A few weeks ago, my country, the Republic of Moldova, celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of its independence. I want to take this opportunity to once again congratulate my fellow citizens on this important milestone for us. Together, we chose democracy and freedom over corruption and State capture. It is my great honour today to address this high-level United Nations meeting on their behalf.
There are some who claim that multilateralism is no longer relevant in this day and age and that we can no longer work together efficiently to counter global challenges because we are compelled to look inward as a result of our own overwhelming domestic problems.
Our world, however, faces extraordinary challenges in both magnitude and kind that in my view we can only solve together.
Most of today’s global challenges spill over national borders, since our world is more interconnected than ever before. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, climate change, growing international security issues and the fragility of the international rules-based order all require joint efforts in the quest for sustainable solutions. These problems cannot be solved alone. We need genuine, concerted international efforts to provide truly sustainable solutions for our future. My country is experiencing some of those challenges firsthand, and I have come before the General Assembly today to convey our willingness and readiness to work with United Nations institutions and the international community to find sustainable solutions to the challenges that are affecting us both collectively and individually. Let me go through the four challenges one by one.
First, there is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has been our generation’s biggest challenge to date. Like most other States, the Republic of Moldova has been hit hard, but our own experience in dealing with the crisis has been filled with hope and gratitude — gratitude for the tremendous global endeavour of solidarity that supported my country’s work to contain the virus, and hope that solidarity can make us all more resilient. Thanks to our external partners, my fellow citizens were able to start the vaccination process as early as March. We now have a sufficient supply of vaccines for all our citizens. Our health-care system has received significant international support. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the European Union (EU), its States members, the World Health Organization, the entire United Nations family and all our friends and partners for their continued help in fighting the pandemic worldwide. As more countries gain access to vaccines, our greatest task ahead is to promote immunization, relaunch our economies and reopen our societies. That can be achieved only through collective effort.
Secondly, with regard to climate change, another major challenge that we are all facing, we are living through its consequences as we speak. Extreme weather, record high temperatures and floods are affecting every country. For the Republic of Moldova, climate change means severe droughts every few years, along with floods and ruined crops and livelihoods. The Republic of Moldova’s footprint in terms of climate change has been slight, and we are committed to keeping it that way. As we seek to modernize our economy, we pledge to do so sustainably. Expanding our forests, transitioning to a green and circular economy, promoting clean energy, preserving water and land resources and promoting responsible and sustainable production and consumption is our way forward.
Thirdly, in the area of international security, we see increasing numbers of crises arising in many parts of the planet. In our interdependent world, their aftershocks can be felt across the globe. With regard to our own region, we are seriously concerned about the deteriorating security situation in the Black Sea area. In that regard, I would like to stress once again that the Republic of Moldova is a State committed to peace. We remain firmly committed to identifying a peaceful, political solution to the conflict in the Transnistrian region of our country, based on Moldova’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders. We will also continue to promote confidence-building measures with a strong emphasis on protecting fundamental rights and freedoms in the Transnistrian region, which is a pressing issue for my country.
In the spirit of Moldova’s constitutional neutrality and of international law, I would like to reiterate that our position on the complete and unconditional withdrawal of Russian forces remains unchanged. That includes the removal or destruction of ammunition from the Cobasna stockpiles, which pose a security and environmental threat to the region as a whole. We are counting on the support of the international community in that endeavour.
The erosion of democracy and the declining trust in the State that it produces is another important global challenge that I would like to address. It is particularly relevant for my country. Democracy remains our universal ideal and a core value for our State. Rebuilding citizens’ trust in public institutions, cleaning up the influence of vested interests in the State and delivering decent public services is the cornerstone of Moldova’s further democratic progress and modernization. Democracy is being threatened by several factors, one of which is the spread of disinformation. While new social-media platforms have been an important tool for mobilizing and spreading democratic practices in many regions of the world, they are also enhancing disinformation, which, in worst-case scenarios, may
seriously disrupt key democratic processes such as elections. We need to maintain a global conversation and to look jointly for concrete solutions to the dangers that disinformation poses to the rules-based international order.
Another factor that erodes democracy is corruption, which undermines people’s trust in their States. While no country is exempt from it, corruption disproportionately affects poor States. It makes the State and its institutions weaker, more vulnerable and less stable. In the recent past, corruption turned Moldova into a captured State. It became a threat to democracy and our national security. Crooks used us as a transit country to launder money through our institutions before depositing it abroad. We have managed to get rid of those corrupt regimes, and our main task now is to strengthen our justice and law-enforcement systems. We are committed to doing so, but fixing one end of the problem does not make the problem disappear.
A system in which criminals extract wealth and assets from countries with weak institutions, store the capital in offshore accounts and then find safe haven in other countries is both unsustainable and unfair. Designing international rules for asset recovery could bring more fairness to the global stage and justice for weaker States. As an international community, we need to design, apply and rigorously monitor systems to promote international transparency and accountability. We need to join efforts to combat money-laundering and investigate illicit financial flows. We need to make better use of asset-seizure tools and work together to suppress organized crime. The magnitude of the challenge is so extensive that we need the serious involvement of all international and national actors. We need an effective collective response in order to safeguard democracy.
Together we can propose better and more sustainable solutions to global challenges. They should be citizen- oriented first and foremost. In last year’s elections, the citizens of Moldova said clearly that our country can do better. Despite multiple setbacks, our people continue to fight tirelessly for our young democracy and our European future. With a strong mandate for change, we are beginning to clean up the corruption in the State. We are reforming the justice sector. We are launching a significant infrastructure build-up. We are working on connecting Moldova to the rest of Europe through bridges, improved railways and electricity and gas interconnectors. We are part of free-trade areas both with the EU and our neighbours to the East. We can provide excellent business opportunities to both. We have a highly educated and hard-working population. We are becoming a good place for investment. We have ambitious plans for the digitalization of the economy and the public sector. Protecting the environment is a central part of our reform process. Only a year ago, these were just hopes. Today we are starting to transform those hopes into reality.
We come from different places and have different national agendas, but our lives are interlinked. The global challenges that I referred to bring us closer than ever. Their complexity can be overcome only through collective efforts in search of sustainable solutions. Such solutions are easier to find in today’s world because we have at our disposal not only great minds but also the necessary tools.
We salute the report of the Secretary-General, entitled Our Common Agenda, as a forward-looking blueprint for enhanced global cooperation to effectively address our common challenges. Only through solidarity and closer international cooperation will we — the States Members of the United Nations — be able to overcome current and emerging challenges and attain the vision of a world where people live in peace and prosperity in harmony with nature.