2022 Speech - United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
| Session Number | 77 |
|---|---|
| Year | 2022 |
| Country | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland |
| Country Code | GBR |
| Speech |
At the time of its foundation, the United Nations was a beacon of promise. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the building we are in symbolized the end of aggression. For many decades, the United Nations has helped to deliver stability and security in much of the world. It has provided a place for nations to work together on shared challenges, and it has promoted the principles of sovereignty and self-determination even through the Cold War and its aftermath. But today those principles, which have defined our lives since the dark days of the 1940s, are fracturing. For the first time in the history of the General Assembly, we are meeting during a large-scale war of aggression in Europe, and authoritarian States are undermining stability and security around the world. Geopolitics is entering a new era that requires those who believe in the founding
principles of the United Nations to stand up and be counted. In the United Kingdom, we are entering a new era too. I am joining everyone here just two days after Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was laid to rest. We deeply mourn her passing, and we pay tribute to her service. She was the rock on which modern Britain was built, and she symbolized the post-war values on which the Organization was founded. Our constitutional monarchy, underpinned by a democratic society, has delivered stability and progress. Her late Majesty transcended differences and healed division. We saw that in her visits to post-apartheid South Africa and the Republic of Ireland. When she addressed this General Assembly 65 years ago (see A/PV.707), she warned that it was vital not only to have strong ideals but also the political will to deliver on them. Now we must show that will. We must fight to defend those ideals. And we must deliver on them for all our peoples. As we say farewell to our late Queen, the United Kingdom opens a new chapter — a new Carolean age — under His Majesty King Charles III. We want this era to be one of hope and progress; one in which we defend the values of individual liberty, self-determination and equality before the law; one in which we ensure that freedom and democracy prevail for all people; and one in which we deliver on the commitments that our late Queen made here 65 years ago. This is about what we do in the United Kingdom and what we do as States Members of the United Nations. I will therefore set out today the steps we are taking at home in the United Kingdom, our proposed blueprint for the new era we are now in and the new partnerships and instruments that we should collectively adopt. Our commitment to hope and progress must begin at home, in the lives of each and every citizen whom we serve. Our strength as a nation comes from the strong foundations of freedom and democracy. Democracy gives people the right to choose their own path, and it evolves to reflect the aspirations of citizens. It unleashes enterprise, ideas and opportunity. It protects the freedoms that are at the very core of our humanity. By contrast, autocracies sow the seeds of their own demise by suppressing their citizens. They are fundamentally rigid and unable to adapt. Any short-term gains are eroded in the long term because such societies stifle the aspiration and creativity that are vital to long-term growth. A country where artificial intelligence acts as judge and jury and where there are no human rights and no fundamental freedoms is not the kind of place where anyone truly wants to live, and it is not the kind of world we want to build. But we cannot simply assume there will be a democratic future. There is a real struggle going on between different forms of society, between democracies and autocracies. Unless democratic societies deliver on the economy and security that our citizens expect, we will fall behind. We need to keep improving and renewing what we are doing for this new era, demonstrating that democracy delivers. As Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, I am determined that we will deliver the progress that people expect. I will lead a new Britain for a new era. First, that begins with growth and building a British economy that rewards enterprise and attracts investment. Our long-term aim is to get our economy growing at an average of 2.5 per cent. We need that growth to deliver investment around our country, the jobs and high wages that people expect and public services like the National Health Service. We want people to keep more of the money they earn so that they can have more control over their own lives and can contribute to the future. Secondly, it means securing affordable and reliable energy supplies. We are cutting off the toxic power and pipelines from authoritarian regimes and strengthening our energy resilience. We will ensure that we cannot be coerced or harmed by the reckless actions of rogue actors abroad. We will transition to a future based on renewable and nuclear energy, while ensuring that the gas used during that transition is from reliable sources, including our own North Sea production. We will be a net energy exporter by 2040. Thirdly, we are safeguarding the security of our economy — the supply chains, the critical minerals, the food and the technology that drive growth and protect people’s lives and health. We