Canada, 2025

I now give the floor to Her Excellency Anita Anun, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Canada. President, Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Let me, Madam President, congratulate you on your election as President. Since the end of the Second World War, multilateral institutions have helped to make our world safer and more prosperous. More than a billion people have been lifted out of extreme poverty. Famine and disease have declined. We see shared effort leading to shared prosperity. However, today, the multilateral system is under threat. Some countries are turning more inward, looking at protectionism and multilateralism around the world. The geopolitical landscape is unstable. Power is heading towards a way that is undermining, jeopardising our security and prosperity. We are facing challenges that no country can address alone. Allow me to start with Canada itself, because the strength that we have abroad is based on resilience at home. Proudly bilingual, resilient, dynamic democracy spanning three oceans, blessed with natural resources and, above all, defined by the ingenuity of our people. Our scientists are leaders in artificial intelligence and clean technology. Our workers are partnering in the global energy transition. Our entrepreneurs are advancing critical minerals, agriculture and digital innovation. Canada is home to Indigenous Peoples and to immigrants from every corner of the globe. Let me say a few words about Indigenous Peoples on the eve of Canada's National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The voices of Indigenous Peoples enrich our democracy at home and diplomacy abroad. Their leadership has laid the foundations for the path followed by Canada and is strengthening our place in the world. Canada has for a long time been advocating for cooperation, diplomacy and international law. Whether this be a question of promoting peacekeeping operations of the UN, during the Suez Crisis or indeed the Ottawa Treaty that prohibits anti-personnel mines, Canada has always been an innovative leader on global issues. This is something that still guides us. Canada does not shrink from global challenge. Canada does not retreat from duty. Canada does not walk away from building and strengthening peace. Even as the world changes, Canada remains a stable and reliable partner, both in business and collective security. At its core, our foreign policy rests on three pillars. First, defence and security, keeping Canadians safe, strengthening our sovereignty, being good allies and partners in NATO and NORAD. Second, economic resilience, diversifying trade, strengthening supply chains, being an attractive destination for capital and an entrusted trading partner while advancing rules-based trade. And third, core values, promoting democracy and pluralism, balancing and maintaining human rights, fostering gender equality, protecting our environment and working with Indigenous partners on sustainable development and prosperity while safeguarding our environment. But we face a changed reality. Rising unilateralism and protectionism weaken multilateral institutions and the rule of law, the very bedrock of the post-war order. In 2024 alone, 300 million people needed humanitarian assistance. 120 million were displaced. More than 40 million were refugees. Conflicts cost $14 trillion a year for the global economy. And each of these figures is not simply a statistic, but it's a child, a family, a community. Each and every one of them is proof of why we must respect together the UN Charter, the Geneva Conventions, the Refugee Conventions and Human Rights Conventions. These stark realities, retreat is not an option. Canada will not turn inward. Canada will work to reform and strengthen multilateral institutions such as the United Nations so that they are more resilient and more effective in meeting the challenges of today and tomorrow. Canada is an Arctic nation. In the Arctic, a critical part of Canada and the world, climate change and new geopolitical pressures create both risks and responsibilities. Canada will safeguard its sovereignty, modernize NORAD with the United States, bolster NATO with fellow members and work with Indigenous peoples to ensure that the Arctic remains a region of peace, cooperation and sustainable development. The challenges to security are not confined to our own borders. Russia's 2022 illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine stands as a grave breach of the UN Charter. Russia's aggression, attacks on civilians and abduction of children are flagrant violations of international law. Putin believed Ukraine would fall in three days. Three and a half years later, Ukraine still stands, its sovereignty intact, its people unbowed, its courage unbroken. Canada's position is clear. Putin cannot be permitted to redraw boundaries at his will. Might does not make right. Ukraine is not backing down, nor will its friends, including Canada. In supporting Ukraine, we are not only defending a nation, we are defending the founding principles of sovereignty, dignity and peace, values that unite us all. Canada has already pledged $22 billion of various types of aid to Ukraine, and Ukraine can count on our long-term support. Here at the UN, last week, Prime Minister Carney and President Zelensky reaffirmed our shared commitments, something that is shared by a large number of you here, to bring back Ukrainian children, bring them home. The October 7th terrorist attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians