Remarks by Ambassador Ferit Hoxha at the Security Council Open Debate on Effective Multilateralism
Let me start by thanking the SG for his remarks and pay tribute to his tireless efforts, to his clear, strong and always principled position in favor of peace and security, and of multilateralism in respect of the UN Charter.
Colleagues,
Four hundred years ago, Francois de la Rochefoucaud has said “Hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to the virtue”.
Fast-forward to this meeting and there is a flagrant contradiction, we find ourselves in today:
A Permanent Member of the Security Council has openly and defiantly disregarded the UN Charter. That very country has knowingly and willingly transgressed every rule commonly established regarding relations between states. It has ignored Security Council resolutions and its own international commitments. And yet, it has chosen to lecture the world about multilateralism, as we heard today.
I could go on with generalities, or repeat many important aspects mentioned by colleagues around the table, but I prefer to recall some very simple facts:
Russia is waging an unjust, unjustified and illegal war of aggression against a sovereign nation. It is questioning its right to exist but has the audacity to pretend to come to the rescue of sovereign equality.
The Russian military, including the Wagner group, are committing horrible crimes in Ukraine, as documented by the UN, and Russia is pretending to defend universal values.
Russian missiles are destroying residential arias, killing civilians, flattening schools, health facilities, and other civilian infrastructure to force an entire country into submission, and Russia has come here to share its views about friendly relations and cooperation among states.
If it weren’t for the thousands of innocent victims, the millions forcefully displaced, for the countless children stripped of their dreams and deprived of their childhood, for the immense pain of those tortured, of women raped and families torn apart, it would have been a parody, something the Monty Python would have entitled “Preserving the UN Charter the Russian style: shred it and store it six feet under”.
Unfortunately, this isn’t a parody, and we can’t laugh.
What has happened in Ukraine is a tragedy, a man-made catastrophe with serious security repercussions in Europe and detrimental ripple effects around the world. It represents the contrary of everything we stand for and everything that gets all of us together here.
Therefore, no peace-loving nation will buy an artificial parallel reality engineered to transform the aggressor into the defender of the UN Charter; the arsonist into a firefighter, and the warmonger into a peace-maker.
This is the real issue and this is what we think we should be talking about, especially on this day.
Colleagues,
The ongoing war in Ukraine and the current global reality pose the fundamental question of multilateralism, its future and our ability to defend it.
Almost eight decades have clearly shown that multilateralism has been and remains indispensable to promoting peace and stability, uphold the rule of law, promote and protect human rights.
Today, we need multilateralism more than ever because we know that global challenges require global solutions, and that we can achieve more by working together than by pursuing our interests individually. No country alone, whatever its size and wealth, will be able to deal successfully with climate change, transnational terrorism or future pandemics.
This requires a genuine commitment to international cooperation, diplomacy and compromise and the firm recognition that no country can achieve its goals at the expense of others.
This requires defending and standing by what we have agreed, respecting international commitments and denouncing those who abuse and deform its spirit under the disguise of defending it.
Colleagues,
The UN needs reform, to strengthen it, make it more efficient, more resultative, not to undo it.
We do not want a world fuelled by resuscitated imperial appetites, a world fragmented by new rivalries instead of one united in purpose. The number of poles will be meaningless if we fail to address the fundamental challenges posed by climate change and environmental deterioration.
The General Assembly has confirmed several times that it will not accept a future where might dictates the right, that it will not be trolled by cynical semantics, where an aggression is labelled “special operation” and crimes are disguised as “special care”.
Yes, let’s call a spade a spade, since hypocrisy is nothing more than the audacity to preach integrity through depravity. And, unfortunately, there was a ton of it from Russia today, in a toxic mixture of everything that fits its propaganda.
In particular, it has become a Russian obsession to refer to the Republic of Kosovo, a country recognized by more than half of the UN, to justify its unlawful actions in Georgia in 2008 and in Ukraine since 2014, which as we all know, is going on to this hour. The International Court of Justice has ruled that the independence of Kosovo is in accordance with International Law. The same ICJ that has asked Russia to stop its war. Therefore, there is nothing that sounds hollower than the desperate Russian effort to justify the unjustifiable and its attempt to hide behind the unacceptable.
As we know, you cannot hide the sun with the finger and today, once more, we did not hear anything on the key issue: under which article of the UN Charter has Russia attacked its neighbor and has annexed by force parts of its territory?
Colleagues,
If we want to maintain the UN as the cornerstone of the multilateral world,
- we need to show respect for each other, not contempt;
- we need to show solidarity, not threats;
- we need to choose diplomacy and foster dialogue, not wage war;
- We need to work together, abide by commitments, and we need justice, through accountability for crimes committed and perpetrators held to account.
In today’s terms of urgency, this means that Russia must end its war, withdraw all its troops from Ukraine, and respect its sovereignty and its territorial integrity within the internationally recognized borders.
Thank you.