Germany, 2014

The year

2014 is a special one for Europeans — a special year

of commemoration. In the summer 100 years ago,

European diplomacy failed and the world slid into the

First World War. Seventy-five years ago, Germany

attacked its neighbour Poland, plunging the world into

the Second World War. Twenty-five years ago, the

Berlin Wall fell, bringing an end to the world’s decades-

long division into East and West.

However, merely to look back and remember would

not be enough in this year of commemoration. On the

contrary, we must ask ourselves: what have we learned

for the future? The most important lesson learned

from that history was the establishment of the United

Nations, for the United Nations embodies the world’s

hope for peace. That hope derives from an idea which

is as simple as it is revolutionary: there is peace when

the world sets rules for itself and replaces the law of

force with the force of law, when conflicts are resolved

at the negotiating table and not on the battlefield, when

the world renounces, step by step, the cynical logic of

violence.

To date, the United Nations has provided a universal

foundation for the hope for peace. But that universality

is under threat from the ghosts of the past and from new

demons.

In 2014 our world seems to be unraveling. Crises are

coming at us thick and fast. That is why it is not enough

simply to call upon the United Nations. No, we need to

breathe life into that call. Hope will remain but a hope,

an unattainable goal, unless States are prepared to take

on responsibility. The United Nations is not a forum

onto which we can shrug off responsibility. The United

Nations is a forum whereby we assume responsibility.

Germany, embedded in a united Europe, is prepared

to take on responsibility in and with the United Nations.

First and foremost we have a responsibility to the people

bearing the brunt of the suffering in the crises.

Next month Germany will host a conference in

Berlin to mobilize urgently needed humanitarian

assistance for the millions of Syrian refugees. My

country will play its part, and I sincerely hope that

many others will follow suit. Support is needed above

all by Syria’s neighbours. They are doing a tremendous

job but are also under tremendous strain due to the huge

influx of displaced persons and refugees from Syria.

The Ebola epidemic is raging in West Africa.

It is bringing suffering and death into the homes of

individual families. It is endangering the cohesion

of entire societies. That is why we are sending

humanitarian and medical assistance and setting up an

airlift to the region. I am delighted that many volunteers

in my country have responded to the call, saying, “I

want to go there to help on the spot”.

Above and beyond the immediate solidarity,

however, we need a long-term commitment. We need

the expertise of the World Health Organization and

the coordinating umbrella of the United Nations,

particularly in the long term as we try to strengthen

States and health-care systems. Germany will contribute

to both of those goals. We cannot bring the dead back to

life, but we may be able to prevent far too many more

people dying of Ebola who ought not to be dying if they

were treated. And we must certainly make sure that the

next epidemic does not have consequences as deadly as

the one we are still fighting.

If we are to move towards the hope of peace, we need

many small steps — the commitment of individuals,

bilateral diplomacy and regional initiatives. But none

of that can replace the United Nations. Only the United

Nations can provide a universal foundation for the hope

of peace. That foundation is international law, to which

everyone who belongs to the community of nations in

the United Nations, and those who want to belong, has

subscribed. That is what must be preserved; that is the

core of our hope for peace.

That is why I must here mention the conflict

in Ukraine. Some people in the Hall may regard it

as nothing more than a regional conflict in Eastern

Europe. But I am convinced that that view is incorrect.

I believe that that conflict affects each and every one of

us. Not just any State, but a permanent member of the

Security Council — Russia — has, with its annexation

of Crimea, unilaterally altered existing borders in

Europe and has thus violated international law. We

must counter that dangerous sign, because we must not

allow the power of international law to be eroded from

the inside. We must not allow the old divisions between

East and West to re-emerge in the United Nations.

Because so much is at stake in that conflict, not

only for the people of Ukraine but also for the future of

international law, Germany and its partners have taken

on responsibility and committed themselves vigorously

to defusing the conflict. I am under no illusion: a

political solution is still a long way off. However, just a

few weeks ago we were on the brink of a direct military

confrontation between Russian and Ukrainian armed

forces. I am happy to say that diplomacy prevented the

worst. Now the priority must be to bring about a lasting

ceasefire and achieve a political solution, one based on

the principles of the United Nations and preserving the

unity of Ukraine.

I am not discussing only Ukraine. As long as that

conflict is simmering and as long as Russia and the

West are in a dispute over Ukraine, there is a threat

of paralysing the United Nations. We therefore need a

Security Council that is able and willing to act to tackle

the new and, in the long term, far more important tasks

we are facing. The world of 2014 is plagued not only by

the old ghost of division, but also by new demons.

We are all shocked by the unspeakable brutality of

the terrorists who misuse the name of God in carrying

out their evil deeds. My question is, ought we not to

be particularly worried that the preachers of hate are

drawing in young people who have grown up in the

midst of our own societies?

That is why that, too, is not exclusively a regional

conflict — a problem in Iraq or in Syria or in Africa,

where terrorists are stamping on the fundamental rights

of women and girls in particular. That barbarity is

directed against every one of us, and against everything

for which the United Nations stands.

Precisely for that reason, our response needs

to go much further than the immediately necessary

humanitarian and military response. Germany is

making substantial contributions to both, including

militarily. But all that must be part of a political alliance

against the terror of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

My country is strongly committed to that alliance, and

I very much hope in particular that the societies of the

Middle East, realizing that far more is at stake than just

their security, will also join.

In a world haunted both by old ghosts and new

demons, we have to be able to pursue both paths. On the

one hand, we must steadfastly continue to work towards

political solutions in Ukraine, in the Middle East, in

Syria, but at the same time we must tackle the huge

tasks of the twenty-first century.

I am referring to the fight against climate change.

Germany is contributing $1 billion dollars to the Green

Climate Fund. And we will support our closest partner,

France, on the road to a successful Paris climate summit

in 2015 and to a universal and legally binding climate

convention, which we urgently need.

I am also referring to the digital age. Yes, the

Internet should be a global, free, open and safe space.

But that is not a matter solely for Government agencies

or big companies. That global, free, open and safe space

must be shaped by society as a whole. If we fail to act,

the vast technological possibilities will sweep aside the

human dimension. We need an international law for the

digital world. Resolution 68/167, which we introduced

together with Brazil, has made a start in that direction,

I hope, at the United Nations.

I am also referring to the post-2015 agenda, because

the fight against poverty begins with asking how we

actually create value. How do we create prosperity?

That question is not only directed at a few countries

in need of help. Rather, it is a call to the whole world

for more sustainable economic activity. With its shift to

renewable energies, Germany has set out on a path that,

although not easy, is one the world must take if we want

to preserve our natural resources and if the fight for

scarce resources, water and arable land is not to become

the major conflict of the twenty-first century.

Our children will judge us by those huge tasks.

They will look back, just as we are looking back at

our forebears in this year of commemoration. Having

learned from two World Wars, our forebears established

the United Nations as their lesson to us. If we want to

continue that lesson, if we want to master the tasks

facing us, then we must further develop this institution.

The United Nations is not a finished product. Perhaps it

will never be a finished product. It must evolve further,

so that in all its parts, including the Security Council, it

reflects today’s world.

I believe that the United Nations is worth every

effort, for in it lives the world’s hope for peace and a

legal order. I assure the Assembly that my country will

play its part in making that hope a reality, step by step.