Switzerland

During Thursday’s Humanitarian Task Force meeting, we heard firsthand reporting from our UN colleagues based in the region about the increasingly horrific brutality in recent weeks by all parties involved in the de-escalation area in northwestern Syria, which has caused significant civilian causalities and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.  Three million people in Idlib need protection. A humanitarian catastrophe is a grave danger if the violence does not cease.  Attacks and fighting are also impacting civilians in government-controlled areas.
 

It is a pleasure to greet this AI for Good Summit. I thank the International Telecommunications Union and our many partners for gathering to explore how technology can advance sustainable development and a better future for all.
 
Artificial intelligence brings the promise of improved access to health care, accelerated economic development and other gains.
 
But we can also see dangers: a world with diminished privacy, less human agency and accountability, and where income inequality widens and access to work narrows for millions.
 

Today, the global security environment is threatened from many sides.
 
The international arms control architecture is experiencing enormous strains.
 
Regional nuclear challenges persist.
 
And tensions between nuclear-armed rivals have intensified.
 
Countries continue to prepare for war in space….  and they continue to develop new weapon technologies, including through cyber means, artificial intelligence, and so-called “hypersonic weapons” that could attack at unprecedented speed.
 

Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen,
 
Thank you very much for inviting me to address all of you today.
 
Since the end of the Second World War, nations have relied on a system of multilateral institutions and agreements to promote peace and equitable social and economic progress.
 
The World Trade Organization, along with its predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, is an indispensable component of that system.
 
Trade is at the heart of international relations, and the WTO is at the heart of trade.
 

Excellences, Mesdames et Messieurs, Chers collègues, Tout protocole observé,
 
Le jour où je suis né, mon grand-père a planté un arbre, un olivier. Il faisait confiance. Un arbre est un projet à long terme. Un arbre est une démonstration de confiance dans le futur. Et les oliviers, dans mon pays, durent longtemps. Il y a même des oliviers millénaires, qui ont tout vu autour d’eux et qui ont résisté à tout.
 

NR: Thank you very much Alessandra. Good morning everybody and thank you for your patience.

I am pleased to send this message of encouragement to the group of governmental experts on emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapons systems.
 
Your work is of the utmost importance and urgency. As I have said on a number of occasions, machines with the power and discretion to take lives without human involvement are politically unacceptable, morally repugnant and should be prohibited by international law.
 

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a pleasure to be with you today to kick start the first of the five UN regional sustainable development forums.

This year, I have made it a priority to be present in all of them.

First, because the regional forums are critical tools to maintain the ambition, review progress, exchange practices and we are on-track to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.