United States, 2009

It is my honour to address the

Assembly for the first time as the forty-fourth

President of the United States. I come before you

humbled by the responsibility that the American people

have placed upon me, mindful of the enormous

challenges of our moment in history and determined to

act boldly and collectively on behalf of justice and

prosperity at home and abroad.

I have been in office for just nine months, though

some days it seems a lot longer. I am well aware of the

expectations that accompany my presidency around the

world. Those expectations are not about me. Rather

they are, I believe, rooted in a discontent with the

status quo that has allowed us to be increasingly

defined by our differences and outpaced by our

problems. But they are also rooted in hope — the hope

that real change is possible and the hope that America

will be a leader in bringing about such change.

I took office at a time when many around the

world had come to view America with scepticism and

distrust. A part of that was due to misperceptions and

misinformation about my country. Part was due to

opposition to specific policies and a belief that on

certain critical issues America had acted unilaterally,

without regard for the interests of others. That has fed

an almost reflexive anti-Americanism, which too often

has served as an excuse for collective inaction.

Like all of you, my responsibility is to act in the

interests of my nation and my people, and I will never

apologize for defending those interests. But it is my

deeply held belief that in the year 2009, more than at

any point in human history, the interests of nations and

peoples are shared. The religious convictions that we

hold in our hearts can forge new bonds among people,

or they can tear us apart. The technology we harness

can light the path to peace, or forever darken it. The

energy we use can sustain our planet, or destroy it.

What happens to the hope of a single child, anywhere,

can enrich our world, or impoverish it.

In this Hall, we come from many places, but we

share a common future. No longer do we have the

luxury of indulging our differences to the exclusion of

the work that we must do together. I have carried this

message from London to Ankara, from Port-of-Spain to

Moscow, from Accra to Cairo, and it is what I will

speak about today.

Because the time has come for the world to move

in a new direction, we must embrace a new era of

engagement based on mutual interests and mutual

respect, and our work must begin now. We know the

future will be forged by deeds, and not simply words.

Speeches alone will not solve our problems. It will take

persistent action.

So for those who question the character and cause

of my nation, I ask you to look at the concrete actions

we have taken in just nine months.

On my first day in office I prohibited, without

exception or equivocation, the use of torture by the

United States of America. I ordered the prison at

Guantanamo Bay closed, and we are doing the hard

work of forging a framework to combat extremism

within the rule of law.

Every nation must know that America will live its

values, and we will lead by example. We have set a

clear and focused goal to work with all members of

this body to disrupt, dismantle and defeat Al-Qaida and

its extremist allies — a network that has killed

thousands of people of many faiths and nations and has

plotted to blow up this very building. In Afghanistan

and Pakistan, we and many nations here are helping

those Governments to develop the capacity to take the

lead in this effort, while working to advance

opportunity and security for their people.

In Iraq we are responsibly ending a war. We have

removed American combat brigades from Iraqi cities

and set a deadline of next August to remove all our

combat brigades from Iraqi territory. I have made clear

that we will help Iraqis make the transition to full

responsibility for their future and keep our

commitment to remove all American troops by the end

of 2011.

I have outlined a comprehensive agenda to seek

the goal of a world without nuclear weapons. In

Moscow, the United States and Russia announced that

we would pursue substantial reductions in our strategic

warheads and launchers. In the Conference on

Disarmament we agreed on a workplan to negotiate an

end to the production of fissile materials for nuclear

weapons. And this week, my Secretary of State will

become the first senior American representative to the

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annual members’ conference of the Comprehensive

Test Ban Treaty.

Upon taking office, I appointed a special envoy

for Middle East peace, and America has worked

steadily and aggressively to advance the cause of two

States — Israel and Palestine — in which peace and

security take root and the rights of both Israelis and

Palestinians are respected.

To confront climate change we have invested

$80 billion in clean energy. We have substantially

increased our fuel efficiency standards. We have

provided new incentives for conservation, launched an

energy partnership across the Americas and moved

from being a bystander to being a leader in

international climate negotiations.

To overcome an economic crisis that touches

every corner of the world, we worked with the Group

of 20 nations to forge a coordinated international

response of over $2 trillion in stimulus to bring the

global economy back from the brink. We mobilized

resources that help prevent the crisis from spreading

further to developing countries, and we joined with

others to launch a $20 billion global food security

initiative that will lend a hand to those who need it

most and help them build their own capacity.

