🇹🇬Robert Komlan Edo DusseyTogo · UNGA 81 speech

Excellence.

Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, heads of state and government, President of the General Assembly, Secretary General, ladies and gentlemen, heads of delegations, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the President of the Council, His Excellency Faure Essofima Gnassingbe, of the Government and the Togolese people, I would like, Mr. President, to convey to you my sincere and warm congratulations on your election to the presidency of this session of the General Assembly. To you, Secretary-General, Sir, and Mr. Antonio Guterres, I would like to convey Togo's sincere gratitude for your unfailing commitment to peace, to security, to solidarity, and to sustainable development. At a time when you are completing your term, Togo would like to pay a particular tribute to you for these years of commitment, of courage, of listening and of service for the defense of the ideals of the United Nations and to reform our organization. We would like to express the desire that the legacy of your action will continue to inspire our organization and to guide those people who will have the responsibility to continue your work. We wish you every success in the future for your future commitments. Mr. President, the topic of this section asks us to do two things: to be clear in our diagnosis and to be strong in our commitment. To be clear, because we can no longer have insufficient responses to those challenges that affect our international system. Commitment, because noting the limits of multilateralism should no longer mean that we renounce multilateralism. We need even more multilateralism and even more UN, a stronger UN in defending its principles more effective in preventing and peacefully settling disputes, more representative in its decision-making structures, and closer to the realities of the people. The world needs a UN that strengthens and re-establishes trust, a UN that listens without turning away from the concerns of those people that it serves, who decide without losing sight of those for whom it works and which promises without forgetting that it needs to keep its promises. International trust cannot be restored just through speeches. It is established through the respect of shared rules, and here we're talking about international law. Unfortunately, we are seeing a worsening of geopolitical tensions and a worrisome return to war at the heart of international relations. Violations of international law and of the United Nations Charter are increasing in number. And the weakness of our responses are akin to a type of tolerance that we seem to be willing to accept. Given this situation, Togo would like to reaffirm its firm belief international law is not an obstacle to power. It guarantees its legitimacy, its predictability, and its stability. It protects the most vulnerable states, and also serves the lasting interests of the most powerful by preventing uncontrolled clashes, by shoring up exchanges, and by establishing trust. Togo thus defends a pragmatic type of multilateralism that transforms commitments into results that scaffolds power dynamics with shared rules and organizes the peaceful coexistence of interests. Mr. President, Togo supports efforts as part of the UN80 initiative to improve the effectiveness, the coherence and the accountability of our organization. Mr. President, economic and climate vulnerabilities are having an impact on stability and security. In Africa, these are coupled with ongoing security challenges and can fuel tensions and conflict. This is why development questions, questions of peace and security must be tackled in a complementary and interlinked fashion. Lasting security cannot be boiled down just to its military dimension. It requires us to act on factors causing vulnerability and it requires us to promote dialogue, prevention and mediation. Along these lines, the President of the Council, His Excellency Faure Essozima Gnassingbe, has striven to promote dialogue, to bring people's positions closer and to contribute to find political solutions to crises that affect regions. In West Africa and in the Sahel, for example, our country is working hard to encourage exchanges and to contribute to the emergence of lasting political responses. In the Great Lakes region, Togo, as part of African mediation, is also making its contribution to de-escalation, to restoring trust, and to the quest for lasting responses to disputes. These initiatives reflect a conviction. In the face of crises, we need to maintain spaces for dialogue. We need to foster political and diplomatic means. Mediation is not a weakness. It is an expression of responsibility. Togo has made dialogue and preventive diplomacy the pillars of its foreign policy. In our West African sub-region and at the African level, Togo is working unfailingly to promote mediation, stability and the peaceful settlement of disputes. We are convinced that no lasting solution can be imposed from the outside without actively listening to local and sovereign realities and what's going on on the ground. Africa is not asking for others to act in its place. It is asking for its efforts to be recognized, assisted and supported. Mr. President, On the 26th of September 2025, almost to the day a year ago, right here before this august assembly, I challenged the universal conscience on the distortion of the map of the world which wrongly shrunk the size of Africa on the map of the world and in the global collective imagination. Just a few days ago, on the 4th of September 2026 to be precise, in this very hall, Togo's call was heard and a reform of the map of the world was adopted. The international community made history by adopting, with a very large majority of 164 votes, by adopting a resolution called "Correct the Map". Togo is delighted that this resolution was adopted. This decision has a simple requirement, is it? The need to represent the world based on scientific truth and respecting the equal dignity of the people. Correcting the map is not just rectifying a geographical distortion. It's also correcting the perceptions that come with, in particular in education, in information and in public action. Correcting the map of the world on behalf of scientific truth, on behalf of responsibility in the face of history, on behalf of justice and equity, on behalf of repairing cartographic map distortions that were inherited from the past in English.