was absolutely horrific. Hamas is a terrorist organization and an impediment to peace. Canada calls on Hamas to lay down its weapons and to release all remaining hostages immediately. The scope of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is catastrophic and requires urgent action. Canada has committed over $340 million in humanitarian aid, and our Canadian Armed Forces have participated in airdrops. We call on Israel to help protect the civilian population in Gaza, to open land corridors for unimpeded access of humanitarian aid at scale, and to ensure that health care facilities are fully protected. The two-state solution is eroding, as is evident in Israel's illegal expansion of West Bank settlements. Canada's recognition of Palestine last week reflects long-standing Canadian policy based on the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and our commitment to a two-state solution, a future where Israelis and Palestinians live side-by-side in peace and security. We support partners in the region who continue their efforts to reach a ceasefire as soon as possible and to contribute to the political processes that must follow. Canada will participate in these processes in every way that we can. We are committed to efforts to strengthen the capacity of the Palestinian Authority, working collaboratively with partners in the region. In Haiti, violence is destroying lives and undermining stability. Canada supports the efforts made at the UN Security Council to create a new mission to tackle violence, put a stop to gang violence and re-establish governance and open the way for stable democracy and a greater level of regional security. These struggles are not something that happens far away in today's interconnected world. Conflicts, indeed, that break out anywhere in the world affect all of us. In global economy, Canada's diplomacy is also focused on delivering growth and economic resilience for our people. To grow our economy and create opportunities for our businesses, Canada is deepening partnerships in Europe, the Indo-Pacific, the Americas and Africa. Recent progress includes a strategic defence partnership with the European Union. The Canada-Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, signed just last week, expanded agreements with Mexico and continued leadership through key trade agreements such as the CPTPP and CETA. These are not just trade agreements. These are bridges of resilience, engines of prosperity and commitments to the rules-based system that benefits us all. Through multilateralism, we can build an inclusive and sustainable global economy. And when multilateral institutions are under threat, Canada will not turn inward. We will lock arms with our partners to strengthen institutions, building their legitimacy and their efficacy to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. We are determined to forge new economic partnerships and leverage our competitive advantages in areas of economic strength. Canada will ensure that we utilize our diplomatic efforts abroad to the benefit of domestic interests as well. At a time when we're all looking to strengthen resilience, security and economic growth of our peoples, we cannot renounce, give up on our multilateral institutions and processes. Multilateralism remains our best hope to address global challenges. Rather than rejecting international norms, we should instead strengthen multilateralism by reforming its international institutions. This is the only way that international institutions will be able to address the challenges that we are all facing, all the while providing results for our nations and peoples. We have an opportunity to act with pragmatism and flexibility in our efforts to deal with collective challenges. That is good advice for all of us in our chamber here today. We need to bring together the representatives of those countries and entities that are both relevant to and affected by the crises at hand. As we have seen with the Coalition of the Willing for Ukraine, these efforts, in support of the UN Charter, need to become the new norm so that we can move forward on urgent challenges at scale and at speed. A generation of Canadians, including Canada's fierce and inspiring ambassador to the United Nations, Bob Ray, who has provided a lifetime of dedicated service to our country, helped to build these multilateral institutions. And I pay tribute to Bob for his lifetime of dedicated service to our country. Our goal will always be to prevent and to resolve international conflicts while modernizing global institutions so that they can meet the challenges of the future. To close, Canada is committed to leaving future generations not only a safer, more prosperous, more inclusive, and more peaceful world, but also a more sustainable one. Canada will be defined not by the strength of our values, but by the value of our strength. We know that no country can meet today's challenges alone. As former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan once said, in an era of global challenges, the world needs multilateralism now more than ever. No nation can solve its problems alone. This is the spirit of Canada, and Canadians are rising to the challenge. We will work toward a world where prosperity is shared, security is collective, and peace is lasting. This is Canada's pledge in this era of geopolitical challenge and change. Thank you. Merci beaucoup. Miigwetch. I thank the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Canada.