Belarus, 2025

I now give the floor to His Excellency Maksim Zhirinovsky, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Belarus. Distinguished Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, the theme of this year's general debate is Better Together, Eighty Years and More for Peace, Development and Human Rights. An excellent theme. The key word here is together. So together, let's remember everything and reflect. And I'm confident that we will find the true root causes of the challenges and threats facing the planet today. First, the 80th anniversary of the great victory in the Second World War. Eight decades ago, a bloody and merciless war ended, which was a great tragedy for all of humanity. And only at the cost of millions of lost and broken lives did we overcome this challenge. The contribution of the United States and Great Britain to great victory is obvious, as is that of the Chinese people who threw off the yoke of Japanese militarism. However, the decisive factor was the feat of the Soviet people, a multinational people who fought down to the last drop of blood for their freedom and the freedom of oppressed peoples. Note that they did not hand over the keys to their cities to the conquerors. They did not hide behind pro-Nazi collaborationist regimes. They did not supply the Nazi regime with equipment and soldiers. Back then, 80 years ago, this was obvious. The liberators were greeted with flowers and rejoicing in the capitals of Europe. Monuments and memorials were erected in their honor, and streets and cities were named after them. Only 80 years of life have gone by since then, a life of prosperity and peace in Europe, and how everything has changed. The West has developed its own version of the truth about the events of those years. Memories are being erased, monuments demolished, history textbooks rewritten. Once again, we hear Nazi slogans and chants in city streets. This is how the 21st century generation is being raised, a generation that did not see the horrors of that war. They did not even hear about it from their parents, and so they are fueled by the false heroism of their ancestors, who in the past had joined Hitler's coalition of nations, dreaming of world domination. If history is being rewritten, then its conclusions are also being rewritten. This calls into question the legitimacy of the post-war world order, based on the universal principles of the United Nations, that seems clear. And it seems that they were forced into doing so, the West was forced into doing so, for a certain period of time. The collective West was, at that time, forced to share the burden of responsibility for the fate of the planet with the so-called Soviet bloc, to set aside their thoughts of world domination for a while, and to wait, of course, to wait for events to come to pass that would allow everything to be turned on its head. From this rostrum, in the past few days, we have already heard people say that the Holocaust is our shared shame. Why is it our shared shame? Everyone is answerable themselves before history. We Belarusians, for example, fought Nazism down to the last drop of blood, and laid down our lives to do so. We saved Jews at the cost of our own lives. We cannot remain silent about this today. We remember the hundreds of villages burned by the Nazis together with their inhabitants, the millions of Belarusians torn apart and mutilated, and the hundreds of thousands of children and women taken into European slavery. Therefore, we understand that preserving memory is important, so that history does not repeat itself, so that there are no more national ideologies of racial superiority, where there is no place for entire peoples, so that there are no concentration camps, that terrible invention of the West, and also to make sure that there is no genocide against any people. The Belarusian people have been living in peace now for 80 years, and if you look at our history, that is an incredibly long time to live in peace. Never have Belarusians lived so well, with such dignity and under such peaceful skies as in the last 30 years, when, under the leadership of our President, we have been successfully building a socially oriented state in the interests of ordinary people. At the same time, we sacredly preserve the memory of the terrible tragedy of the Second World War, and we pass this memory on to younger generations. Why don't many others around us, especially to the west of our border, want to live like this? Well, the answer is simple. The politicians there are blinded by their personal ambitions. They cannot see ordinary people behind those ambitions, even in their own countries. And so it is no surprise that they treat human life with such contempt, as well as that of other peoples, for example, calling on Ukraine to fight down to the last Ukrainian. This year is also significant for the UN, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary. The organisation was created by the victors of that bloody war. We remember that Belarus was among the first founders as well. Belarus is a country where one in three people were killed, tortured or burned. And throughout all these years, the Belarusian delegation has been one of the most reliable supporters of strengthening the foundations of the UN, initiating the most bold, peace-loving and historically hard-won initiatives. Therefore, we have the right to speak directly today about what our organisation has achieved by the time of its anniversary. And I would like to talk about three key elements. First, it is indisputable that the UN remains a central element of international life. This has been made possible by its undisputable legitimacy, its universal membership and its comprehensive agenda. However, we can see that the principle of universality has been seriously undermined, especially in the last decade. And that has been done by those that are constantly trying to turn the UN into a tool for advancing their own interests, in addition to doing so contrary to the aspirations of humanity. Secondly, the UN is indeed preserving the planet from another world war. Its key mechanism, the Security Council, allows the great powers to discuss matters of war and peace at the table rather than on the battlefield. However, unfortunately, this body is being used less and less. Its influence on world affairs is no longer what it used to be. And let's be honest, the UN has proved incapable of preventing many of the bloody regional conflicts of our time. And the further things go on, the more this is true. Thirdly, a huge network of international structures has been created under the UN and a multitude of legal documents have been developed. This infrastructure provides an opportunity for effective interaction across the entire spectrum of human activity. But if you look closely, only some of the UN structures remain truly effective and are actually fulfilling their functions. Why is this happening? Well, it's obvious. The