[00:02] Speaker 1: The Assembly will hear an address by His Excellency Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic. I request protocol to escort His Excellency and invite him to address the Assembly.
[00:14] Speaker 2: Thank you, Madam President.
[00:37] Speaker 3: Madame la Présidente.
[00:39] Speaker 4: Madam President, Deputy Secretary General, Majesties, Heads of State and Government, Ministers, Ambassadors.
[00:52] Speaker 5: Distinguished delegates, dear friends.
[00:59] Speaker 6: Since this morning, we've heard a number of speeches from this rostrum about the state of the world, and I fear I will not be very original in my description.
[01:15] Speaker 4: Every speaker has described the return of imperialism, arrogance, the return of unrestrained force which knows no rules, a world in which we see power concentrated in the hands of the few, a world in which some believe that they can undermine the international order so as to push their borders outwards, those that believe that people's sovereignty can be toppled over, that they could use that sovereignty, people who believe that they can decide the fate of the planet, whether that be as regards the climate or AI. The question we must answer is very simple. The question is, do we want to live under this state of affairs with a return to the law of the jungle, Or do we want to live in a civilized international society? Our duty, today more than ever, is to hold firm here at the United Nations in order to make decisions to further our common interests so that people can choose their fate freely, their development model, choose their future.
[02:37] Speaker 6: To refuse their sovereignty being taken hostage by unjust forces, unjust forces by fear.
[02:46] Speaker 5: Therefore, the very raison d'être of this organization is to bring together free people on an even footing, an equal footing.
[02:58] Speaker 4: It is our charter that prevents the power wielded by some. From making decisions for others. This is what compels us to work together to demonstrate our commitment and our capacity to act, and usefully so. You know just how committed France is to the United Nations and its ability to shoulder the responsibilities conferred upon it by the Charter.
[03:22] Speaker 6: I wish to reassert our commitment to take action hand in hand with each and every one of you. So as to revive multilateralism and to demonstrate that we are stronger, more effective, more capable of tackling common challenges if we do this together.
[03:42] Speaker 4: Today's challenges, future challenges, ones we do not know about yet, challenges we haven't yet tackled— I talked about the climate. It also applies to war and peace.
[03:54] Speaker 7: New technologies and development.
[03:56] Speaker 5: Across all of these areas, wherever might is right is being imposed, we must defend justice and our common interests.
[04:06] Speaker 4: And it is in the interests of each and every one of us as well, because our Charter affords us the protection, the right to live together. Given the sorry state of the world, Given what we're seeing today, and that is a growing number of wars we haven't solved, multiplying myriad crises and contemporary challenges which are weighing on new generations in new ways, I believe we are duty-bound not to yield.
[04:40] Speaker 7: And at the end of the day, the message I wish to convey to you today, as I've been doing over the last 9 years, is a message of determination, optimism through action.
[04:50] Speaker 6: What I'm trying to tell you is that we will not yield to fatalism, to defeatism, which are very much in vogue.
[05:00] Speaker 4: According to this rhetoric, there's not much point coming here to deliver speeches.
[05:07] Speaker 6: They say might is right.
[05:08] Speaker 4: We can impose a different kind of peace.
[05:11] Speaker 8: That is what they say, but we will not give in.
[05:14] Speaker 4: To that kind of rhetoric, even less so today. We will not yield across 5 areas. The first is fatalism in the face of war and suffering.
[05:28] Speaker 6: We must recommit to finding concrete solutions to building peace. International law never claimed to describe reality.
[05:38] Speaker 4: It talked about the limits which sovereign nations themselves set. And in order to ensure when there's a disagreement, force is not the only recourse we have as an option on the table, we must learn the lessons of the 20th century.
[05:52] Speaker 6: Those who've forgotten those lessons are committing both a moral error and a political mistake. That is the reality of the situation in the Middle East, in Ukraine, in Africa. War crimes have been industrialized.
[06:10] Speaker 4: We've seen the destruction of civilian infrastructure, human rights violations. It's a new era of barbaric acts. The Geneva Conventions offered a protective framework, but it is being dismantled. Al-Fashir, Bukavu, Gaza— the list goes on. Together with Jordan and the ICRC, France is going to continue undertaking efforts to ensure the international effort that aims to uphold international humanitarian law, which over 116 states have already rallied behind, will help us to keep our commitments. We must mobilize time and time again to defend international law and international humanitarian law at this time of war. As we've often said, there cannot be peace without justice.
