Mr. President, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen. It is a great honor for me to once again return to this hall to address the 81st Session of the General Assembly on behalf of the Czech Republic.

Restoring trust, managing transformation is a fitting theme for this year's session. It reflects both the scale of the changes our world is undergoing and the need to navigate them peacefully. After the Second World War, a robust multilateral system based on rules and global cooperation was built, spanning security, human rights, and economic development. For decades, shifts in global power unfolded within this largely predictable framework. Power has always been unevenly distributed. Today, however, we are witnessing profound changes that are reshaping the post-war system. The task of the international order is not to resist these changes, but to manage them peacefully. Our shared ambition should be to draw inspiration from the founders of the United Nations. Our goal should be to prevent war and destruction, and to build a predictable international order capable of adapting to change while providing fairness and stability. This is precisely why we need forums like this: places where dialogue can prevail and diplomacy can work. This is why we need rules. Not because all states are equally powerful, but precisely because they are not. Rules have value only if they bind everyone, especially those powerful enough to break them. When rules are cast aside, raw power fills the vacuum. A world dominated by great power competition is a volatile world, less able to address the most pressing challenges of our time. It is a world where a single spark can ignite a fire. Instead, we should insist that with greater power comes greater responsibility. Responsibility in the use of force. Responsibility to exercise restraint. But also responsibility to use one's influence to prevent force from becoming necessary in the first place.

This applies particularly to permanent members of the UN Security Council. China has the power, influence, and responsibility to help prevent conflicts, to escalate tensions, and contribute to ending wars. This includes using its influence to help bring Russia's aggression against Ukraine to an end. That aggression was launched and continues to be waged by another permanent member of the UN Security Council, Russia, in violation of the UN Charter and fundamental principles of international law. Russia's aggression continues to inflict enormous suffering on the Ukrainian people. Civilians and civilian infrastructure continue to be attacked indiscriminately. And the risks are growing day by day. Russia's aggressive posture poses a direct threat to European security as a whole. The immediacy of that threat was starkly illustrated by the recent attempted Russian drone attack on Leipzig Hala Airport in Germany, only 150 kilometers from the borders of the Czech Republic. The consequences of aggression reach far beyond Europe. Russia's war has undermined global food security, disrupting agricultural production, exports, and supply chains. Its effects are felt in my country, but even more acutely in parts of Africa and elsewhere, particularly in countries that depend on stable and affordable food supplies. While we need to raise costs of war for Russia, we must give serious diplomatic efforts a genuine chance. Diplomacy matters most not between friends, but between adversaries. That is where the United Nations remains indispensable as a forum for dialogue, even when agreement seems very distant. The UN was founded on principles. These principles matter in Ukraine. They matter in the South China Sea and across the Taiwan Strait. And they also matter in the Middle East, in Sudan, or DRC. The current developments in Yemen and Saudi Arabia demonstrate what happens when rules give way to force and coercion, when might replaces right, and how a regional conflict can, in an instant, have consequences for the entire world.

Ladies and gentlemen, as Secretary-General António Guterres nears the end of his mandate, we commend his efforts to reform and modernize the United Nations. The next Secretary-General will face a defining task: adapting the United Nations to a world of growing geopolitical rivalry and fragmentation. We expect her or him to carry forward the UN agenda and turn reforms into results. The success of UN reforms will be judged not by new structures or new language, but by whether the multinational system can deliver, uphold international law, and make its rules matter. The future legitimacy of the United Nations will depend on it. Nowhere is this more important than in peace and security. The international community must become better at preventing crises, protecting civilians, and defending the rules it has agreed to uphold. The Czech Republic is ready to do its part. Let me reiterate that we are seeking a non-permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council for the period 2032-2033. If elected, we will contribute actively to its work and shoulder our share of responsibility. We will continue to help preventing and resolving conflicts through political engagement, humanitarian assistance, and practical cooperation. We will stand for the protection of civilians and critical infrastructure, and for accountability when international law is seriously violated. And we will remain a strong advocate for human rights and democracy. We will support independent human rights mechanisms, peaceful assembly, and free and fair elections. And we will work to ensure that new technologies strengthen our societies rather than weaken them. Mr. President, this is also the moment to confront the extraordinary pace of advances in artificial intelligence.

In recent days, the debate has acquired a new sense of urgency and gravity. The message from the UN's Independent International Scientific Panel on AI, researchers in leading AI companies, and independent experts is increasingly clear: our ability to govern this technology is not keeping pace with its development. AI can bring enormous benefits to humanity, but without effective safeguards, it can also cause immense harm. We must therefore hold on to a basic principle: human beings must remain in control of technology, not become a subject to it. Technology should advance our common goals, and no system should ever operate beyond human responsibility and accountability. Nor we can allow an unchecked race for technological dominance to determine the future of AI, with the pressure to move first, pushing safety, oversight, and responsibility aside. More than 80 years ago, the Manhattan Project showed how rapidly a scientific breakthrough can transform the balance of power, and how difficult it is for politics and international rules to catch up. Artificial intelligence confronts us with a different technology and different risks, but with a similar lesson: governance that comes only after the fact may come too late. If AI is to serve humanity, it must develop within a framework of international rules. No country and no company can meet this challenge alone. We need common standards, meaningful public oversight, and clear mechanisms of accountability. The choice is not between innovation and rules. It is between innovation governed by rules and innovation governed by the logic of the race. Ladies and gentlemen, artificial intelligence is not the only challenge that no country can manage alone. The same is true of climate change. This year has once again reminded us of the growing impacts of extreme weather affecting people and communities across the globe.

In many regions, climate-related challenges are threatening homes and livelihoods. They are putting pressure on public health, food and water security, increasing living costs, and, in some cases, contributing to instability and conflicts. The most vulnerable are often hit hardest. The Czech Republic has offered its support and stands with those working to rebuild their communities. But support after disaster is not enough. We need concerted global action, both to limit further damage and to adapt to changes that are already affecting our lives and will shape the lives of future generations. Mr. President, let me finish with a message that has not changed over the past year. Most of the challenges we face are global. No nation can meet them alone. That is why we need more dialogue, more cooperation, and more collective action. And that is why we must make multilateralism work. It is our common goal.

Thank you.