The Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 provided the political framework that transformed struggles, decades of struggles into a peaceful exercise of self-determination. South Sudan therefore, continues to recognise the indispensable contribution of IGAD and the African and our African Union brothers and sisters, as well as the support of the troika, the United States, the United Kingdom and Norway, and the wider international community. South Sudan also remembers the extraordinary contribution of the churches and faith based leaders. During some of the darkest years of the conflict, churches remained with the people of South Sudan. They educated children. They assisted displaced communities. They mediated disputes and kept alive the belief that reconciliation was possible. That tradition continued with the historic ecumenical pilgrimage of peace to South Sudan by His Holiness Pope Francis, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the moderator of the Church of Scotland. Their message reinforced something that South Sudan has learned through painful experience. The message reinforced something that peace requires political agreements, but lasting peace also requires reconciliation, forgiveness and courage. Mr. President, His Excellency President Salva Kiir Mayardit belongs to the generation that carried the struggle of liberation. Following the passing of Dr. John Garang de Mabior, President Kiir assumed the responsibility of safeguarding the Comprehensive Peace agreement and leading the people of South Sudan towards the referendum on self-determination. On January 2011, the people of South Sudan overwhelmingly spoke through the ballot and on the 9th of July 2011, President Kiir stood before the people as the flag of the Republic of South Sudan was raised for the first time. 15 years later, South Sudan has traveled a difficult road. There has been achievements. There also have been setbacks. South Sudan experienced internal conflict shortly after independence. Implementation of the peace agreement has taken longer than that originally intended or anticipated. Economic and humanitarian challenges remain significant. The government does not deny these realities, but neither should these challenges be allowed to erase the progress made or define permanently the identity of the Republic of South Sudan. Throughout the transition period, President Kiir has repeatedly made one commitment clear he will not take South Sudan back to war. This commitment has guided his approach to peace process and remain fundamental to his vision for the next chapter of South Sudan. The mission before President Kiir is therefore different from the mission of the Liberation Years.

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This is what peace will look like, the peace we want and that we must build. President. The security for which the international community must remain fully mobilized side by side with us, should also allow us to honor the second major commitment of the government, which I lead, and that is give the Haitian people a voice through elections. I belong to a generation that knew the dictatorship that placed so much hope in democracy after 1987, but too often saw these hopes collide with political instability and recurrent transitions. In order to break this cycle, I agreed to serve my country with the conviction that this transition needs to come to an end. It needs to come to an end through the ballot box and through the ballot. This is why we have committed to the electoral process with respect for the National Pact for Stability and the Organization of Elections, which is the fruit of a broad consensus among the political class today. The required resources have been mobilized, the enrollment centers are open, citizens are registering, political parties and groups have been accredited, and candidates are undertaking the formalities needed for them to participate in the elections. We want free, credible, inclusive and honest elections. The participation of women is encouraged and young people are called upon to take their full place in that election as voters, candidates and stakeholders for our democracy. Furthermore, measures have been taken to preserve the integrity of the process. Violence, criminal networks, illicit financing and those that are supporting them must find no path to access the ballot box. Because it's not just the next government that's at stake in these elections. It is the future of Haiti. And this future bears the face of our youth.

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Excellencies ladies and gentlemen. This summer, the Republic of Moldova turned 35. For much of that time, the world described us as a country caught between East and West, a place where others decided. I stand here as the new Prime Minister of a country that has decided. Small countries do not choose their geography or their size. But small does not mean powerless. Nations like people, are shaped by the choices they make, whom they trust, whom they elect, whom they call friends, and how they respond when things turn against them. For a long time, others made many of those choices for us. Soviet authorities deported our families to Siberia, forced our Romanian language into another alphabet, and told us it had another name. After independence, Moscow used gas and trade restrictions as leverage over our country. Step by step, we began choosing for ourselves. Romanian is again written in Latin and spoken freely. Governments change peacefully at the ballot box and when our democracy was threatened, Moldovans have defended it through elections and civic action. We also reduced Russia's economic leverage on us. We diversified our gas purchases. In just five years, renewables grew from nothing to around 30% of our energy supply. Our electricity system is increasingly integrated with Romania and the European grid, and our companies sell on some of the most demanding markets in Europe and the world. But the Kremlin kept trying. Moldova faced illicit financing, disinformation, cyber attacks and vote buying. Russia spent the equivalent of nearly 2% of our GDP trying to influence last year's elections. Moldovans answered that their home is not for sale. Each of these choices carried a cost, but each taught us the same lesson. We cannot control everything around us, but what we do still matters. That is the source of our optimism. Our future remains in our hands, and nowhere is that choice clearer today than in our European path.

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I also commend Her Excellency Amina Mohammed, the Deputy Secretary General, for her exemplary service and distinguished representation of Africa on the global stage. Mr. president, nearly 25 years ago, Sierra Leone completed disarmament and formally declared its civil war over. The formal declaration matters, of course, but peace became real in more practical ways. In the families that returned home in the communities that learned to live together again, in the citizens who chose the ballot, and in institutions that slowly earned back confidence. The United Nations stood with us through disarmament, election and the long work of peace building. So we know what international cooperation can make possible because we have lived it. The experience taught us that trust cannot be commanded by declaration. Trust grows when promises are honored, when the law protects everyone, when institutions serve their people and when citizens can see a future for themselves.

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Between those who accept responsibility and those who hide behind automation. We should not fear that machines will become too human. We should fear that human beings will become invisible behind machines. Dear friends, every generation is called upon to defend freedom in the territory where freedom is most threatened. For one generation, that territory was the battlefield. For another, it was the ballot box. For ours, it's very clear, it is the human mind. Let us ensure that no citizen is left alone before an increasingly terrifying algorithmic army. Let us ensure that no small nation is forced to rent its understanding of reality from beyond its borders. Let us ensure that no democracy wakes up after an election to discover that its people exercise their freedom of choice inside the world, secretly designed for them by someone they could not see. And they are not even aware that is the force behind their choice. Artificial intelligence will not decide whether this century belongs to liberty or to manipulation. We will. The machine will obey.

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It guarantees that they receive subsidized, affordable and life saving care. I've always believed that democracy must deliver tangible social benefits. Citizens must experience democracy not only through the ballot box every four years, but through improved access to food, quality education, decent housing, accessible healthcare and economic opportunities. Mr. President, democracy loses its soul when it protects elite privileges while abandoning the vulnerable. And so Ghana remains an uncompromising beacon of constitutional democracy, media freedom, the rule of law and peaceful transition of power on the African continent.

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