organization has to keep up with the times. That requires reform, which our Secretary General António Guterres has been talking about. And first and foremost, that of the UN Security Council. And here I'm talking inter alia about expanding the category of permanent members to include developing countries from Africa, Latin America and Asia. Over the past eight decades, the membership of the organization has grown exponentially and many states that were not even on the world map when the UN was founded want their opinions and voices to be heard. And they have a right to do so, as now they are important political and economic actors. They rightly expect the UN will work in the interests of all of its members and to strengthen cooperation between them, rather than being a tool for manipulation by individual countries. And this includes settling scores with other states. Fourth, we also see a problem in the fact that the UN is being used for certain purposes. The actions of the United States of America to reduce its support to the UN, which has already caused plans to cut staff in our organization, are a very unpleasant wake-up call. But you'll have to agree that if the UN is able to be an impartial forum and move with the times, it will be in demand by everyone, the weak and the strong, the developed and the developing. Otherwise, it will suffer the same fate as the League of Nations. And Belarus does not want that to happen because, for the time being, we do not see any alternative to the UN. And that is why talking about these institutional problems sincerely today is important, to understand their nature and to correct them. The 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act is being marked this year as well. This document, initiated instantly by the leadership of the Soviet Union, consolidated the realities that had developed in Europe after the Second World War. The Act also predetermined the stable nature of relations between the Soviet Union and the United States, which was reflected in all regions of the world and helped to make the Cold War slightly more manageable. It also introduced the principle of indivisible security, adherence to which prevented the Cold War from escalating into a hot one. The Helsinki Agreements provided an opportunity to build a united, indivisible and prosperous Europe during and after the Cold War. However, history took a different path. Today, the so-called victors of the Cold War have completely forgotten this principle and adopted a logic of superiority and confrontation. Incidentally, it was precisely this logic that was behind NATO's eastward expansion. As a result, the balance of power in Europe was undermined and security threats arose for many states. The Yugoslav crisis, the bloodshed in a number of post-Soviet republics and the conflict in Ukraine are the most striking examples of such consequences. Today, it is clear that the way to end the bloodshed in Ukraine lies in all parties in Europe returning to an understanding of the importance of respecting the principle of indivisible security. And it's important that one of the main global centres of power, the United States, has finally started to understand the importance of this. Unfortunately, the EU countries aren't doing the same thing. They continue to stoke regional conflict with the firewood of Ukraine. Joint efforts are particularly needed to increase the level of trust between countries, although there are no ready-made solutions at present. But action must be taken and we in Belarus, which is at the heart of Europe, understand this perhaps better than anyone else. After all, it was through us that the most tragic wars of modern times have swept through our country every 50 years or so, leaving nothing but memories in their wake. And that is why we cannot delay. Just look at what our European neighbours are doing on the EU's border with Belarus and Russia. They are laying mines, building walls, moats and trenches, defensive lines and barbed wire. They are trying to create a sense among their population of an impending threat from the barbarians to the east. And there have actually already been victims, albeit among NATO countries, who are either drowning in bogs or being blown up by their own mines. Incidentally, I saw here on the North Lawn near the UN building, a piece of the Berlin Wall has been set up as a monument to human rights and the inscription says, 155 kilometres and 200 victims during its existence, or something to that effect. Today a much larger wall, thousands of kilometres long, is being erected on the border between the EU and Russia and Belarus, from Finland down to Poland. And there have already been hundreds of victims along this wall since its construction began. Today, hundreds of innocent migrants from countries of the south who, in search of a better life, are striving to reach the EU, which has destroyed the normal way of life in their countries, are dying. So if we are not able to prevent the construction of this wall together, then let us at least reserve a place on the North Lawn where we can put up a piece of that wall when the countries in question come to their senses and decide that such a wall is no longer necessary. We could say how long it was and how many people died as a result. And we can say that this is a monument to the right of freedom of movement. Belarus is speaking out and proposing concrete solutions. In particular, the President of the Republic of Belarus has put forward an initiative to develop a Eurasian Charter of Multipolarity and Diversity in the 21st century, to launch a new paradigm for a Eurasian architecture of equal and indivisible security. I won't talk about this in detail. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation already spoke about this very well. We then call upon all Eurasian states to join in this process and to show the same responsibility that our predecessors demonstrated half a century ago. There is no alternative to this dialogue. We need to rid ourselves of prejudices and sit down at the negotiating table. Our appeal, of course, also is addressed to the countries of the European Union, which have traditionally been sceptical of any initiatives coming from the East. But I would like to remind them that this East is far from what it was even a decade ago. It is, in essence, the global South, or even the global majority, you could call it. And that is what must be reckoned with. It's time to finally understand that the days of the dictates of the collective West are a thing of the past. And therefore, I would like to advise European countries to reflect on their place in the world in light of the transformations that are underway, which, as we can all see, are not clearly in their favor. The decline in economic competitiveness is undermining the traditional European model of the welfare state, leading also to a fall in living standards and rising inequality, as we can see. The crazed