We have also re-engaged the United Nations. We

have paid our bills. We have joined the Human Rights

Council. We have signed the Convention on the Rights of

Persons with Disabilities. We have fully embraced the

Millennium Development Goals, and we address our

priorities here in this institution, for instance through the

Security Council meeting on nuclear non-proliferation

and disarmament that I will chair tomorrow and

through the issues that I will discuss today.

That is what we have already done, but it is just a

beginning. Some of our actions have yielded progress;

some have laid the groundwork for progress in the

future. But make no mistake: this cannot solely be

America’s endeavour. Those who used to chastise

America for acting alone in the world cannot now

stand by and wait for America to solve the world’s

problems alone. We have sought, in word and deed, a

new era of engagement with the world, and now is the

time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for

a global response to global challenges.

If we are honest with ourselves, we need to admit

that we are not living up to that responsibility.

Consider the course that we are on if we fail to

confront the status quo: extremists sowing terror in

pockets of the world, protracted conflicts that grind on

and on, genocide, mass atrocities, more nations with

nuclear weapons, melting ice caps and ravaged

populations, persistent poverty and pandemic disease.

I say this not to sow fear, but to state a fact. The

magnitude of our challenges has yet to be met by the

measure of our actions. This body was founded on the

belief that the nations of the world could solve their

problems together. Franklin Roosevelt, who died

before he could see his vision for this institution

become a reality, put it this way:

“The structure of world peace cannot be the work

of one man, or one party, or one nation. It cannot

be a peace of large nations or of small nations. It

must be a peace which rests on the cooperative

effort of the whole world.”

The cooperative effort of the whole world —

those words ring even more true today when it is not

simply peace, but our very health and prosperity that

we hold in common. Yet, we also know that this body

is made up of sovereign States and that, sadly but not

surprisingly, this body has often become a forum for

sowing discord instead of forging common ground, a

venue for playing politics and exploiting grievances

rather than solving problems. After all, it is easy to

walk up to this podium and point fingers and stoke

divisions. Nothing is easier than blaming others for our

troubles and absolving ourselves of responsibility for

our choices and our actions. Anybody can do that.

Responsibility and leadership in the twenty-first

century demand more.

In an era when our destiny is shared, power is no

longer a zero-sum game. No one nation can or should

try to dominate another nation. No world order that

elevates one nation or group of people over another

will succeed. No balance of power among nations will

hold. The traditional divisions between nations of the

South and the North make no sense in an

interconnected world, nor do alignments of nations

rooted in the cleavages of a long-gone cold war.

The time has come to realize that the old habits

and the old arguments are irrelevant to the challenges

faced by our peoples. They leave nations to act in

opposition to the very goals that they claim to pursue

and to vote, often in this body, against the interests of

their own people. They build up walls between us and

11 09-52179

the future that our peoples seek, and the time has come

for those walls to come down. Together we must build

new coalitions that bridge old divides — coalitions of

different faiths and creeds, of North and South, East,

West, black, white and brown.

The choice is ours. We can be remembered as the

generation that chose to drag the arguments of the

twentieth century into the twenty-first, and that put off

hard choices, refused to look ahead, and failed to keep

pace because we defined ourselves by what we were

against instead of what we were for; or we can be a

generation that chooses to see the shoreline beyond the

rough waters ahead, that comes together to serve the

common interests of human beings, and finally gives

meaning to the promise imbedded in the name given to

this institution — the United Nations. That is the future

America wants — a future of peace and prosperity that

we can reach only if we recognize that all nations have

rights. But all nations have responsibilities as well.

That is the bargain that makes this work. That must be

the guiding principle of international cooperation.

Today, let me put forward four pillars that I

believe are fundamental to the future that we want for

our children: non-proliferation and disarmament, the

promotion of peace and security, the preservation of

our planet, and a global economy that advances

opportunity for all people.

First, we must stop the spread of nuclear weapons

and seek the goal of a world without them. This

institution was founded at the dawn of the atomic age

in part because man’s capacity to kill had to be

contained. For decades, we averted disaster, even under

the shadow of a super-Power stand-off. But today the

threat of proliferation is growing in scope and

complexity. If we fail to act, we will invite nuclear

arms races in every region and the prospect of wars and

acts of terror on a scale that we can hardly imagine.

A fragile consensus stands in the way of this

frightening outcome, and that is the basic bargain that

shapes the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear

Weapons (NPT). It says that all nations have the right

to peaceful nuclear energy, and that nations with

nuclear weapons have a responsibility to move towards

disarmament and those without them have the

responsibility to forsake them. The next 12 months

could be pivotal in determining whether this compact

will be strengthened or will slowly dissolve.

America intends to keep our end of the bargain.

