Remarks by the President of the General Assembly,
H.E. Ms. Annalena Baerbock
at the Press Briefing

Wednesday,

01 October 2025

(Check Against Delivery)

Good morning!

Thank you for being here at the end of the whirlwind that was the high-level week. I would like to use this opportunity to look back at the high-level week and focus on where we go from here on. I think we could see during the general debate that there was a high attendance Including 189 members states, out of which were 124 heads of states.

And as you might have heard in my opening speech, I opened the debate underlining that the United Nations is at a crossroads, facing political and financial pressure, but also stressing that we need the United Nations more than ever, and that we shouldn’t give in to cynics who weaponize difficult situations. If anybody had a doubt if this organization still matters or still is relevant, you could see how crowded the room was not only on Tuesday but also already on Monday.

So therefore, I’m summing up:

This is the House of Diplomacy and Dialogue that the role of the General Assembly especially has increased over time.

The debates we had in the General Assembly were in some parts controversial, but this is all about this institution–we do have hard debates about the hard topics. During the debates, we could also see that the most pressing issue is peace and security. Member states always related to situations where we have wars ongoing, not only Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, but also the forgotten ones. Many of them underlined that without delivering on the 2030 Agenda, the SDG’s sustainable peace won’t be reached. And also in my bilateral meetings, and I had roughly 70 bilateral meetings, the issue of delivering on the SDG’s came up as did the need to face the climate crisis by ensuring that the biggest threat of the century is managed together. Obviously, it was underlined as well in the debates that we must have discussions on topics connected to peace and security. Many speeches also highlighted what I touched on also at the beginning of the General Assembly and the High-Level Week, that if we are failing on some of these topics, it’s not the UN as such which is failing The UN is only as strong as we are in collectively upholding the principles of our charter, the principles by international law. And we could hear and see that again this morning at the veto initiative.

During the debate, I felt a strong spirit from many, many countries, underlining that this is not only the place where we should discuss hard topics, but that the UN is a life insurance for their own countries. Many embraced the motto Better Together and not only in speeches in the general debate, but also in many side events given examples of their own countries where the United Nations was the place or the reason that they could be liberated, that they could be reunited and committed themselves for strengthening the organization. So, the questions around the UN80 initiatives, the reform of the United Nations were also one of the biggest topics in the bilateral discussions, as you can imagine.

I encouraged Member States to take the discussions here back home, how we can strengthen the organization, how we can look at the financing, how we can make it more efficient, more agile and encourage the foreign ministers and heads of states to bring these debates to their national parliaments. Because we know it’s one thing to give a speech here at the United Nations, but then when you’re faced again with debates on taxpayers’ money or on certain topics in your national parliament, it might sound a bit different. So, engaging on this process is highly important, especially also in the part of the reform process in this 80th session, selection of a new Secretary General in line with the UN Charter and the General Assembly resolutions. As you probably have also watched during the general debates, there have been a few words that drew as much applause as the idea of “madame Secretary General”, so this will be obviously an interesting debate coming up but coming to an end. I would also raise your attention to the topics we didn’t discuss in the Assembly Hall, but in the many, many other halls. We had debates on NCD’s, and especially also on AI governance, on finance structure. So, these are the topics of the future where not only many ministers engaged, but civil society experts again. This is also the House of diplomacy inviting experts from different fields, be it in the healthcare system, be it in artificial intelligence underlines that here in New York people come together to shape together the future. Overall, a high-level week is also a very personal thing. It is also like a new dimension of speed dating–I was used to bilateral in 30 minutes. Now there was a way less time.

But it’s also about trust. Building trust is the currency of diplomacy. And I think one could see, especially when we were commemorating 30 years of Beijing declaration, when one female leader spoke after another, that joining forces, taking the right course at the crossroad, doing the right things and standing up rights also shows a special spirit which carried over the upcoming days of the high level week. So now that the speeches are done and the high-level meetings are over, we get down to the hard work of delivering on commitments, knowing that our world is not perfect so we will struggle again. But I believe that not only this morning’s debate on the veto initiative, but what followed the two states conference also has a plan from the US president is a case for that.

This week really mattered, bringing real results. So, we keep working unafraid, unbroken and in the spirit outlined in our just launched one yearlong campaign, Better Together. And I thank you for not only participating today but especially for covering this high-level week because this is all about to bring it to the people around the world.

Thanks