[06:56] Speaker 6: And that is why France continues to support politically and operationally The international mechanism aimed at collecting evidence and ensuring justice, in particular two fact-finding missions.
[07:13] Speaker 4: We will continue lending our support to the International Court of Justice and supporting the central role it plays. We cannot simply accept this new order of impunity, which.
[07:27] Speaker 6: Some are trying to erect.
[07:30] Speaker 4: This is why that why at the Security Council France supports reforms aimed at bolstering its effectiveness. We must open up to new members, new regions, first and foremost Africa. But in terms of the substance, the Security Council must be able to take action in the face of mass violations of international law. Who can accept a procedural deadlock when we see barbaric acts being committed?
[07:56] Speaker 7: The Franco-Mexican initiative. on regulating the veto in the case of mass atrocities being committed is needed more than ever, and I'm delighted that it now has the support of 128 member states.
[08:10] Speaker 5: The campaign will continue, and we are seeking to secure the commitment of each and every permanent member of the Security Council for this initiative.
[08:20] Speaker 2: Thank you.
[08:27] Speaker 4: But it's not enough invoking the law, invoking our values in order to uphold the obligations we all signed up to when we joined the United Nations. We're duty-bound to act, and France stands ready, working in concert with all those who wish to act in defense of the principles enshrined in the Charter, all those who do not wish to Remain powerless.
[08:50] Speaker 7: The Coalition of the Willing on Ukraine, together with the UK and Germany, a coalition which brings together everyone who stands ready to guarantee peace and stability in the very heart of Europe, the very place where 2 world wars began.
[09:04] Speaker 4: Something no one can ignore. And many in the room today know better than anyone what a return of war to Europe could mean. We will not yield an inch.
[09:18] Speaker 6: The coalition of the willing will continue fighting.
[09:21] Speaker 7: We also have an independent multinational coalition aimed at restoring the freedom of navigation in the Hormuz Strait.
[09:28] Speaker 6: This should not be used for blackmail. It's a cardinal principle of international law, and it is in the interests of all of us for vessels to be able to transit through the strait securely so, and for the energy interests of all of our countries to be secured. The reopening of the Hormuz Strait is a priority. Respect for international law is also a priority.
[09:50] Speaker 5: It is in everyone's interests, and France is committed to it. Moving on to Africa, we shoulder a collective responsibility for the crises which are piling up without any answers, without any responses.
[10:04] Speaker 4: Peace operations must be more effective, and to this end, they must be endowed with adequate funding and better coordinated with the United States as well as host nations.
[10:16] Speaker 7: Back in 2018, I already mentioned the role played by regional organizations and better coordination between these regional bodies and the UN.
[10:27] Speaker 4: At the Africa Forward meeting in Nairobi with over 30 African heads of state and in Addis Ababa, the headquarters of the African Union, Together with the U.N., we stated clearly that the African Union and regional organizations should be fully equipped to play their role as regards peace and security on the African continent. In Paris in November, we will hold a meeting aimed at replenishing the African Union Peace Fund.
[10:55] Speaker 7: This will be on the sidelines of the Paris Peace Forum.
[10:57] Speaker 4: I call on all potential funders to make robust and concrete pledges. We will not yield in the face of war.
[11:08] Speaker 6: We must recommit and seek solutions that are in keeping with the spirit of the Charter.
[11:13] Speaker 4: Second, we must not give in to the permanent temptation to espouse double standards.
[11:21] Speaker 5: This is what's devising—
[11:24] Speaker 4: this is what is dividing our problem, our planet.
[11:27] Speaker 7: It is undermining the credibility of our organization and the Charter.
[11:31] Speaker 6: How many times Have we heard that people's sovereignty has value in Europe, but if we look at the Middle East, at Africa, it is less valuable?
[11:44] Speaker 5: No, that is unacceptable.
[11:46] Speaker 7: We must defend the same principles across the board in the spirit of the Charter, support the sovereignty of all peoples.