will not be strategically dependent on those who seek to weaponize the global economy. Instead, we are reforming our economy to get Britain moving, and we want to work with our allies so that we can all move forward together. The free world needs that economic strength and resilience to push back against authoritarian aggression and win this new era of strategic competition. We must do that together. We are therefore building new partnerships around the world. We are fortifying our deep security alliances in Europe and beyond through NATO and the Joint Expeditionary Force. We are deepening our links with fellow democracies such as India, Israel, Indonesia and South Africa. We are building new security ties with our friends in the Indo-Pacific region and the Gulf. We have shown leadership on free and fair trade, striking trade agreements with Australia, New Zealand, Japan and many others. We are also in the process of acceding to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Rather than exerting influence through debt, aggression and control of critical infrastructure and minerals, we are building strategic ties based on mutual benefit and trust, and we are deepening partnerships such as the Group of Seven and the Commonwealth. We must also collectively extend a hand of friendship to the parts of the world that have too often been left behind and left vulnerable to global challenges, whether that is the Pacific or Caribbean island States dealing with the impact of climate change, or the countries of the Western Balkans facing persistent threats to their stability. The United Kingdom is providing funding, using the might of the City of London and our security capabilities to provide better alternatives to those offered by malign regimes. The resolute international response to Ukraine has shown how we can deliver decisive collective action. The response has been built on partnerships and alliances, as well as on being prepared to use new instruments, including unprecedented sanctions, diplomatic action and rapid military support. There has been a strength of collective purpose. We have met many times, spoken many times on the phone and made things happen. Now we must use those instruments in a more systematic way to push back on the economic aggression of authoritarian regimes. The G-7 and our like-minded partners should act as an economic NATO, collectively defending our prosperity. If the economy of a partner is being targeted by an aggressive regime, we should act to support that partner — all for one and one for all. Through the G-7’s $600 billion Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, we provide an honest and reliable alternative for infrastructure investment around the world, free from debt with strings attached. We must go further to friend-shore our supply chains and end strategic dependence. That is how we will build collective security, strengthen our resilience and safeguard freedom and democracy. Nevertheless, we cannot let up on dealing with the crisis we face today. No one is threatening Russia. Yet, as we meet here today, barbarous weapons are being used to kill and maim people in Ukraine. Rape is being used as an instrument of war. Families are being torn apart. Earlier today, we saw Putin desperately try to justify his catastrophic failures. He is doubling down by sending even more reservists to a terrible fate. He is desperately trying to claim the mantle of democracy for a regime without human rights or freedoms. He is making yet more bogus claims and sabre-rattling threats. That will not work. The international alliance is strong, and Ukraine is strong. The contrast between Russia’s conduct and Ukraine’s brave, dignified First Lady, Olena Zelenska, who is here at the United Nations today, could not be more stark. Ukrainians are not just defending their own country, they are defending our values and the security of the whole world. That is why we must act. That is why the United Kingdom will spend 3 per cent of GDP on defence by 2030, thereby maintaining our position as the leading security actor in Europe. That is why at this crucial moment in the conflict, I pledge that we will sustain or increase our military support to Ukraine, for as long as it takes. New weapons from the United Kingdom are arriving in Ukraine as I speak, including more multiple launch rocket system rockets. We will not rest until Ukraine prevails. In all of those areas, on all of those fronts, the time to act is now. This is a decisive moment in our history — in the history of the Organization and in the history of freedom. The story of 2022 could have been that of an authoritarian State rolling its tanks over the border of a peaceful neighbour and subjugating its people. Instead, it is the story of freedom fighting back. In the face of rising aggression, we have shown that we have the power to act and the resolve to see it through. However, that must not be a one-off. It must be a new era in which we commit to ourselves, our citizens and this institution that we will do whatever it takes — whatever it takes — to deliver for our people and defend our values. As we mourn our late Queen and remember her call to the Assembly, we must devote ourselves to that task. Britain’s commitment to that is total. We will be a dynamic, reliable and trustworthy partner. Together with our friends and allies around the world, we will continue to champion freedom, sovereign and democracy. Together, we can define this new era as one of hope and progress. |