Secretary-General Stresses Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ Role as ‘Bridge Builder’ in Peace, Digital Connectivity

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks at the opening of the fourteenth Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-United Nations Summit, in Vientiane today:

For nearly six decades, the family of South-East Asian countries has blazed a path of collaboration.  Every day, you grow more integrated, dynamic and influential.

And our ASEAN-UN partnership is growing ever stronger, too, and it is today a strategic partnership from the UN point of view.  The ASEAN-UN Plan of Action is making important progress across the political, security, economic and cultural fronts.

I am particularly grateful for the important contribution of ASEAN members to our peacekeeping operations.  Allow me to express my total solidarity with the Indonesian delegation.  Two Indonesian peacekeepers [serving in Lebanon] were wounded by Israeli fire.  We are together with you and the Indonesian people at this time.

I also welcome your work on the preparation of the Community Vision 2045.  This region has always been about looking ahead.  And so is the Pact for the Future, adopted last month at the United Nations.  We need to keep looking ahead.

Let me point to four key areas.

First, connectivity — your theme for the year.  We start with a fundamental objective:  technology should benefit everyone.  Across South-East Asia, broadband and mobile Internet connectivity has soared.  Yet the digital divide persists.

And a new divide is now with us — an artificial intelligence (AI) divide.  Every country must be able to access and benefit from these technologies.  And every country should be at the table when decisions are made about their governance.

The Pact for the Future includes a major breakthrough — the first truly universal agreement on the international governance of artificial intelligence that would give every country a seat at the AI table.  It also calls for international partnerships to boost AI capacity-building in developing countries.  And it commits Governments to establishing an independent international Scientific Panel on AI and initiating a global dialogue on its governance within the United Nations.

Second, finance.  International financial institutions can no longer provide a global safety net — or offer developing countries the level of support they need.  The Pact for the Future says clearly:  we need to accelerate reform of the international financial architecture.

To close the financing gap of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  To ensure that countries can borrow sustainably to invest in their long-term development.  And to strengthen the voice and representation of developing countries.

This includes calling on Group of 20 (G20) countries to lead on an SDG stimulus of $500 billion a year.  Substantially increasing also the lending capacity of Multilateral Development Banks.  Recycling more Special Drawing Rights.  And restructuring loans for countries drowning in debt.

Third, climate.  ASEAN countries are feeling the brunt of climate chaos — disasters like super typhoon Yagi — while the 1.5°C goal is slipping away.  We need dramatic action to reduce emissions.

The G20 is responsible for 80 per cent of total emissions — they must lead the way.  I welcome the pioneering Just Energy Transition Partnerships in Indonesia and Vietnam.

By next year, every country must produce new nationally determined contributions aligned with limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5°C.  Developed countries must keep their promises to double adaptation finance.  And we need to see significant contributions to the new Loss and Damage Fund.

Every person must be covered by an alert system by 2027, through the United Nations’ Early Warnings for All Initiative.  We must secure also an ambitious outcome on finance at the twenty-ninth UN Climate Change Conference (COP29).

Fourth and finally, peace.  I recognize your constructive role in continuing to pursue dialogue and peaceful means of resolving disputes from the Korean Peninsula to the South China Sea.

And I salute you for doing so in full respect of the UN Charter and international law — including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Meanwhile, Myanmar remains on an increasingly complex path. Violence is growing.  The humanitarian situation is spiralling.  One third of the population is in dire need of humanitarian assistance.  Millions have been forced to flee their homes.

Seven years after the forced mass displacement of the Rohingya, durable solutions seem a distant reality.  I support strengthened cooperation between the UN Special Envoy and the ASEAN Chair on innovative ways to promote a Myanmar-led process, including through the effective and comprehensive implementation of the ASEAN Five-Point Consensus and beyond.

The people of Myanmar need peace.  And I call on all countries to leverage their influence towards an inclusive political solution to the conflict and deliver the peaceful future that the people of Myanmar deserve.

ASEAN exemplifies community and cooperation.  You are far more than the sum of your parts.  In a world with growing geopolitical divides, with dramatic impacts on peace and security and sustainable development, ASEAN is a bridge builder and a messenger for peace.

Peace that is more necessary than ever, when we see the immense suffering of the people in Gaza, now extended to Lebanon, not forgetting Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar and so many others.

Allow me to tell you that the level of death and destruction in Gaza is something that has no comparison in any other situation I have seen since I became Secretary-General.  I am extremely grateful for your constant efforts to keep our world together.

You play a key role in shaping a world that is prosperous, inclusive and sustainable with respect for human rights at its heart.  And you can always count on my full support and that of the United Nations in this essential effort.