Dominican Republic, 2025

The Assembly will hear an address by His Excellency Luis Rodolfo Abinader Corona, President of the Dominican Republic. I request protocol to escort His Excellency and invite him to address the Assembly. Your Excellency, Madam President Annalena Baerbock, President of the General Assembly, Your Excellency, Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, Excellencies, Distinguished Heads of State and Government, Honorable Heads of Delegation, Ladies and Gentlemen. Eighty years ago, this organization was born out of the ashes of war with the staunch resolve to prevent humanity from once again slipping into hatred and barbarity and with the firm conviction that cooperation and dialogue should govern our coexistence. In the Dominican Republic, we are well aware of our responsibility as a member state of the international community and of the impact that global decisions have upon our societies. We therefore firmly call for a fairer international order in which the development of some does not mean the sacrifice of others. We are living through a time of great international complexity, shaped by a combination of five forces that are driving the destiny of our peoples – political polarization, the re-emergence of trade protectionism, the technological revolution, climate change and geopolitical competition. These global challenges are having very specific consequences for countries such as ours. The recent and persistent wars we have seen have disrupted markets, generating volatility and uncertainty in commodity prices. Newly introduced tariffs inject a further element of unpredictability into international trade. Hurricanes and the uncontrolled blooming of sargassum reminds us of our climate vulnerability. Added to that, disinformation, which gains even greater volume in digital environments, is eroding public trust. These are converging challenges that test the principles of the Charter of San Francisco. Franklin Delano Roosevelt expressed the key to addressing these. He said the only true safeguard for peace can be found in cooperation based on economic and social justice. Against this backdrop, the Dominican Republic reaffirms its faith in the founding Charter of the United Nations, in its principles and values. Not to be seen as secondary options, but rather as the only path to preserving peace and human dignity. We welcome the theme convening us here today, Better Together – 80 years and more for peace, development and human rights. We embrace this as a historic mandate and as the legitimate cry of our peoples. Multilateralism is undergoing profound challenges, exacerbated by the financial crisis affecting this organisation and by the increasing difficulty in reaching consensus to halt conflicts. In this context, we urgently need to see more candid, effective and results-oriented spaces for dialogue at all levels. We must listen to each other with greater openness and a genuine willingness to achieve mutual understanding. If we fail to transform the United Nations, we risk it falling into irrelevance, and this would be a disaster that we must not allow. The UN80 initiative provides an historic opportunity to revitalise mandates, renew structures and to restore effectiveness and credibility to this common house of nations. The Dominican Republic firmly supports this process. In the coming months, a new Secretary-General must be chosen. It now falls to Latin America and the Caribbean to offer renewed leadership with the vision, independence and commitment demanded by our times. Our region possesses the diversity, capacity and experience to be able to raise a strong voice for peace, climate justice, human rights and sustainable development. I am fully convinced that the time has come for a woman to take up the post of Secretary-General. Colleagues, we stand barely five years from 2030, and yet the Sustainable Development Goals remain behind schedule. The principal obstacle is an international financial architecture that does not reflect the realities of developing countries. The commitments undertaken at the recent Conference on Financing for Development in Seville are a positive step, but insufficient. We need to see genuine transformation, a new international financial compact with access to concessional finance, debt relief, innovative mechanisms and enhanced technical cooperation. The Dominican Republic's commitment is strong. Despite the challenges, we have achieved tangible progress in implementing the 2030 Agenda. In particular, we stressed the sustained advances in the first two SDGs, poverty reduction and zero hunger. As a result of our social protection policies, boosting our agricultural production and increasing the minimum wage, we managed to reduce moderate levels of poverty from 25.8% in 2019 to 18.05% in the first quarter of 2025. At the same time, undernourishment fell from 8.6% in 2018 to 3.6% in 2025. Ladies and gentlemen, I have responsibly and consistently stated before this Assembly and in every relevant international forum that the multidimensional crisis in Haiti represents a serious threat