[11:52] Speaker 4: We cannot substitute for their decisions.
[11:56] Speaker 6: And every time Some states wish to run roughshod over the will of certain peoples to change a system, to topple a regime.
[12:06] Speaker 4: Every time this resulted in ever greater chaos.
[12:15] Speaker 6: No double standards.
[12:17] Speaker 7: A life is a life.
[12:19] Speaker 5: Peace and security are indivisible, and everyone has a right.
[12:24] Speaker 6: To them, in Ukraine, for almost five years now, Russia has been waging a cruel war on civilians.
[12:30] Speaker 7: It's been occupying the territory of a sovereign state.
[12:32] Speaker 6: France will continue providing unstinting support for the legitimate aspirations of the Ukrainian people to peace, security, and to a future.
[12:41] Speaker 5: At the same time, we will spend no effort to ensure that useful negotiations between Russia and Ukraine begin as swiftly as possible.
[12:49] Speaker 6: We must defend Ukrainians more than ever.
[12:53] Speaker 5: As winter is coming, we must defend them on the energy front.
[12:58] Speaker 7: We must give them more interceptors.
[13:00] Speaker 4: We must protect the civilian population.
[13:03] Speaker 9: And this is why we'd like to express our support.
[13:09] Speaker 7: A double moratorium, a moratorium on strikes on energy and civilian infrastructure. That's first, and a Black Sea moratorium, which would allow us.
[13:21] Speaker 5: to release grain shipments, addressing food security concerns—
[13:29] Speaker 4: food security being so important for many emerging economies, for many developing nations.
[13:34] Speaker 5: This double moratorium is a necessity.
[13:38] Speaker 4: Let's put it on the table and let's confront Russia with this reality. in the Middle East. We are also seeking peace and security for all.
[13:52] Speaker 7: This is what we defend—
[13:54] Speaker 6: respect for sovereignty in Lebanon.
[13:56] Speaker 4: Displaced Lebanese people—
[14:00] Speaker 5: their villages are being razed in the south.
[14:04] Speaker 4: Only a fully sovereign Lebanon will be able to disarm Hezbollah, And restore security for all Lebanese and their neighbors.
[14:18] Speaker 6: Sovereignty for Lebanon and its people. Sovereignty for Palestinians. Their very basic, their most basic rights are once again being violated.
[14:28] Speaker 5: One year ago, in this very chamber, several dozen states recognized Palestine. I understand that some are very cynical.
[14:38] Speaker 4: You recognized it on paper.
[14:39] Speaker 7: Look at the reality of the situation.
[14:42] Speaker 9: But what is our credibility worth if we remain inactive on Gaza?
[14:48] Speaker 6: Some claim that peace has been achieved, but this has not opened up humanitarian deliveries. The spectacle, the spectacle, it is shameful.
[15:01] Speaker 5: Shame on all of us.
[15:01] Speaker 2: Thank you.
[15:05] Speaker 4: Look, just look at what's happening in the West Bank where day in, day out we are seeing violations.
[15:13] Speaker 5: And in the name of what? Hamas was never very active in the West Bank.
[15:23] Speaker 6: What we need is respect for the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, their legitimate right to exist.
[15:29] Speaker 9: This is a prerequisite for security today and tomorrow for the people of Israel— their security, their very existence, to which we're very committed.
[15:40] Speaker 6: But all those who claim that Israel's security requires the violation of the sovereignty of all of its neighboring states are making a very fateful error. They are weakening Israel's security today and going forward.
[15:53] Speaker 7: They are threatening Israel's security, in fact.
[15:55] Speaker 5: Sovereignty for Syria as well.
[16:05] Speaker 4: The revolution should not turn into a disappointment. A few months ago in Damascus, I lent France's support to building a free Syria, and we must continue these efforts, allowing Syria to fully reassert its sovereignty and unity. France is committed across all of these fronts, just like we're committed with Italy, with the help of Jordan and other friends of Lebanon. We've been committed for 50 years to, to all Lebanese.
[16:41] Speaker 7: So no double standards.
[16:45] Speaker 4: Sovereignty for all peoples across the board. My third conviction. Is that we must not yield to a divided world. Many describe this rift. Many talk about this rift between the North and the South. We won't be able to tackle any of the challenges our planet faces if we give in to this rift, and it is fueled by double standards.
