Belgium, 2025

The Assembly will hear and address by His Excellency Bart De Wever, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Belgium. I request protocol to escort His Excellency and invite him to address the Assembly. Mr. President, esteemed colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. It is the first time that I stand before you. I am 54 years old, which means that I was a teenager in the 1980s when Ronald Reagan was president of this great country. A man that I admired and that I still admire. Today I'm nostalgic of that time because then I truly believed that the Western world was bound together by shared values and mutual respect. And I also believed that these values would eventually rule the entire world. Today we are reminded of the Melian dialogue of the Greek historian Thucydides. He described how envoys from Athens forced the small neutral island of Melos to choose sides in the Peloponnesian War. If Melos refused, Athens would destroy it. Thucydides captured the brutal logic of power in one single sentence. The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must. He may have been right about human nature, but that is not the world we want to live in today. Civilization means striving to be better than our basic instincts, to rise above them. The United Nations was born out of the most destructive war in human history to embody precisely that aspiration. And yet today international organizations are under pressure. International law is under pressure. Respect for sovereignty is under pressure. Geopolitics often boil down to sheer ego politics. And I regret this deeply. That is why I stand before you today to advocate for a world anchored in mutual respect. A world of free and fair trade. A world of strong partnerships, respect and cooperation. A world based on international law. A world that tackles climate change. A world of peace, prosperity and progress. The United Nations remain crucial in pursuing that ambition. The United Nations are far from perfect and this is why we support the UN 80 reform agenda. Because the challenges we face are immense. And I want to highlight two domains in which we urgently need to move forward. Our security and our prosperity. First security. All who cherish freedom must work to build resilient and vigilant societies. We face new forms of imperialism, new military threats and violent conflicts that destabilize entire regions. This is not the path we choose. But neither can we afford to be naive. Those who wish for peace must be prepared to defend it. That is why we stand firmly with Ukraine. We must erect a barrier against those who look at us the way the Athenians looked at Melos. Belgium is therefore assuming its full responsibility, investing more in defense. Together with our European partners we are striving for greater integration of our armed forces and defense industry. At the same time we must strengthen ties with all countries committed to peace and stability. We must also confront the rise of international organized crime. Criminals know no borders. Criminal networks exploit the gaps between police forces and legal systems. They fuel terrorism, human trafficking and the illegal arms trade. But there is hope. Across Europe and in Latin America I have witnessed a new willingness to deepen cooperation. And I am convinced that many African and Asian countries struggle with the same problems. Together we can make our societies open for business but closed for crime. Because the security of our citizens must always remain our first responsibility. That is the first great challenge we must tackle. Another major challenge we face is to ensure as much prosperity as possible for as many people as possible. The world today is once again gripped by protectionism. And yet the evidence of history is clear. For over two centuries free and fair trade has been the only true engine of progress. It has decimated extreme poverty. It has dramatically increased life expectancy. It has enabled medical breakthroughs that defeated once devastating diseases. Free and fair trade is the way forward. We must nurture it and we must defend it. We must tear down trade barriers. We must allow our economies to grow across borders. We must stimulate productivity, strengthen labor markets and invest in innovation. In short we must create prosperity that is globally shared. And let us remember prosperity engenders peace. Prosperity builds trust. Belgium stands ready to be your partner in this endeavor. Belgium is and will always remain open for business. Mr. President, distinguished delegates, let us not succumb to the harsh logic of Tukidides. Let us prove that the destiny of humankind is not to dominate or to suffer, but to cooperate and to prosper. This is and should always remain the mission of the United Nations. I thank you. On behalf of the Assembly, I wish to thank the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Belgium. I wish to thank the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Belgium.