🇹🇱José Ramos-HortaTimor-Leste · UNGA 81 speech

Mr. President, esteemed Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, I'm going to speak to Antonio Guterres. On a winter morning on January 1st, 2017, you entered your office on the 38th floor of the Secretariat building. fully prepared to undertake the most demanding mission of your long and distinguished career. Throughout this remarkable journey, you have remained true to yourself, a compassionate and enlightened leader, tireless, humble, and approachable, neither dazzled by the promise of your office nor daunted by the immense weight of an unrelenting agenda 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You brought to the office neither an ego in constant need of reassurance nor a vanity requiring daily attention. You have remained humble, honest, and steadfast in your principles, never losing sight of the millions of women and children who have been abandoned and forgotten, caught in the turmoil of wars unleashed by warlords. As these wars drag on and their human and material costs become ever more unbearable, the firefighters are blamed for failing to extinguish the very fires set by the arsonists themselves. Antonio Guterres, when you leave this building on December 31, 2026, you will take your place among the great Secretaries-General, whose legacies will continue to inspire young people around the world to follow your example of service to those most in need.

General Assembly, I congratulate you on your election to preside over the 81st session of the General Assembly. You bring to this house the wisdom of 5 billion people, 60% of the world's population, representing some of the world's oldest and most sophisticated civilizations. Excellencies, at one time in history, waking up from the horrors of World War II, we were intoxicated with the dreams of a United Nations promising a new dawn for humanity. After the unimaginable World War II, started by Christian civilized Europe, we could not have hoped for anything less. But it seems that human beings can never really have enough wars and never really learn lessons of history, never really care. After the Holocaust came the glorious birth of the state of Israel. But then came the Palestinian Nakba, 1948, Over the following years, we read about the wars of partition, famine in South Asia, Korean War, onslaught in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, the infamous Khmer Rouge genocide, later the Bosnian genocide, Rwanda genocide, and so many other wars. Then came the end of Cold War, bringing us euphoria, celebration, new promise of peace. The Berlin Wall collapsed, apartheid ended. But the seeds of future wars were sown, just as NATO and Gorbachev inked the post-Cold War arrangements. The ink had not even dried, and NATO began its fast eastbound expansion. As expected, for more than four years, we have had this devastating war in Ukraine, a war that now has backfired into Russia. Excellencies, we are gathering in this hall of nations, countries large and small, some insanely rich, too many shockingly poor, but all enjoying equal voting rights. Yet we know equality is an illusion. Some possess non-threatening, antiquated guns, while few others have perfected their nuclear arsenals now 100 times more destructive than the ones dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. As primitive as they were then, these experimental bombs incinerated two cities, almost all living beings in them. Those unfortunate ones who survived the blast died long, painful deaths. Russia, US, China, France, the UK, all members of the NPT, were joined by four countries, not members of NPT, Israel, India, Pakistan, North Korea. Yes, North Korea has nuclear arsenal, arsenal estimated to be around 100. And North Korean leaders seem to have learned lessons from Libya, Ukraine, and the ongoing Iran-Israel years war. Dismantle your nuclear capabilities, And you lose the only deterrent you have against a nuclear power deciding to bomb you into submission. On June 30, 2019, President Trump traveled to the DMZ in the Korean Peninsula. The mysterious, Swiss-educated leader of North Korea, half the age of the American president, walked halfway, and the two leaders engaged in an embrace that promised peace. This is what leaders do to advance peace. They show courage, audacity. President Trump, you did the right thing. Friends are friends, we cherish and embrace our friends, never ignoring them or excluding them from the table. But we talk to adversaries so that we don't become enemies. We talk to enemies to prevent wars, and perhaps we become partners in peace. Those countries amassing nuclear weapons keep us all living near imminent catastrophe. One day, any day, by accident, miscalculation, computer error, madness, or foolish strategic design, we could become the last human generation. All the while, the brandishing of these weapons reinforces adversity and fear, which create a high barrier to achieving rational cooperation necessary to fulfill our responsibility to future generations. Trillions of dollars are invested in perfecting forms of death. Instead, we invest a fraction of these trillions in clean water, food, schools, clinics. No thought was given to the tens of millions of fellow human beings pushed back to extreme deprivation by COVID-19, Ukraine-Russia war, And as if innocent bystanders on the periphery had not suffered enough, we are presented with another catastrophe, the Iran war and disruption of vital waterways for trade. We know the madness of Iranian leaders seeking regional supremacy, pouring fuel into the fire of religious extremism in neighboring countries to destabilize wealthy, stable monarchies. Iranian leader launched unwarranted attacks against neighbors, destroying civilian industries, infrastructures. Iran's rationale for this attack is that those countries host American bases. So is Iran going to launch waves of drones and missiles against U.S. bases in Europe? Can we change course? Can we stop sleepwalking into wider wars? My invitation to President Trump: Be audacious, be unpredictable, be visionary. Invite all nuclear powers and all major conventional military powers and industries, without exception, to a summit somewhere, maybe a town in Portugal, to talk on no first strike, and hence, regular communication between leaders of the nuclear