President Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaks at the High-Level General Discussion session of the 76th United Nations General Assembly. (Photo: VOV)

The theme for this year’s general debate is “Building resilience through hope – to recovery from COVID-19, rebuild sustainably, respond to the needs of the planet, respect the rights of people, and revitalize the United Nations.”

President Phuc said that the current most urgent issue is to control the COVID-19 pandemic through international cooperation with priority given to providing vaccines to countries with low vaccination rates.

He made major assessments and specific proposals to promote multilateral cooperation with the United Nations as the center and international law as foundation, to jointly deal with the complex global challenges such as wars, conflicts, resource disputes, climate change and especially the COVID-19 pandemic, which are negatively impacting peace, security and development worldwide.

“First, our most urgent task today is to expeditiously contain COVID-19 worldwide. The world cannot be safe if any single person or country still suffers from this pandemic. For the pandemic to be repelled, it is essential that we stand in solidarity, uphold a high sense of responsibility, and step up cooperation. Particularly, priority allocation of vaccines should be given to nations with a low vaccination rate. And developing countries should be enabled to engage in vaccine production and supply chains.”

“Second, the key solution to contain the pandemic and foster economic recovery lies in our ability to strengthen our own resilience, particularly in face of crises. But this does not mean that we have to do it alone. Resilience can only be sustained if it is based upon cooperation and connectivity among nations, particularly at a time when non-traditional security challenges do not know borders and can impact any nation. We value the role played by the UN system and expect that it will continue to support member states’ efforts to build resilience, accommodating the interests and concerns of all countries.”

The President said the prerequisite is to ensure a peaceful, secure and stable environment in each country, region and the wider world for post-pandemic recovery and growth.

Regarding the regional landscape, President Phuc said that Vietnam and other ASEAN member countries are making efforts to strengthen the Association’s centrality in maintaining peace, security and prosperity in Southeast Asia and Asia- Pacific. Vietnam shares the common voice of the international community on the importance of maintaining peace and stability and ensuring security, safety and freedom of navigation and overflight in the East Sea, he said.

In his speech, the President emphasized Vietnam's efforts as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council and thanked other countries that have entrusted Vietnam with the responsibility of being a non-permanent member of the Security Council for the 2020-2021 term:

“Over the past almost two years, Vietnam has always upheld the principle of “Partnership for sustainable peace.” We have promoted dialogue and cooperation, and actively joined the concerted efforts to prevent and address conflicts. Vietnam has advocated strengthening the upholding of the UN Charter and international law, bolstering cooperation with regional organizations, conflict prevention, mine action, and the protection of civilians and civilian critical infrastructure in armed conflicts.”

“The national flag of Vietnam is flying high at the UN Peacekeeping Missions in South Sudan and the Central African Republic, and it will soon be flying in other UN Missions as well. With our desire to make further contributions to the work at the UN, Vietnam is running for a seat at the Human Rights Council for the term 2023-2025, and at other important UN agencies. We look forward to the continued support from all countries in this endeavor.”

President Nguyen Xuan Phuc is scheduled to speak at the United Nations Security Council High-Level Discussion on climate and security on Thursday morning (New York time).