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, the adoption of this resolution is not the end of our journey. The adoption of this resolution is now the beginning of our resolution. For us, As African, the adoption of this resolution is far more than a cartographic decision. The adoption of this resolution is an act of recognition. The adoption of this resolution is an act of reparation. The adoption of this resolution, it's an act of justice. The adoption of this resolution is for justice in the world. That way, today, we have not redrawn the world. We have corrected the way in which the world is represented. Togo intends to build on this historic momentum. We count on the continued mobilization of Member States of the United Nations and its agencies, of regional organizations, of scientific institutions and of technology platforms to translate this resolution into concrete action. Because a resolution must not remain a text. Resolution must become action. Action must become knowledge. Knowledge must become education. And education must become understanding among peoples. As we say, a fairer map does not redraw the border of the world. It transforms the way we see the world ourself. Togo now wishes to move from resolution to action. We propose the opening of a new phase of international cooperation, bringing together the member state, the agency of United Nation, we say scientific and academic institution, geographer and cartographers, historian, educators, young people, and the innovators shaping the technologies of tomorrow, including artificial intelligence. Our objective is clear, dear friends, to make cartography an even more powerful instrument of knowledge, education, inclusion, and mutual understanding amongst people. We must encourage research We must develop also a new education tools for our generation. Excellencies, the digital revolution give us the issue and in turn a new dimension. Billion of people now consult maps every day on their phones, their computers and digital platform. Children, for example, discover the world through the digital maps. The businessmen make decision using cartographic data. The government also rely on special information and artificial intelligence system increasingly interpret our planet through digital data and cartographic representation. The question before us. Therefore, it's no longer only about printed maps. It's about the digital image of our planet that we are transmitting to the generation of tomorrow. Ladies and gentlemen, we also want Correct the Map to become a dialogue between generations. We want young people to have the opportunity to look at our planet with a fresh eyes. We want schools, universities, and research institution to become places where the representation of our world can be studied, questioned, and understood. We want African cartographers to contribute We want European cartographers to contribute. We want Asian cartographers to contribute. We want cartographers from America, from Arab region, Pacific, and every region in the world to contribute, because the world belongs to all of us. And because the way we represent our world should be a conversation open to all. Excellencies, today, Togo launches an appeal, an appeal to all member states, an appeal to international organizations, an appeal to the scientific community, an appeal to educators, an appeal to innovators, an appeal to the young people of the world. Let us correct the map an international laboratory for reflection, refresh, and innovation on the representation of our world. Let us transform this resolution into a program of cooperation. Let us transform an idea into knowledge. Let us transform knowledge into education, and let us transform education into greater understanding among the people we serve. We know now what we have to do for our generation. We are not here simply to correct a map. We are here to help correct a way of seeing, a way of seeing some things inherited from the past, a way of seeing that can be enriched by science, A way of seeing that can be rebalanced by our knowledge. And ultimately, a way of seeing that reminds us of one simple truth. We share our planet. We share our humanity. And we must learn to see our common world with greater occurrence, greater justice, and greater understanding. Let us correct the map. Let us broaden our perspective. Let us strengthen our understanding.

Excellencies, the fact that a resolution called "Correct the Map" was adopted here on the 4th of September 2026 will go down in the history books. And we would like the history books to remember another thing, that thanks to this resolution, the United Nations begun a global dialogue on the way humanity represents itself. Togo stands ready to continue this dialogue. And finally, we invite all member states to join us. We invite scientists to guide us. We invite educators to support us. We invite youth to hold us to account. and we invite innovators to help us to build the tools of the future. Correct the map is not the end of the map. Correct the map is the beginning of a new way of seeing the world. Thank you for your kind attention.