powers. Commitment on reduction of nuclear weapons towards total deactivation and destruction of nuclear arsenals over a decade. Be yourself, be President Trump, be audacious, be unpredictable. Do the unthinkable and you will gain worldwide gratitude and respect. The humanitarian situation in Cuba is heartbreaking. We understand that the US has provided 100 million in emergency humanitarian assistance to Cuba through Caritas. In keeping with the U.S. humanitarian tradition, it was creating an environment conducive to normal, long-term Cuba-U.S. relations. Trade relations between Cuba and the U.S. and the rest of the world could be improved. Regarding the situation in the Israeli-occupied territories, Gaza and West Bank, Timor-Leste joins with the vast majority of UN Member States to reaffirm our belief that the two-state solution is the only viable solution for Israelis to live in peace with themselves and with the Palestinians, and for the Palestinians to live in peace with themselves and with the Israelis. The risks are too high to continue an unstable status quo. The opportunity to do better sits before us, and the choice is an international order falling to pieces or rising to peace. Regarding Western Sahara, we welcome the Moroccan proposal and the recent Security Council resolution as an opportunity for dialogue. As with any situation of this nature, the people directly interested must be consulted on the future status. We hope that a just, comprehensive settlement is reached between Moroccan authorities and the Polisario Front. Excellencies, please take some time to look at the situation in Sudan, the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today. Look at the situation in South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Yemen. These are not abstract. They are people, they are women, they are children, youth in their best years, they are parents, they are grandparents. And they are a grand jury of humanity, indicting us all, leaders and business, of death. For you are celebrating the tens of billions of dollars in profit from wars and death that you are accomplices to. How is that we can scroll past the end of the world before finishing our coffee? How is it a child pulling pieces of his family from the rubble has become a headline so we quickly skip a notification with silence? A Tuesday. Behind each of the dead is not a statistic. It is a mother who will spend the rest of her life searching for a face in a crowd that will never appear. It is a boy hiding in silence, learning before he can read, that the world outside his door wants him dead. It is a girl, pregnant by the man who came to destroy her home, carrying inside her both the violence done to her and the life she never chose. We tell ourselves we would never look away if we truly saw it. And yet we saw Rwanda and Bosnia happen right under UN watch. We see it every day, live in our pockets, in vivid color. And still, somehow, life goes on normally. We finish our meetings, we plan our weekends, we grow inure to the killings of Palestinians. This is not a lack of information. We are drowning in information. We can live, we can livestream as it all happens. This is a lack of feeling and numbness we have allowed to settle over us like dust. All this happened before our eyes, but from the powers that can make the difference between life and death, there is no response. And worse, we witness diplomatic acrobatics to brush off the bombing of a school or a hospital, saying that it does not really violate international law because the terrorists, quote unquote, may be hiding in the basement of the building. I'm worried. Worried that we have started treating a catastrophe as something we can simply coexist with. Worried that the killing of civilians is casually being justified. Worried that total force now sounds more viable than diplomacy. This very institution was founded on a promise. All through the archives here, resolutions say a ceasefire must hold, a border must not be crossed, a civilian must not be a target. Many of those promises remain unmet, raising concern that the phrase "never again" has lost meaning. I do not have a plan that will end a war by tonight, but I know this: numbness is not neutral. Silence is not safety. Every time we let the suffering of people become background noise, we let ourselves forget how small the distance really is, how little separates your daughter, granddaughter, niece, from the girl in the refugee camp you saw on the news last night, how many children right now are learning that a world at war is normality. The more we linger in this fog, the harder it becomes for the hiding child to believe the world is not his enemy. These tragedies are not somebody else's tragedy. They are what we allowed, what we still allow, and what we will answer for. There is a painful cry for a better world order as we witness the weakening into irrelevance of multilateral institutions. No country, regardless of size or power, can address today's interconnected challenges alone. Excellencies, leadership is not merely discovering the angriest instinct of the electorate and amplifying it. Leadership is sometimes telling our own supporters that they are wrong. It is explaining complexity when A slogan would be easier. It is asking people to consider tomorrow when they're angry about today. It is persuading citizens that humanity of others who may worship differently, speak another language, or vote for another party does not diminish their own freedoms. Statesmanship requires patience, persuasion, courage to compromise, and above all, it requires an understanding that power brings responsibility, not exemption. The Charter of the United Nations was not written to make the strong weak. It was written to prevent the strong from making the world unlivable. Soon we will elect a new Secretary-General. The regional rotation precedent must be preserved. Africa had an unprecedented continuous three-term Boutros Boutros-Ghali, 1992-1996, Kofi Annan, 1997-2006. Now the Security Council will elect a Latin American as our Secretary-General for 2027-2032. And after more than 80 years of men at the helm of our Organization, needless to say, We ought to have enough wisdom and elect a woman with unquestionable integrity, unblemished record, and in the face of human rights, a strong advocacy of gender equality and