We will pursue a new agreement with Russia to

substantially reduce our strategic warheads and

launches. We will move forward with ratification of the

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and work

with others to bring the Treaty into force, so that

nuclear testing is permanently prohibited. We will

complete a nuclear posture review that opens the door

to deeper cuts and reduces the role of nuclear weapons,

and we will call upon countries to begin negotiations in

January on a treaty to end the production of fissile

material for weapons.

I will also host a summit next April that reaffirms

each nation’s responsibility to secure nuclear material

on its territory and to help those who cannot, because

we must never allow a single nuclear device to fall into

the hands of a violent extremist. And we will work to

strengthen the institutions and initiatives that combat

nuclear smuggling and theft.

All of this must support efforts to strengthen the

NPT. Those nations that refuse to live up to their

obligations must face consequences. Let me be clear:

This is not about singling out individual nations. It is

about standing up for the rights of all nations that do

live up to their responsibilities, because a world in

which International Atomic Energy Agency inspections

are avoided and the United Nations demands are

ignored will leave all people less safe and all nations

less secure.

In their actions to date, the Governments of North

Korea and Iran threaten to take us down this dangerous

slope. We respect their rights as members of the

community of nations. I have said before and I will

repeat: I am committed to diplomacy that opens a path

to greater prosperity and more secure peace for both

nations if they live up to their obligations. But if the

Governments of Iran and North Korea choose to ignore

international standards; if they put the pursuit of

nuclear weapons ahead of regional stability and the

security and opportunity of their own people; if they

are oblivious to the dangers of escalating nuclear arms

races in both East Asia and the Middle East, then they

must be held accountable. The world must stand

together to demonstrate that international law is not an

empty promise and that treaties will be enforced. We

must insist that the future does not belong to fear.

That brings me to the second pillar for our future:

the pursuit of peace. The United Nations was born of

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the belief that the people of the world can live their

lives, raise their families and resolve their differences

peacefully. Yet we know that in too many parts of the

world this ideal remains an abstraction — a distant

dream. We can either accept that outcome as inevitable

and tolerate constant and crippling conflict, or we can

recognize that the yearning for peace is universal and

reassert our resolve to end conflicts around the world.

That effort must begin with an unshakeable

determination that the murder of innocent men, women

and children will never be tolerated. On this, there can

be no dispute.

The violent extremists who promote conflict by

distorting faith have discredited and isolated

themselves. They offer nothing but hatred and

destruction. In confronting them, America will forge

lasting partnerships to target terrorists, share

intelligence, coordinate law enforcement and protect

our people. We will permit no safe haven for Al-Qaida

to launch attacks from Afghanistan or any other nation.

We will stand by our friends on the front lines, as we

and many nations will do in pledging support for the

Pakistani people tomorrow. And we will pursue

positive engagement that builds bridges among faiths

and new partnerships for opportunity.

Our efforts to promote peace, however, cannot be

limited to defeating violent extremists, for the most

powerful weapon in our arsenal is the hope of human

beings — the belief that the future belongs to those

who would build and not destroy; the confidence that

conflicts can end and a new day can begin. And that is

why we will strengthen our support for effective

peacekeeping, while energizing our efforts to prevent

conflicts before they take hold.

We will pursue a lasting peace in Sudan, through

support for the people of Darfur and the implementation

of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, so that we

secure the peace that the Sudanese people deserve.

And in countries ravaged by violence, from Haiti to

Congo to East Timor, we will work with the United

Nations and other partners to support an enduring peace.

I will also continue to seek a just and lasting

peace between Israel, Palestine and the Arab world. We

will continue to work on that issue. Yesterday I had a

constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu

and President Abbas. We have made some progress.

Palestinians have strengthened their efforts on security.

Israelis have facilitated greater freedom of movement

for the Palestinians. As a result of these efforts on both

sides, the economy in the West Bank has begun to

grow.

But more progress is needed. We continue to call

on Palestinians to end incitement against Israel. And

we continue to emphasize that America does not accept

the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements.

The time has come to re-launch negotiations —

without preconditions — that address the permanent-

status issues: security for Israelis and Palestinians,

borders, refugees and Jerusalem. The goal is clear: two

States living side by side in peace and security: a

Jewish State of Israel, with true security for all Israelis,

and a viable, independent Palestinian State with

contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began

in 1967 and realizes the potential of the Palestinian

people. As we pursue this goal, we will also pursue

peace between Israel and Lebanon, Israel and Syria,

and a broader peace between Israel and its many

neighbours. In pursuit of that goal, we will develop

regional initiatives with multilateral participation,

alongside bilateral negotiations.

