NATIONAL STATEMENT
Summit of the Future
Theme: Multilateral Solutions for a Better Tomorrow
delivered by
ENRIQUE A. MANALO
Secretary for Foreign Affairs
Head of Philippine Delegation
22 September 2024
Mr. President,
Today, the Philippines stands with the global community to chart work for our future.
The Secretary General sent a resounding alarm last year, reminding us that growing dangers compel us to strengthen the multilateral system.
As leaders of the community of nations, we grapple with difficult decisions to stay the course in these moments of complex crises, conflicts, as well as climate change.
The Philippines welcomes the Pact for the Future, the Global Digital Compact, and the Declaration on Future Generations and hails them as a triumph of the persistence of multilateralism to affirm that a better world is possible, with the solidarity of nations.
The Pact binds us in words and in action, bridging the collective hopes of the past with our contemporary aspirations, with the UN Charter anchoring our will.
The Pact can guide the UN in delivering meaningful outcomes for peace and security, for human rights, for fairness and equality, for resilience from crises and disasters, and for empowering individuals and all communities in the world.
Mr. President,
Through the wisdom of our forebears, we have built the United Nations on the foundation of the rule of law.
Multilateralism, with the UN at the center, flourishes on the grounds of a rules-based order that provides conditions for trust, solidarity, equity, and peace. Respect for the rule of law safeguards global peace and security and enables the international community to confront complex current and future challenges together.
It anchors a stable and predictable order needed to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. It is the touchstone for all international efforts to resolve disputes, prevent conflicts, protect human rights, and enhance global governance.
Preserving a rules-based international order is a collective duty.
Mr. President,
Our Pact is a call to action for multilateralism that puts people at the center.
Conflict, disasters, hunger, and displacement are arduous pressures on the global humanitarian system and our climate resilience framework. The capacity of multilateral institutions to protect populations from terrorism, organized crime, health emergencies, sea level rise and other consequences of global warming, is challenged on many fronts.
Our Pact orients us to persevere for peoples whose hope lies in coordinated action that can only arise in the context of effective processes of the UN system. For example, the development system is the face of the UN to people worldwide. We must support and guide this system for more coherence, effectiveness, and impact. UN programs must enjoy the full ownership and consent of the host country.
Mr. President,
The Pact sets a paradigm for inclusive multilateralism, and fosters a new international and inter-generational solidarity on the role of women, youth, migrants, persons with disabilities, older persons, and indigenous peoples, in shaping more humane, equal and just societies.
It also brings new vigor to our unfinished business of eliminating nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, and propels our endeavors to establish norms to prevent an arms race in space, govern lethal autonomous weapons, and address risks of emerging technologies to international peace and security.
Mr. President,
It is important that this Pact renews our collective determination to defuse tensions and seek the peaceful resolution of disputes and conflicts. This is the essence of the 1982 Manila Declaration on the Peaceful Resolution of Disputes. In pledging to the Pact, States abide by the obligation of rejecting force and the threat of use of force, to settle disputes.
As a founding Member of the UN and the first Asian Republic, the Philippines shall always be, a voice for peace, equity and justice, human rights and human dignity, the rule of law and constructive multilateralism.
The Philippines welcomes the compelling guidance that our Pact brings to the United Nations, and the uncompromising clarity that it sets forth to serve the good of the human race.
Thank you.