inclusion, rule of law, democracy, solid experience in senior management in national and multilateral institution. Mr. President, Excellencies, For developing countries, particularly small island developing states and least developed countries, efficiency must translate into stronger delivery on the ground, not reduce essential support. Timor-Leste urges comprehensive reform, expansion in both the permanent and non-permanent categories, so that developing countries and historically underrepresented regions have a stronger voice in decisions concerning international peace and security. The veto is inconsistent with the sovereign equality of member states. President, the more or less reaffirmed the principles of climate justice, common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities in the light of different national circumstances. Greater climate ambition must be accompanied by accessible, predictable finance, adaptation support, technology transfer and capacity building. Artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies reshape our societies. Developing countries must actively participate in their governance and development. The Science for Development Summit 2026 was held in Delhi, August 2026, under the theme, Science in Service of Life. This was an initiative for myself and my brother, the Prime Minister of Timor-Leste, Excellency Kairala Xanana Guevao. We brought into Timor-Leste more than 20 Nobel laureates, scientists from around the world, leading thinkers to explore how science, technology, and innovation can be placed at the service of humanity and the sustainable development. The same spirit of using knowledge, education, and human potential in the service of peace will also guide the chess for peace tournament playing for Dili, Timor-Leste in January 2027. Jointly sponsored by my office and Mr. Kirsan, former president of FIDE, International Chess Federation, it will bring together young people with over 100 chess masters from around the globe, using chess as a tool to promote education, dialogue, friendship, peace among generation. Mr. President, our accession to ASEAN 26 October 2025 was a historic moment for our country. making the culmination of a 14-year process that began in Timor-Leste formally applied for membership in March 2011. Fellow ASEAN leaders provided us generously technical assistance, capacity building, and practical guidance, and they continue to do so. It is required of us strong institutions, capable public servants, effective implementation of ASEAN commitments across political, security, economic, and social cultural communities. Our foreign policy seeks friendship with all and hostilities none. We aim to maintain balanced, constructive relations with all our major powers, development partners. Timor-Leste also brings the energy and aspiration of young population. Our young people are increasingly connected to the region and eager to learn, work and contribute. As ASEAN works towards community vision 2045, Timor-Leste will support a united, people-centred and resilient ASEAN. We will also support ASEAN centrality and constructive relations with all external partners. We are a small island developing state, a least developed country, and a nation whose history demonstrates both the necessity and the possibilities of multilateralism. Last but not least, in parting, I want to share selected messages from children and youth who responded to my invitation a few days ago to write a few words expressing their hopes and dreams so that they are here. and they are listening back home in Timor-Leste. I selected 10 sentences for peace for the United Nations General Assembly, giving them a voice. And I begin, and I quote, "From a country that has learned from war, "Timor-Leste sends a message to the world, "that is, peace is not just a dream, "but a decision that we all have to choose." By Olgitan, 16 years old. We may look different, speak different languages, and come from different places, but we all bleed the same color. So why should our differences divide us? By Elizabeth, 16 years old. May we build a world where no child learns the sound of war before the sound of laughter. And where no dream is buried because someone else's hatred by Emily, 16. Why should we choose hate and war when we love is a choice by Irabella, 12 years old. My My voice may be small, but my request is simple. Let children grow up knowing the sound of peace, not the sound of war. Let them inherit schools, homes, and opportunities, not fear, destruction, and hatred. Let the leaders of today give the children of tomorrow a reason to believe in peace by Victoria, 12 years old. Let our difference be bridges between hearts, not walls between nations, so that every child can grow knowing the sound of laughter instead of the sound of war. Natalia, 17. Let every weapon fall silent so every child can grow up knowing the sound of peace. By Christian, 16. I only think that peace in the world begins within us. When we learn to love each other unconditionally, forgive sincerely, and respect each other despite our differences, the world will become a place full of peace, hope, and love. By Melky Vido, 12 years old. Peace is not merely the silence after conflict, rather it means we overcome everything peacefully. Let peace be the victory we seek and create a unity for humanity, by Clarissa, 14. Peace never exists on its own, but begins with us, by Francisco, 14. For all the people who rule the world, children, should not have to learn about all the wars in our history class. We should learn about the names of the stars, the names of peacemakers, and how to reach planet Mars. With deep, deep respect, Solomon. Excellencies,. Excellencies.

At the margins of the United Nations General Assembly, many of us, including heads of states and Nobel Peace Prize laureates, came together to launch the Global Declaration of Compassion. The Prime Minister of Bhutan and I were among the declaration's first signatories, joining its call for shared moral responsibility and greater accountability in global governance. As my friend and fellow Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Kailash Satyarthi has said, "We have globalized markets and technology. The time has now come to globalize compassion.".

But as a powerful force, to reach justice and peace for all. I thank you and God bless us all.