[17:11] Speaker 9: This rift.
[17:13] Speaker 7: However, we need the North and the South to reconcile so that they can.
[17:16] Speaker 6: Tackle climate, health, development challenges.
[17:19] Speaker 10: That's why, over the last few years, we've launched many more initiatives.
[17:23] Speaker 5: For instance, the COVAX initiative in response to COVID, in partnership with the WHO and the African Union.
[17:33] Speaker 4: When it came to shoring up economies, together with the International Monetary Fund, to reform special drawing rights and make progress for African economies, and we held our word—
[17:46] Speaker 5: $100 billion in special drawing rights allocated to helping African countries. We must stay the course, ensuring that we remain united without pitting anyone against anyone else.
[18:02] Speaker 4: That is why it's important that the global health infrastructure must remain intact. We will continue reforming that architecture But we will never weaken the WHO.
[18:13] Speaker 5: We must put the finishing touches on the Pandemics Treaty, and CDC Africa and the WHO should be in a position to combat Ebola ever more effectively. We must be clear-sighted as we reform our Official Development Assistance, ODA. We must ensure that our investments exhibit greater solidarity, that they're more effective.
[18:39] Speaker 7: This is what we did with the Paris Pact for People and Planet in 2023.
[18:43] Speaker 6: Also, at the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, we also agreed to build a new consensus around investment that stands in solidarity with other states.
[18:54] Speaker 4: Countries are allocating funds, and yet the needs of the countries of the Global South are growing as well. We need to go faster and go further to help them IMF and the World Bank to be more effective.
[19:06] Speaker 6: We must bolster the effectiveness of the instruments at their disposal so that we can mobilize the private sector better, creating guarantee mechanisms to ensure that in emerging economies, middle-income countries, and developing countries, a more effective response can be mounted to the problems they face. This is the kind of new partnership we must forge in order to ensure that there is no gap, no division between the North and the South. In a similar vein, this North-South partnership requires and will require us to wield our capacity to reopen a dialogue about our common history, our cultural relationships, and remembrance. This is what France has tried to do over the last few years, working on the basis of joint scientific works.
[19:54] Speaker 10: We've—
[19:55] Speaker 5: instituted a number of bills to ensure that we restitute cultural artifacts in a way forging a partnership in the name of culture, history, and remembrance.
[20:08] Speaker 4: And this with a number of countries of the South, for instance, with Ghana, and together with all interested parties, all interested partners, we will work on restorative justice reparations.
[20:22] Speaker 5: This is a matter of respect, and it is on this respect that the partnership between the North and the South will be built.
[20:37] Speaker 4: Moving on, global trade—
[20:38] Speaker 7: it needs to be more effective and more equitable.
[20:41] Speaker 5: This is what we sought to achieve at the G7 meeting France convened, bringing together Countries of the South, ensuring that there is common ground, a dialogue going beyond the G7 with China, India, Brazil, South Korea, Kenya—
[21:02] Speaker 8: the list goes on—
[21:04] Speaker 4: so that we can improve our collective organization, ensure that we work on rare earth minerals, Rare earth metals, critical minerals, as well as other areas. At the end of the day, we must shoulder this responsibility, ensuring that there is no rift between these 2 blocs.
[21:29] Speaker 5: And in a similar fashion, we must not yield on the climate and biodiversity.
[21:37] Speaker 4: We've done a great deal over the last few years.
[21:40] Speaker 5: Ever since the Paris Agreement, 11 years ago, the principles are still valid today and must be defended.
[21:46] Speaker 4: We must stay the course.
[21:51] Speaker 5: But I understand the doubts some harbor on this front.
[22:00] Speaker 4: Let us not cede if we are to defend our planet. Defend the climate, defend biodiversity, we need proactive multilateralism.
[22:11] Speaker 7: And this is what we tried to achieve at the One Planet Summit.
[22:14] Speaker 4: It's what we also tried to do acting together. And we did it.
[22:20] Speaker 6: Just look at the oceans.
[22:21] Speaker 5: A few years ago, everybody said it was impossible to craft agreements so as to protect marine areas, protect the oceans.
