🇦🇬Walton Alfonso WebsonAntigua and Barbuda · UNGA 81 speech

Mr. President, distinguished ministers of government and representatives, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I am indeed humbled and honored to be asked to deliver the statement by the honorable Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, the right honorable Gaston Brown, on behalf of the government and people of Antigua and Barbuda. Mister President, we meet once again at a moment when history asks difficult questions of this institution. Can multilateralism still protect the weak as well as the strong? Can international law restrain power rather than merely record its consequences? Can development remain a promise for all rather than a privilege for some? For Antigua and Barbuda, These are not philosophical questions. For small island developing states, these are questions of survival. As we begin the 81st session of this General Assembly, we stand between two eras, one ending and another waiting to be shaped. At the end of this year, His Excellency Antonio Guterres, will complete his tenure as Secretary General of the United Nation. Antigua and Barbuda places on record. Our profound appreciation for his service to this organization and to the international community in general. For my country our appreciation is deeply personal. In 2017, Hurricane Irma devastated Barbuda. The entire population had to be evacuated. Homes were destroyed, livelihoods disappeared, an island community was brought to its knees. The Secretary-General, Guterres, came to Antigua and Barbuda. He saw the devastation. He listened to our people. He understood what we small island developing states have been telling the world for decades. Climate change is not waiting for the future. It is already destroying lives, economies, and communities. The Secretary-General continued to stand with SIDS. He returned to Antigua and Barbuda for the Fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States. He championed vulnerable countries and supported the international effort that brought into being the Multi-Vulnerability Index. Whether confronted by climate change, challenging inequalities, or calling for reform, the international financial system, he was a fearless and principled advocate. He never relented in demanding a fairer world and he constantly placed the concerns of small island developing states before the international community. For that solidarity, Antigua and Barbuda thank him. But, Excellencies, gratitude for the past must now match by courage in shaping the future. The next Secretary-General of this institution will inherit a United Nations confronting wars and conflicts that devastate lives and undermine international capability. Deep geopolitical divisions will exist, financial constraints, the climate emergency, and declining trust will test our organization's capacity to respond. Excellencies, the choice before us is about more than selecting an individual. It is about the future direction of this organization. That is why Antigua and Barbuda has nominated Maria Fernandez Espinoza to serve as the next Secretary General. We believe that she is the right leader for this moment. After more than 80 years, no woman has ever served as Secretary General. The time is now. Our case for Ms. Espinoza rests not on gender. It rests on competence, experience, independence, and leadership. At a time of fragmentation, the United Nations needs a credible bridge builder. capable of restoring confidence in multilateralism. Antigua and Barbuda believes that Maria Fernandez Espinoza demonstrated that when she was a leader here of the General Assembly, we believe that she can provide the leadership we need now. Mr. President, multilateralism is under profound strain. Economic uncertainties continue to grow. Technology is racing ahead of governance. Artificial intelligence offers extraordinary possibilities but it also raises profound concerns about who will control its development and share in its benefit. Small island developing states must not be left out as spectators. Nor can we accept an international system in which rules are binding upon the weak but negotiable for the powerful. International law must apply equally. Sovereignty cannot depend upon power nor justice upon one's friends. Antigua and Barbuda commands neither a a a great army nor large markets. International law, cooperation, and multilateralism are fundamental to our security and stability. For us, the United Nation is not optional. It is essential to our survival. We support a more efficient, coherent and accountable United Nations, but efficiency cannot become another word for retreat. The UN80 reform process must be judged by whether this organization serves people better. For SIDS, that means protecting development the development pillar advancing implementation of the Antigua and Barbuda agenda for SIDS, a bus, and bringing effective support closer to those who need it most. Mister President, Trade disputes, tariffs, and economic fragmentation raises the cost of food, transport, and the development. Too often, small island states pay the price for disputes we did not create. We call upon the major economies to choose dialogue and cooperation. Fairness, Mr. President, must also govern international finance. A hurricane does not check GDP before destroying a school. Rising seas does not consult income classification before entering a home or village. That is why the Multi-Vulnerability Index matters. It provides a fairer measure of the structural vulnerabilities that small island states, and it helps GDP because GDP alone cannot provide this measurement. Excellencies, nowhere is the urgency greater than in the climate crisis. For small island developing states like mine, climate change is not a warning about tomorrow. We are experiencing it today. Warmer oceans fuel more destructive hurricanes. Coastlines are retreating. Salt water destroys fresh water and throws upon it, forcing countries like Antigua and Barbuda to spend increasingly more costly means to secure fresh drinking water. The General Assembly's high-level meeting on sea level rise placed before the international community fundamental questions of statehood, sovereignty, Maritime rights, displacement, culture and identity. Climate change must never be allowed to erase a nation's sovereignty, its statehood, or the rights of its people. Antigua and Barbuda and other vulnerable states sought clarity on the obligations of states in relationship to climate change. The International Court of Justice has spoken. Climate obligations are not acts of generosity. They are responsibilities under international law. For small states, international law is more than a moral aspiration. It is our strategic shield. For SIDS, climate justice is survival. Our survival is inseparable from the ocean. The entry into force of BBNJ agreement is therefore an important achievement for multilateralism, but implementation will be the real test. States must share fairly in the benefits arising from marine genetic resources. Capacity building must be meaningful and marine technology must be accessible. Madam President, climate justice cannot be separated from historic justice. The Caribbean did not arrive at this moment on equal terms. Centuries of enslavement and colonial extraction transformed transferred wealth from our societies and denied generations the means to build prosperity. Political independence did not erase those arms. Today, countries that contribute least to climate change must borrow at high cost and rebuild from disaster given overwhelmingly by emissions that we did not have anything but that comes from afar. That is where climate debt meets historic debt. Antigua