to peace and security for the Dominican Republic and the region. Since 2021, we have clearly stated that the only solution for Haiti is consistent and sustained international action, ensuring minimum conditions of security and opening the way to the broadest democratic and sovereign agreement among Haitians themselves. This neighbouring country is experiencing an unprecedented human tragedy, extreme violence, institutional collapse and territorial control by numerous criminal gangs terrorising its population. These are groups that the Dominican and United States governments have designated as terrorist organisations and with which no negotiation is possible. In light of this reality, the Dominican Republic has mounted a sustained diplomatic offensive to achieve an effective international response. In this vein, the Security Council approved a multinational security support mission, the MSS, together with an arms embargo and a sanctions regime for those individuals and institutions supporting such criminal organisations. We are grateful for the leadership of Kenya, Jamaica, Belize, the Bahamas, Guatemala and El Salvador, and for the financial support provided by the United States, Canada and other countries which enabled the initial deployment. Yet the mission has still not attained the necessary scale, personnel strength and adequate financing and has therefore not yet met its goals. For this reason, we strongly support the draft resolution tabled by Panama and the United States to the Security Council based on the proposal of Secretary General Guterres to transform the MSS into a force capable of imposing order and restoring peace with a reinforced command structure, clear and measurable goals and the logistical and operational backing of an office under UN command. This proposal would establish a more robust presence with greater coordination, oversight and accountability standards in both human rights and operational performance. We issue an urgent appeal to the members of the Security Council, especially the five permanent members, to adopt this resolution without delay. We must bear in mind that the MSS's mandate expires on the 2nd of October. We are at a delicate transitional stage that calls for legitimacy for the mission's entire current contingent. The Dominican Republic calls for support for this request. We do so as we stand on the very brink of Haiti's collapse. We also appeal for political, financial and operational backing from Latin America and the Caribbean for the mission in Haiti. This is a country in our region, one that demands shared responsibility as neighbours. It's important to make clear that the Dominican Republic will continue to protect its territorial integrity and to enforce its national migration regime. No state can be blamed for defending its borders nor for guaranteeing the security of its citizens. We cannot nor we must not bear alone the burden of a crisis that exceeds any national capacity. It is neither sustainable nor safe for anyone. Every day of inaction pushes the solution to the crisis further away. We must act now. Friends, for small island developing states, the triple planetary crisis, that is climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution, is an existential threat. In the Caribbean, this crisis can be specifically seen through the presence of sargassum, a devastating phenomenon affecting our coasts, our public health and livelihoods. We demand solidarity and climate justice, translating into accessible finance, technology transfer and urgent action to protect our oceans. The Dominican Republic is moving towards the ratification of the BBNJ Treaty, convinced that the protection of marine biodiversity is a shared duty. The seas are a source of life. Caring for them means caring for our future. Distinguished delegates, this 80th anniversary should not stand as a ritual of nostalgia, rather a resounding call to renew humanity's covenant with itself. Although we are not facing a world war, the world is hurting on multiple fronts and uncertainty is spreading like a shadow. This is neither the future our predecessors envisioned nor the present that our peoples deserve. The UN cannot limit itself to merely recording crises. It must be a compass in the storm and a beacon in the night. We must ensure that faith in dialogue and consensus, in the power of multilateralism and human dignity and in progress that excludes no one, do not fade. Power without justice and progress without equity are nothing more than mirages. The world cannot remain a plan drawn by a handful of architects and inhabited by millions of tenants. A world designed for a few would be a punishment. One designed by and for all would represent a horizon of shared prosperity. The Dominican Republic raises its voice to ensure hope and to summon action. Let peace not be a mere aspiration but rather a collective decision. That is our cry. That is our dream. That must be our common pact. Thank you very much. On behalf of the Assembly, I wish to thank the President of the Dominican Republic. The Assembly will hear an address by his