Now, I am not naive. I know this will be difficult.

But all of us — not just the Israelis and the

Palestinians, but all of us — must decide whether we

are serious about peace, or whether we will only lend it

lip-service. To break the old patterns — to break the

cycle of insecurity and despair — all of us must say

publicly what we would acknowledge in private. The

United States does Israel no favours when we fail to

couple an unwavering commitment to its security with

an insistence that Israel respect the legitimate claims

and rights of the Palestinians. And nations within this

body do the Palestinians no favours when they choose

vitriolic attacks against Israel over a constructive

willingness to recognize Israel’s legitimacy and its

right to exist in peace and security.

We must remember that the greatest price of this

conflict is not paid by us. It is not paid by politicians.

It is paid by the Israeli girl in Sderot who closes her

eyes in fear that a rocket will take her life in the middle

of the night. It is paid by the Palestinian boy in Gaza

who has no clean water and no country to call his own.

These are all God’s children. And after all the politics

and all the posturing, this is about the right of every

human being to live with dignity and security. That is a

lesson embedded in the three great faiths that call one

small slice of Earth the Holy Land. And that is why —

13 09-52179

even though there will be setbacks, and false starts, and

tough days — I will not waiver in my pursuit of peace.

Thirdly, we must recognize that in the twenty-

first century there will be no peace unless we take

responsibility for the preservation of our planet. And I

thank the Secretary-General for hosting the summit on

climate change yesterday.

The danger posed by climate change cannot be

denied. Our responsibility to meet it must not be

deferred. If we continue down our current course,

every member of this Assembly will see irreversible

changes within its borders. Our efforts to end conflicts

will be eclipsed by wars over refugees and resources.

Development will be devastated by drought and

famine. Land that human beings have lived on for

millennia will disappear. Future generations will look

back and wonder why we refused to act — why we

failed to pass on an environment that was worthy of

our inheritance.

And that is why the days when America dragged

its feet on this issue are over. We will move forward

with investments to transform our energy economy,

while providing incentives to make clean energy the

profitable kind of energy. We will press ahead with

deep cuts in emissions to reach the goals that we set for

2020, and eventually 2050. We will continue to

promote renewable energy and efficiency — and share

new technologies — with countries around the world.

And we will seize every opportunity for progress to

address this threat in a cooperative effort with the

entire world.

Those wealthy nations that did so much damage

to the environment in the twentieth century must

accept our obligation to lead. But responsibility does

not end there. While we must acknowledge the need for

differentiated responses, any effort to curb carbon

emissions must include the fast-growing carbon

emitters who can do more to reduce their air pollution

without inhibiting growth. And any effort that fails

both to help the poorest nations to adapt to the

problems that climate change has already wrought and

to help them travel a path of clean development simply

will not work.

It is hard to change something as fundamental as

how we use energy. I know that. It is even harder to do

so in the midst of a global recession. Certainly, it will

be tempting to sit back and wait for others to move

first. But we cannot make this journey unless we all

move forward together. As we head into Copenhagen,

let us resolve to focus on what each of us can do for

the sake of our common future.

This leads me to the final pillar that must fortify

our future: a global economy that advances opportunity

for all people.

The world is still recovering from the worst

economic crisis since the Great Depression. In

America, we see the engine of growth beginning to

churn, and yet many still struggle to find a job or pay

their bills. Across the globe, we find promising signs,

but little certainty about what lies ahead. And far too

many people in far too many places live through the

daily crises that challenge our humanity: the despair of

an empty stomach; the thirst brought on by dwindling

water supplies; the injustice of a child dying from a

treatable disease or a mother losing her life as she

gives birth.

In Pittsburgh, we will work with the world’s

largest economies to chart a course for growth that is

balanced and sustained. That means vigilance to ensure

that we do not let up until our people are back to work.

That means taking steps to rekindle demand, so that

global recovery can be sustained. And that means

setting new rules of the road and strengthening

regulation for all financial centres, so that we put an

end to the greed and the excess and the abuse that led

us into this disaster, and prevent a crisis like this from

ever happening again.

At a time of such interdependence, we have a

moral and pragmatic interest, however, in broader

questions of development: the questions of development

that existed even before this crisis happened. And so

America will continue our historic effort to help people

feed themselves. We have set aside $63 billion to carry

forward the fight against HIV/AIDS, to end deaths

from tuberculosis and malaria, to eradicate polio and to

strengthen public health systems. We are joining with

other countries to contribute H1N1 vaccines to the

World Health Organization. We will integrate more

economies into a system of global trade. We will

support the Millennium Development Goals and

approach next year’s summit with a global plan to

make them a reality. And we will set our sights on the

eradication of extreme poverty in our time.