militarization of the region is driving Europe, especially the new EU and NATO member states, into a deep financial abyss. The foundations of European society are being rapidly destroyed as a result of the virtually uncontrolled mass migration that's taking place and the failed policy of false multiculturalism as a response to this challenge. And all of this is happening against the backdrop of ever more fences that are being hastily erected in the East. These are not just concrete fences, but political, ideological, interpersonal ones, and, in a sense, civilizational fences. What then, do you think, lies beyond these fences in the East? It's not just Belarus and Russia anymore. There's also the Indian Ocean and, as our Chinese friends say, a community of shared destiny and shared responsibility for the future of humanity that is stretching all the way to the Pacific horizon that exists there. With the weakening of customs and physical borders, the strengthening of cooperation across the entire spectrum of pressing issues, the development of interpersonal contacts and multifaceted interaction, this is a community where, despite numerous cultural and national differences, people respect each other at the very least and do not impose ideological dogmas and rules of behavior on one another. Billions of people, millions of kilometers of territory, a powerful, rapidly growing economy and the most advanced technologies, ones that are now our own. We have everything, and our own modern mechanisms for cooperation as well. The BRICS, the SCO, ASEAN, the African Union, the League of Arab States. Therefore, in essence, all of these political and militaristic shenanigans by the EU on its eastern border and economic sanctions against us, these are all measures of harsh self-isolation that are driving EU countries even deeper into domestic economic and political crisis. Now, allow me to say again, this is self-isolation. If European elites intend to continue in the same vein, it will become even worse for the peoples of Europe. However, all of these problems can be solved if, instead of self-isolation, Europe accepts the concept of Eurasian cooperation and security on our vast continent. And another thing, this year we are marking the quarter century that has passed since, from the rostrum of the General Assembly, the greatest hopes and promises in the history of the United Nations were voiced. A full 25 years now separates us from the Millennium Summit, at which the Millennium Development Goals were adopted. At that time, it seemed that with the dawn of a new millennium, we were also entering a new era, one of beneficial globalization and universal prosperity. Where do we find ourselves a quarter of a century later? On the one hand, we have become even more interconnected and interdependent, and this is thanks to technological development, which is constantly changing the concepts of time and space. But on the other hand, multiple fault lines have emerged that completely negate all of the positives. Consider the following figures. In 2000, there were around 50 million displaced persons in the world. Today, there are more than 120 million. More than a billion people on the planet still live in multidimensional poverty. Conflicts in Ukraine, Palestine, Syria, post-war syndrome in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and a number of other countries that is preventing the peoples of those countries embarking on the path of recovery, large-scale military action against sovereign countries outside of an illegal framework, trillions of dollars spent on mindless militarization. This is where we've ended up 25 years on, instead of those hopes. Just consider the six and a half decades of the economic blockade of Cuba, which has also been completely unjustifiably declared a sponsor of terrorism, and in the same vein is the story about some kind of drug threat from Venezuela, which is completely unfounded and unacceptable. Is this really the result that the UN system was striving for 25 years ago? So why did the expectations and hopes of the beginning of the millennium not come true? In this regard, the words of the President of Belarus spoken at that Millennium Summit proved prophetic. For many centuries, a small group of states has determined the fate of the world, viewing other nations as peoples, as a disenfranchised mass. The past quarter century has shown that many in the West have been unable to abandon their centuries-old mentality. As a result, the West has not become a leader in the process of change, but rather a source of threats and losses. Modern Western elites that are accustomed to living for centuries at the expense of others continue to exhibit a colonial mindset, albeit a modernised one. It's no surprise that even today they continue to display arrogance and power that they exert over developing countries, which was characteristic of colonial times. Our African friends can speak very eloquently about colonial times, and certainly they are calling for reparations as well for the harm caused by the West. Over the past quarter of a century then, we have seen the West not working together to solve development problems, but rather imposing democracy and the weaponisation of the economy. This policy has spawned many wars, chaos, millions of refugees, created barriers to international trade, undermined global food security, entrenched poverty, hunger and inequality, and international organisations, chief among them the UN and the WTO, have been sidelined. That is why, in response to these negative trends, the idea of regionalisation is becoming popular and cooperation mechanisms that aren't linked to Western countries, such as, as I already mentioned, the BRICS, SCO, ASEAN, CIS, the League of Arab States and the African Union, they're growing and strengthening. They reflect the interests of the global majority countries. They work on the basis of mutual respect, equality and consensus, rather than domination and plunder. They essentially are forming a fair, multipolar economic architecture for development. And it's only natural then that the Chinese President Xi Jinping has put forward a very timely initiative on global governance, which Belarus fully supports. Mr President, the words of the great Italian thinker of the past century, Antonio Gramsci, who wrote from a fascist prison, are more relevant today than ever. The old world is dying and the new world is struggling to be born. It is indeed paradoxical that even today the new world is being born in agony because the old world does not want to quietly leave the stage. We're not the ones destroying the old world. The West itself is doing a perfectly fine job of that. But we, the global majority, are trying to build a new one, and I would like to underscore that particularly. It's together. That is the key word from the theme of this General Assembly. We're doing this together with our like-minded partners. Thank you for your attention.