and Barbuda stands firm with CARICOM and Africa in demanding reparatory justice for people of African descent. Reparatory justice requires acknowledging responsibility, repairing continuing harm, and correcting structures that still reproduce inequality. Expressions of regret are not enough. Justice requires honest dialogue, followed by concrete measures and repair and restoration and development. Reparatory justice is not a favor. It is a claim grounded in responsibility, equality, and human dignity. Madam President, development finds its true meaning in the lives and dignity of people. Non-communicable diseases cut short too many lives and diminishes the quality of lives of too many people in my country and in our region. These diseases detecting them early, and ensuring effective treatment and national development priorities for Antigua and Barbuda. Mental health challenges are increasing. Preventable vision loss denies dozens and dozens of our people opportunities to learn, work, and live independently. Antigua and Barbuda will continue to champion mental health, strengthen our universal health programs to address non-communicable diseases and place eye health firmly within our development priorities. This November, Antigua and Barbuda will host along with the Commonwealth Heads of Government, a global eye health summit the first of its kind, to move the international community from advocacy to action against the growing burden of preventable sight loss. We invite Member States and partners to join us and support an eye health compact that expands access, strengthens prevention and treatment. mobilizes finance and integrates eye health fully into our development strategies. Excellencies, two years ago, the international community gathered in Antigua and Barbuda and adopted the agenda for small island developing states, ABAS. Our 10-year framework for sustainable development and resilient prosperity. Now, Excellencies, becomes the real hard work of implementation. SIDS need finance, technology, capacity, and institutions that will recognize vulnerability and work with us. The SIDS Center of Excellence will help turn Abbas' commitment into practical solutions through the better data, innovation, investment, and support for sustainable development. Abbas must move from commitment to implementation, and SIDS must move from vulnerability towards resilient prosperity. Mr. President, international financial architectures must also change. The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, which was held in Seville, Spain, placed debt and development finance close to the center of the international agenda. That progress must now become action. Small states cannot develop sustainably when they must repeatedly borrow to rebuild. We cannot fulfill the promise of a bus when carrying unsustainable debts Nor can we build resilience when the cost of capital itself penalizes vulnerability. For too long, the international financial architecture has asked vulnerable countries how much debt can they carry. It must also ask how much development can they achieve. How can countries realize their potential when debt services, repeated shocks, and high borrowing costs consume the resources needed for schools, hospitals, and resilient development and transformation? Finance must create fiscal space for development. Vulnerable states need greater access to long-term, affordable, and predictable financing. Together, the debt solutions that respond to these real-- must respond to these real circumstances. Antigua and Barbuda call for the launch of the intergovernmental process on debt agreed upon in civil. Madam President, there can be no sustainable development without peace. But peace begins long before guns fall silent. It begins when young people see a future, when solidarity provides food, education, employment, and opportunity. and when injustice is addressed before it becomes instability and conflict. In a fractured world, the United Nations must renew both its operational relevance and its moral clarity. It must help forge a new compact between development and developing countries, connect finance to resilience and support local leadership with global solidarity. Development is, Mr. President, an instrument of peace. The United Nations must invest as seriously in preventing wars as it does in responding after they begin. Diplomacy Mediation and development must be central to that work. Throughout every crisis, one principle must remain constant. International law must apply equally to all. The credibility of the international system depends upon this consistency. Madam President, the United Nations reform program must extend

the Security Council, its composition, its decisions and its capacity to act. Antigua and Barbuda welcomes the initiative led by France and Mexico calling on the permanent members to restrain, refrain voluntarily from using the veto but use it especially in situations of mass atrocities. We will join the growing number of member states, last count 127, in supporting this call. The veto must not paralyze the Council's work or prevent it from fulfilling its responsibility to maintaining international peace and security. Reform must also address represent representation. Africa's continued exclusion from the permanent membership is an injustice that must be corrected. Africa must have permanent representation at the Security Council. Small island developing states must also have an assured seat at the table. and we call for a dedicated SIDS seat on a reformed Council. Madam President, the Council's credibility depends equally on its response to those who urgently need its support. The crisis in Haiti is a human tragedy and challenges Caribbean stability and democracy. We call on the Security Council to renew the mandate of the Gang Suppression Force and international partners to provide the personnel, equipment, and sustained finance needed to shape that mandate and make it effective. Excellencies, Excellencies, the hardship facing faced by the Cuban people demands our attention. Antigua and Barbuda call on our friends, the United States of America and Cuba to return to the table of diplomacy and work as good neighbors would towards resolving their long-standing dispute. The Cuban people must not bear the collective punishment for political disagreement. Their well-being must remain central to efforts to find a peaceful, lasting solution. Across our region, our purpose is clear: to protect human dignity, strengthen stability, and ensure that dialogue and cooperation prevail. Excellencies, the world is changing. Its climate, its technology, and its balance of economic power are all changing. The United Nations must change with it. However, its founding principles must endure. The equality of nations, the dignity of people, the sovereignty of states, and the respect for international law must hold fast. Madam President. Let the United Nations reform strengthen multilateralism. Let international law protect every nation. Let finance serve development rather than deepen debts. Let us implement a bus, protect our oceans, and invest in our human dignity. And as this organizations prepare for new leadership, let us choose leadership equal to this moment and these tasks. Excellencies, history will not judge us by the number of resolutions we adopt. It will, however, judge us by whether we acted when the seas rose, when inequality deepened, when international law was violated and when multilateralism faltered. Let us enter this new era with courage in our leadership, fairness in our decisions, and hope in our common future. It is the hope of Antigua and Barbuda that this United Nation can still fulfill the promise of its charter. I thank you.