Now is the time for all of us to do our part.

Growth will not be sustained or shared unless all

nations embrace their responsibilities. That means that

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wealthy nations must open their markets to more goods

and extend a hand to those with less, while reforming

international institutions to give more nations a greater

voice. And developing nations must root out the

corruption that is an obstacle to progress, for

opportunity cannot thrive where individuals are

oppressed and businesses have to pay bribes. That is

why we will support honest police and independent

judges, civil society and a vibrant private sector. Our

goal is simple: a global economy in which growth is

sustained and opportunity is available to all.

Now, the changes that I have spoken about today

will not be easy to make, and they will not be realized

simply by leaders like us coming together in forums

like this, as useful as that may be. For, as in any

assembly of members, real change can only come

through the people we represent. That is why we must

do the hard work to lay the groundwork for progress in

our own capitals. That is where we will build the

consensus to end conflicts and to harness technology

for peaceful purposes, to change the way we use

energy and to promote growth that can be sustained

and shared.

I believe that the people of the world want this

future for their children. And that is why we must

champion those principles that ensure that

Governments reflect the will of the people. These

principles cannot be afterthoughts. Democracy and

human rights are essential to achieving each of the

goals that I have discussed today, because

Governments of the people and by the people are more

likely to act in the broader interests of their own

people, rather than the narrow interest of those in

power.

The test of our leadership will not be the degree

to which we feed the fears and old hatreds of our

people. True leadership will not be measured by the

ability to muzzle dissent or to intimidate and harass

political opponents at home. The people of the world

want change. They will not long tolerate those who are

on the wrong side of history.

This Organization’s Charter commits each of us

“to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the

dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal

rights of men and women”.

Among those rights is the freedom to speak your

mind and worship as you please, the promise of

equality of the races and the opportunity for women

and girls to pursue their own potential, and the ability

of citizens to have a say in how you are governed and

to have confidence in the administration of justice. For,

just as no nation should be forced to accept the tyranny

of another nation, no individual should be forced to

accept the tyranny of their own people.

As an African-American, I will never forget that I

would not be here today without the steady pursuit of a

more perfect union in my country. That guides my

belief that no matter how dark the day may seem,

transformative change can be forged by those who

choose to side with justice. And I pledge that America

will always stand with those who stand up for their

dignity and their rights — for the student who seeks to

learn, the voter who demands to be heard, the innocent

who longs to be free and the oppressed who yearns to

be equal.

Democracy cannot be imposed on any nation

from the outside. Each society must search for its own

path, and no path is perfect. Each country will pursue a

path rooted in the culture of its people and in its past

traditions. And I admit that America has too often been

selective in its promotion of democracy. But that does

not weaken our commitment; it only reinforces it.

There are basic principles that are universal. There are

certain truths that are self-evident, and the United

States of America will never waiver in our efforts to

stand up for the right of people everywhere to

determine their own destiny.

Sixty-five years ago, a weary Franklin Roosevelt

spoke to the American people in his fourth, and final,

inaugural address. After years of war, he sought to sum

up the lessons that could be drawn from the terrible

suffering and enormous sacrifice that had taken place.

We have learned, he said, to be citizens of the world,

members of the human community. The United Nations

was built by men and women like Roosevelt from

every corner of the world — from Africa and Asia,

from Europe to the Americas. These architects of

international cooperation had an idealism that was

anything but naive. It was rooted in the hard-earned

lessons of war, rooted in the wisdom that nations could

advance their interests by acting together instead of

splitting apart.

Now it falls to us, for this institution will be what

we make of it. The United Nations does extraordinary

good around the world, in feeding the hungry, caring

for the sick and mending places that have been broken.

15 09-52179

But it also struggles to enforce its will and to live up to

the ideals of its founding. I believe that those

imperfections are not a reason to walk away from this

institution; they are a calling to redouble our efforts.

The United Nations can be a place where we either

bicker about outdated grievances or forge common

ground; a place where we focus on what drives us apart

or what brings us together; a place where we indulge

tyranny or a source of moral authority. In short, the

United Nations can be an institution that is

disconnected from what matters in the lives of our

citizens or it can be an indispensable factor in

advancing the interests of the people we serve.

We have reached a pivotal moment. The United

States stands ready to begin a new chapter of

international cooperation, one that recognizes the

rights and responsibilities of all nations. And so, with

confidence in our cause and with a commitment to our

values, we call on all nations to join us in building the

future that our people so richly deserve.