[22:30] Speaker 4: Just look at what we've done over the last few years, protecting 20 years of our landmass and our seas.
[22:37] Speaker 7: We've crafted this agreement and implementation is improving year in, year out.
[22:45] Speaker 4: Some also told us that we wouldn't be able to conserve 2/3 of our oceans, the high seas.
[22:56] Speaker 5: We undertook those negotiations working hand in hand with the great powers.
[23:01] Speaker 6: That's the BB&J agreement. And in a matter of months, we achieved over 60 ratifications, which means that the treaty has now entered into force—
[23:13] Speaker 7: that agreement.
[23:14] Speaker 4: The Nice Treaty, the United Nations Ocean Conference, the 3rd Oceans Conference last year helped us to accelerate that work, and the first Oceans COP will be held in a few months' time in January.
[23:30] Speaker 5: This is tremendous evidence Of our ability to achieve concrete results when we mobilize, when we act in concert.
[23:43] Speaker 4: So let's not give in to fatalism. Let's defend what we've achieved, but also our principles.
[23:50] Speaker 5: We must defend free and independent science.
[23:53] Speaker 9: Let's protect the IPCC, IPBES.
[23:58] Speaker 6: We need scientists who measure, who analyze, who assess.
[24:01] Speaker 7: Let's uphold our commitment to the Paris Agreement, to our decarbonization pathways, to our 2050 carbon neutrality target.
[24:09] Speaker 5: Let's shoulder our share of responsibility.
[24:12] Speaker 6: We need to innovate, cooperate, restart work on biodiversity credits, and achieve our objectives on forests and oceans.
[24:21] Speaker 7: We have many decisions to take. We cannot give in to fatalism.
[24:27] Speaker 6: We are already the victims of climate change.
[24:30] Speaker 7: We must do it for them, and even more so for our children.
[24:35] Speaker 4: Last but not least, we must hold fast and not yield on artificial intelligence.
[24:43] Speaker 7: There are some who wish to make us believe that only two powers, the U.S. and China.
[24:49] Speaker 4: Will be taking the decisions. They want us to believe that just a few economic actors will make all the decisions—the kinds of economic innovations that will be implemented, whether they want to take a break or not, the kinds of innovations that happen.
[25:07] Speaker 9: Some of these technological developments might attack the security of our states, our hospitals, of banks. They say that just a few will decide.
[25:17] Speaker 4: What kind of society we live in? No, no. Starting in 2008 at the G7 with our Canadian friends, we launched the Global Partnership for Artificial Intelligence under the auspices of the OECD to kickstart discussions on the need for regulation.
[25:37] Speaker 5: At the AI Summit in 2025, the AI Governance Summit, the next edition will be held in In, in Switzerland next year, there was also the Indian edition.
[25:49] Speaker 4: We advocated for 2 very simple things: for everyone in the world to have their own LLM model capabilities, calculation capabilities, AI capabilities, so that we can craft a way of auditing these models instead of being reliant on just a few private actors And in fact, Europe was the first with the AI Act to take forward these principles, to take forward these models.
[26:19] Speaker 7: And we must continue down that path.
[26:21] Speaker 4: Therefore, I wish to emphasize a particular point: our young people and our children.
[26:27] Speaker 6: For far too long, we've protected—
[26:29] Speaker 7: we've spent far too long not protecting our young people and adolescents.
[26:32] Speaker 6: And as a result, we're living with the consequence.
[26:37] Speaker 4: Their capacity to learn is in decline.
[26:41] Speaker 6: We're seeing mental health problems.
[26:44] Speaker 5: The facts are stark and the correlation is clear-cut.
[26:51] Speaker 4: That's why we've kickstarted a large-scale initiative aimed at protecting our young people, our adolescents, to stop them accessing social networks before the age of 15 underway in various countries, and I wish to commend our Australian colleagues, the first to take legislation on this front.
[27:12] Speaker 6: We must continue down this path and see it through, but let's not wait for the consequences to come raining down on AI.
[27:19] Speaker 4: We must act now to protect our children and our young people.
[27:24] Speaker 6: Look at the impact chatbots have on our children.
