ agreement. We need to bring the same constructive spirit to other areas of the global commons — AI. cybersecurity, digital technology and even outer space. We do not lack policy ideas on strengthening multilateralism, but we need commitment and action. The High-level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism has put forward six transformational shifts that will make the United Nations and the multilateral system future-ready. For many small States, our survival and our very success require a strong United Nations and an effective multilateral system founded on the Charter of the United Nations and international law. and complied with by all States in the world. The Forum of Small States, chaired by Singapore, will continue to work with all States, large and small, to make the United Nations stronger and ready for the future. The Summit of the Future next year will be a crucial milestone in terms of repositioning the United Nations and the multilateral system for our future. This Summit is also an opportunity to further accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Singapore will work closely with all Member States and contribute constructively to that process. We call on all delegations everywhere to take a pragmatic and action-oriented approach to the Summit. It is not too late for us to work together to build a better, safer and fairer world for all countries and especially for our future generations.