New York City, 23 September 2024
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Good afternoon.
I am convening today the [informal] Foreign Affairs Council of the European Union for our traditional meeting here, in New York, during the United Nations General Assembly – it is the heart of multilateralism.
The world has been marked by so many crises, that international rules have never been so disregarded.
The international rule system has never been so weakly implemented and disrespected. A light of hope, yesterday: the adoption of the Pact for the Future shows that there is big demand for multilateralism.
Multilateralism means that everybody has their voice, that everybody is being heard. That the world takes into account the interests of everybody, not only the great powers.
We, the Europeans, we have a special responsibility to the citizens of the world because the multilateral system – when it works – brings peace and stability.
I will coordinate the approach of the Member States of the European Union this week, on so many different issues and, in particular, about the war in Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East.
On the war in Ukraine, we have had this morning a meeting about the energy situation in Ukraine. It is a critical situation. Putin continues bombing the infrastructure producing electricity and energy for Ukrainians. Almost two thirds of the power capacity have been destroyed. I am sure he is trying to curb the will of the Ukrainian people by bringing them into the cold and the dark during the winter.
We have to increase our support to Ukraine and to look for peace while taking very much into account that this is a war of aggression. And there is an aggressor and an aggressed. The result can only be based on [respect for] the United Nations Charter.
Well, let me say that we are going to have, for the first time, the new Foreign Minister of Ukraine [Andrii Sybiha] with us. He will be presenting his views on the situation in Ukraine, and it be the first occasion for us to receive this new [Ukranian] foreign minister.
On the Middle East, you know that the situation at the border with Lebanon and in Beirut is becoming very very worrisome, dangerous, with a lot of civilian casualties. At this moment, we are seeing a big exodus of people going from the South of Lebanon to the North. The aerial views of the highways in the South of Lebanon show a big mass, a big bottleneck of people fleeing, escaping, because they have been warned that the Israeli forces are going to bomb any objective related with Hezbollah.
On the other hand, on the Israeli side, there are more than 100,000 people that were already forced to be displaced due to Hezbollah attacks.
Both sides have continued fighting, the Beirut bombing has created a high number of civilian casualties. The risk of regional spillover is increasing. There is a path for security for both sides, it is the Security Council resolution. It is clear that Hezbollah has important part of the responsibility on attacking Israel, but these attacks are the continuation of the war in Gaza, which is spilling over to the whole region – affecting the Red Sea, affecting Libya, affecting the West Bank.
In particular, the West Bank, where the situation also becomes very much out of any reference to the international law and United Nations resolutions and the European Union’s position.
We will discuss about it. A ceasefire is needed to release hostages, to make possible humanitarian support; and to start the political process. We cannot wait for a ceasefire, who knows when [the ceasefire] is going to come?
We have to start discussing about the political process. For that, we are going to have two important meetings: the Ad-Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) hosted by Norway, as always – the regular liaison committee where the Palestinians and Israelis are both being asked to participate. Then, a Joint Ministerial Meeting on Gaza and the Two State Solution.
I would like to stop talking about the peace process and to start to think about the things that really matters, which is the implementation of the Two-states solution which means the implementation of the Palestinian state because the other state, the state of Israel, already exists.
So, these two meetings will be very much important – one after the other – and another one with UNRWA. The UNRWA High Level meeting hosted by Jordan and Sweden.
I will be there representing the point of view of the European Union that, as you know, is of a strong support to UNRWA, which plays a role in supporting the Palestinians refugees in several countries, and today, providing support to the people in Gaza.
Coordination among Members of the European Union is key. I will present to my colleagues with a map showing what are we going to do all together. All the outreach the 27 Member [States] are going to do. A lot: 27 people working together as a well-tuned choir, it is a strong power.
There are some parts of the geopolitical issues which are not covered well enough, but all in all, the 27, together with the High Representative, represent the voice of Europe in so many meetings that are going to take place here in New York during this week.
Thank you for your attention.
Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-261094
Source – EEAS