[27:27] Speaker 5: This is why, together with Kenya, Spain, Australia, we've built a coalition on children's rights in the era of AI. We are mobilizing already this afternoon and also at the Paris Peace Forum, at the Paris Peace Forum on the 10th and 11th of November of this year. Governments, organizations, public and private actors, academics, private companies, everyone will be rallying behind this agenda.
[28:00] Speaker 4: So I hope to see you on the 10th and 11th of November in Paris. Going beyond that, we can clearly see the race that is underway in cutting-edge models.
[28:12] Speaker 6: We must all be investing, and France is proud to have a competitive frontier model And Mr.
[28:21] Speaker 5: Aliyev, we will continue supporting them so that we can have this kind of model. But we must also forge new kinds of cooperation.
[28:34] Speaker 6: And I very much hope and wish for all sovereign states committed to their independence— Indian, Brazilian, African, Gulf states, Singapore—
[28:43] Speaker 5: the list goes on—
[28:45] Speaker 6: this independent coalition which I mentioned earlier.
[28:49] Speaker 5: I don't want anyone to become the vassal of one of the great powers.
[28:54] Speaker 4: Rather, we must come together to build an open-source frontier model, a cutting-edge model, using all of the calculation capabilities you have, pooling them. Our investment capabilities must be pooled to build a cutting-edge open-source AI model, which we will share. We should not depend on somebody else.
[29:20] Speaker 5: This is the agenda we must take forward, and this through cooperation. Furthermore, there are other areas where we must set new rules: AI in outer space, AI and defense, and cybersecurity.
[29:36] Speaker 4: This has very serious consequences which affect the very heart of our national security.
[29:43] Speaker 5: In Evian at the G7, many of us lent our support for the call launched by our Finnish and Norwegian friends. And we want to continue within the framework of the G7, but also working closely with our UK colleagues who will hold the chairmanship of the G20 next year.
[30:05] Speaker 4: We want to set a cooperation agenda on AI so as to protect the most sensible—
[30:14] Speaker 5: the most sensitive components thereof, which affect our national security. We are coming to an agreement to build a new international architecture.
[30:24] Speaker 4: We did this on chemical weapons.
[30:26] Speaker 7: We did this when it came to other risks.
[30:29] Speaker 5: And we must do the same when it comes to outer space, defense, cybersecurity. Issues on which we must take control, and we need very specific kinds of cooperation, a specific framework for cooperation between member states in these areas so as to be able to take this cooperation forward within a specific framework.
[30:48] Speaker 4: We must not yield on this either.
[30:51] Speaker 5: These are the 5 key areas. I could have been more exhaustive in my comments, but I'll leave it there.
[30:57] Speaker 7: This is what France will be defending. Across these five areas, my message is to stand firm. Do not yield to the situation which is developing.
[31:17] Speaker 4: The world is slowly becoming more divided.
[31:24] Speaker 9: The rhetoric of defeat.
[31:26] Speaker 5: That is giving way to empires abusing their powers, threatening the sovereignty of some nations, abuse of power by some who are monopolizing productive capacity, those who are monopolizing the ability to make calculations, abuses of power by those who wish to concentrate wealth in their own hands. In the face of such abuses of power, we must go back to the very spirit of this organization, which is multilateralism— the defense of common interests, of justice for all; something that, through unity, justice, and cooperation, is the way to take effective action, the way to restore just and lasting peace in all of our nations; a way to once again achieve unity between the North and the South, a way of crafting an agenda for taking proactive measures on technology, on the climate.
[32:32] Speaker 4: We will not yield.
[32:33] Speaker 5: Today more than ever, we need the United Nations as we elect a new Secretary-General.
[32:40] Speaker 7: And I'd like to pay tribute to the efforts of Antonio Guterres over all these years under such testing conditions.
[32:47] Speaker 6: He never Gave in.
[32:51] Speaker 5: We must address old crises, tackle new challenges. Against this backdrop, we must continue taking action today more than ever. We must be courageous in our optimism.
[33:06] Speaker 4: We must mobilize to take useful steps, not to yield.
[33:14] Speaker 5: For the benefit of each and every one of us. Long live the United Nations. I thank you.
[33:31] Speaker 1: On behalf of the Assembly, I wish to thank the President of the French Republic.