It is a great honour to represent the United Nations at this important meeting.

I thank His Majesty King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud for generously hosting the Fourth Arab-South American Summit.

I commend Brazil for proposing, more than a decade ago, that Arab and South American countries meet at the highest political level to deepen their ties.

Your regions are dynamic, with great human capacity.

Your regions also have a long history of beneficial contact and exchange.

You are trading partners.  But even more than goods, your people have crossed the miles and oceans that separate you.

The Arab diaspora in Latin America is the biggest such diaspora in the world – larger than in Europe or North America.  Several Latin American presidents have been of Arab descent. 
This history – largely one of harmony, integration and achievement – sends a powerful message at a time when the world is wrestling with the biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War.

I therefore very much welcome your commitment to inter-regional cooperation.  There is broad scope for mutual learning and sharing of experiences as you strive to promote peace, development, social inclusion and human rights.

I would like to thank the leaders and people of the Arab world and Latin America for their role in shaping the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.  In a world beset by so many challenges, its adoption seven weeks ago is a sign of hope.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals aim to end poverty, fight inequality, and create peaceful, inclusive societies on a healthy planet. 

The SDGs also address the lack of rule of law, violations of human rights, and pervasive corruption that eat away at people’s hope and trust in societies. 

Arab and Latin American countries alike have made important progress under
the Millennium Development Goals.  But there is much work ahead.

One key to success will be through women’s empowerment.

Women can and must be able to drive progress.  Latin America has achieved notable gains in gender equality, in particular in women’s representation in Government and parliament.

But too many women across the world continue to face systematic violence and other violations of their basic rights.  The world will never achieve 100 per cent of its goals without 50 per cent of its people as full and equal participants in all realms.

A second key to achieving the SDGs will be ambitious climate action.

We are now just 20 days from the opening of the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change -- COP 21, in Paris.

In recent months and years, I have talked with many of you one-to-one, at length,
about the urgent need to turn this global threat into global opportunity.

Talk must now give way to action.
This is the moment for leadership -- to tell your negotiators to be flexible, to show solidarity, and to reach a meaningful agreement in Paris.

I commend those countries that have submitted their climate action plans – the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions – and encourage all others to submit them as soon as possible.  They will not by themselves keep us below the 2-degree threshold of danger,
but they will move us onto the right pathway.

I will look to your countries to take additional steps to reduce emissions from all sources
of greenhouse gases, and to support adaptation efforts, especially in the poorest and most vulnerable countries, which have contributed the least to the problem.

The global transition to a low-emissions future is under way.  Here in the Gulf, one of the epicentres of the fossil fuel economy, solar energy and other renewables have great potential.  On previous visits to this region, I have seen important steps
to diversify the global energy mix.

I commend those Governments that, just last week in Dubai, agreed that the use
of hydrofluorocarbons – one of the most potent and fastest growing of greenhouse gases –
will be phased down under the Montreal Protocol.  This is a victory for multilateralism –
and for the climate. 

Let us build on this momentum.  I count on your support for a successful COP21 in Paris.

Latin America has displayed a strong commitment to making the region a zone
of peace.

I have been closely following the peace negotiations between Colombia and
the Revolutionary Armed Forces in Colombia, the FARC, and I am encouraged that the country is closer than ever to ending the hemisphere’s longest armed conflict through peace talks.

Latin American countries are working more concertedly with each other and with countries in West and North Africa to fight illicit drug trafficking. 

Next year’s Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly on the World Drug Problem will be a valuable opportunity to arrive at common solutions to a threat from which no country is immune.

The Arab world faces much greater upheaval.  Democratic progress in Tunisia offers
an important but lonely positive example, as the hopes generated by the Arab Spring have been dashed by conflict, instability and authoritarian governance from Syria
to Libya and elsewhere. 

Latin American countries have largely made the transition that so many people across
the Arab world yearn to make for themselves.

One crucial element in these transitions, from Latin America to Eastern Europe
and elsewhere, has been the push from below – from community organizations that have been treated as partners of Government. 

In too many countries in the region, however, human rights organizations and civil society groups are being treated – and being mis-treated – as threats to security or enemies of the state. 
This is counterproductive, and only deepens the cycle of frustration.

I encourage Arab and Latin American countries to engage in dialogue on best practices
for protecting space for civil society and human rights defenders, ensuring independent media, and building accountable security sectors and other institutions that serve
the people. 

Violent extremism is a growing threat, as we have seen in Syria, Iraq, Libya and here
in Saudi Arabia.  Next year I will present to the General Assembly a comprehensive Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism. 

Daesh, Boko Haram, and other such groups must be defeated.  But recent experience also suggests the strong need to make sure that heavy-handed approaches do not fuel
the problem we are trying to solve. 

As stated in the Declaration you are to adopt at this meeting, combatting terrorism
should be carried out in accordance with international human rights, refugee
and humanitarian law.

In Syria, the international community has now re-engaged in pushing for a political settlement.  Regional rivalries, along with divisions within Syria and the international community, have been among the factors prolonging the fighting. 

It was therefore a clear step in the right direction that Saudi Arabia and Iran sat around the same table at recent talks in Vienna.  We must work urgently to narrow the gaps, start a serious political process and finally end this nightmare.

I commend Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan for hosting so many millions of Syrian refugees, as well as Brazil and the other Latin American countries that have accepted or pledged to grant asylum.  I appeal to other countries to show similar solidarity as winter approaches. 

I also commend the Emir of Kuwait, His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, for hosting three humanitarian pledging conferences for Syria.  Yet as needs continue to escalate, funding for refugees stands at just half of what is needed, while the appeal for millions of Syrians inside the country is just 37 per cent funded. I appeal to the world to provide greater support to ease the profound misery of the people of Syria. 

In Yemen, the humanitarian situation remains dire.  Civilian casualties continue to mount.  I appeal to all sides to do their utmost to alleviate the humanitarian plight of the people of Yemen and to avoid civilian casualties. I also appreciate the contribution of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the humanitarian effort, and urge all here today to give generously.

My Special Envoy, Mr. Ismail Ould Cheikh, intends to convene a new round of peace consultations in Switzerland this month.

The Government of Yemen and the Houthis have committed to attend.  It is critical that
all sides lend their political support, and engage in good faith.

There is no military solution to this conflict.  Indeed, pursuing such a solution would result in heavy loss of life and further destabilize an already fragile region. 
Tensions in the Middle East are also high owing to the latest round of violence between Israelis and Palestinians.  Mistrust is deep, settlements are expanding, and the religious undercurrents of the current situation are especially troubling.

In my visit last month to Jerusalem, Ramallah and Amman, I urged all involved to avoid provocation and begin to re-establish a political horizon that can lead to a two-state solution based on Security Council resolutions, the roadmap and the Arab Peace Initiative.

I welcome the efforts of your regions to meet regularly, face to face, to address the root causes of conflict and poverty, to explore what you can do together and to deepen South-South and other forms of cooperation.  No single region can address these challenges on its own.  These are transnational tests in a transnational era.

Cooperation between the Arab world and Latin America can bring wide-ranging benefits
to your own regions and beyond.  The United Nations system, including the regional commissions, stand ready to support you.

Let us be united in global vision and work together to make this world better for all.

Shukran Jazeelan, muchas gracias, obrigado, thank you.