Europe

[Scroll down for French as delivered version]

Madame la Directrice générale,
Madame la Présidente,
Excellences,
Mesdames et Messieurs les représentants de la société civile,
Mesdames et Messieurs les agents de l’UNESCO,
 
C’est toujours un plaisir de venir au siège de l’UNESCO, une organisation dont les travaux me tiennent particulièrement à cœur.
 
Alors que s’ouvre votre Conférence Générale, je me réjouis de l’opportunité de partager avec vous quelques réflexions sur les défis collectifs qui nous attendent. 
 

Minister Çavuşoğlu,
Ministers, Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen
 
It is a great pleasure to join you for the 6th Istanbul Mediation Conference. This is an important opportunity to consider how we approach mediation, one of our most important tools to reduce and end conflict.
 
As the tragedy in Syria grinds on for an eighth year, with civilians paying the hightest price, there could be no clearer illustration of the importance of political solutions to conflict. 

Thank you, dear Special Envoy [for Climate Action] Mike Bloomberg, for your introduction, but especially for your leadership in climate action. 
 
This is my first international visit since the Climate Action Summit in New York – and it is fitting that it is here in Denmark. 
 
Copenhagen is a global climate action leader.
 
And the C40 is where the world’s mayors are showing they are at the forefront of tackling the climate emergency.
 

It is a pleasure to be visiting Denmark, a very good friend of the United Nations and a strong supporter of international cooperation.
 
The Prime Minister and I had productive discussions on a wide range of challenges, but of course the climate crisis was high on the agenda.
 
I had the occasion to thank Denmark for hosting today’s gathering of mayors from 70 of the world’s leading cities, known as C40, an important follow-up o the Climate Action Summit that was convened in New York just two weeks ago. 
 

Dear friends, allow me to start by confessing my original sin.
 
I have almost 30 years of political engagement in my own country and I never became a mayor.
 

Ladies and gentlemen, honorable Minister,
 
It's an enormous pleasure to be with all of you.
 
I'm an engineer, so I have a relatively accurate idea of the importance of data – not only in the work of the engineers, if we want our bridges not to fall and we want all telecommunications to work, but also in more and more in social sciences and more and more in relation to the humanitarian and development activities.
 

I am here at the G7 Summit to mobilize for the Climate Summit that will take place in New York [in September] during the United Nations General Assembly.

[Bilingual, as delivered, scroll down for English]

First of all, thank you very much for your kind invitation. It was for me an enormous pleasure to come again to the St. Petersburg Forum.
 
It is for me a very important opportunity to address the distinguished international audience, governments, business, societies in general on issues that are vital for the United Nations and in particular, in this Forum’s context, the Sustainable Development Goals and the possibility of a fair globalization.