For more than six months, the world has been living in the shadow of the conflict in Ukraine. It is adversely affecting a great many people on the planet. The conflict, like the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic that preceded it, has once again laid bare the downside of global interdependence.…
The events on the territory of Ukraine are a great tragedy both for the country and for all who have faced the grief and hardship that any fighting brings.
Belarus, thanks to its historic past, knows first- hand the cost of war for its people, who experienced genocide and lost one third of their nu…
Exactly two decades ago, the United Nations and its leader received the Nobel Peace Prize. At the reception ceremony, former Secretary-General Kofi Anan said that we had “entered the third millennium through a gate of fire”. Unfortunately, the fire has not been fully extinguished. For several decade…
“Never forget” is a summons that has remained one of the most important watchwords of the international community since 1945. There is no question that the memory of the tens of millions of victims of the Second World War, the atrocities committed by the Nazis and their criminal policies of genocide…
I wish to thank you, Sir, for your important and timely initiative to hold a discussion in the Security Council on cooperation with the three regional organizations, namely the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Shanghai Cooperation O…
We live in paradoxical times, as optimism and pessimism equally characterize our lives. We recently adopted landmark documents, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. At the end of the year, the international community will give the green lig…
I would like to begin my statement at this event dedicated to Nelson Mandela, one of the most famous people ever to fight for Africa’s independence, with some of his own words: “It is so easy to break down and destroy. The heroes are those who make peace and build.” It is no coincidence that our Pea…
The past few decades have been marked by two contradictory trends — increasing political fragmentation and increasing economic globalization. The first of those is associated with the global political instability that has resulted from wars, conflicts, terrorism, xenophobia and other factors and tha…
Humankind has only one past, but many options for the future. History is such that we know only the consequences of those actions that have occurred, but not those that did not take place. What would our world look like today if, a century ago, that memorable shot had not been fired in Sarajevo, irr…
I will begin with a simple question: what is the key challenge facing today’s world? I believe that it is the fact that humankind’s societal evolution has not kept pace with globalization. We are constantly lagging behind. Our failure to adjust quickly and effectively has given rise to a range of po…
We often invoke the phrase “the spirit of San Francisco”. We do that when we speak and think about positive aspects of international relations. Indeed, the message sent from the 1945 Conference in San Francisco offered immense hope to the generation that had just survived the most horrible war ever …
