I wish to extend my warm congratulations to His Excellency Mr. Khalilur Rahman on his election to the presidency of this 81st session of the General Assembly. I also pay tribute to Her Excellency Ms. Annalena Baerbock for the work accomplished during the previous session.
Lastly, I wish to pay a heartfelt tribute to Mr. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, as his mandate draws to a close. Over a decade marked by wars, the pandemic, the climate emergency and heightened geopolitical tensions, he has consistently defended peace, human dignity and international cooperation.
The theme of this session — “Restoring trust, managing transformation: a United Nations Organization that serves all” — aptly expresses the challenge that we must collectively meet in order to revive the hope that our Organization inspired at the time of its creation.
For the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this session is once again an opportunity to reaffirm its faith in multilateralism founded on the constant pursuit of peace and justice that opens the way, not to the prosperity of a few, but rather to the creation of a truly shared horizon among peoples and for future generations.
This faith nevertheless obliges us to look lucidly at the transformations of the world and to question our Organization’s ability to evolve with it. For our peoples, for their part, have never ceased to believe in the necessity of international cooperation; a cooperation that in the most difficult hours mobilizes promptly but that can also, in certain respects, seem to delay elsewhere; when territorial integrity is defended vigorously in one crisis and seems negotiable in another; when the suffering of civilians calls for action in one place but appears to accommodate waiting in another.
There can in reality be no lasting trust when the force of our proclaimed principles varies according to peoples, crises or circumstances. In a constantly changing world, our peoples’ trust in multilateralism begins where the application of a law that varies according to geography, economic power or the play of alliances ends. Our transformation must in fact rest on the requirement to restore the Charter in its full force, in particular through respect for: the principle of the sovereign equality of States, the peaceful settlement of disputes, the prohibition of the use of force, respect for territorial integrity and the dignity of the human person. Such must be the ambition of the United Nations.
There can be no restored trust in our Organization, and it can even less be transformed, so long as it continues to reflect a world that has ceased to exist.
The world of 1945 is no more. The digital revolution, the energy transition and climate disruption are today reshaping its balances. Yet the institutions charged with supporting these transformations too often remain the reflection of an order that no longer exists.
Artificial intelligence today provides one of the most striking illustrations of this.
It offers immense possibilities, but also the risk of new divides. Its governance cannot be the preserve of a few powers or companies: developing countries must be able to participate in defining its rules and to gain access to the capacities that determine its use.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo supports the United Nations global dialogue on the governance of artificial intelligence and the creation of a global capacity-building fund. The digital divide must not become an intelligence divide.
This requirement for inclusion must above all find expression in global governance.
Africa has asserted itself over time as an essential demographic, diplomatic and geopolitical force, yet to this day it remains insufficiently represented where decisions are taken that commit the future of the world.
Indeed, how can one fail to mention the historical anomaly constituted by the absence of Africa among the permanent members of the Security Council?
The admission of the African Union to the G20 certainly marked an important step forward. However, it cannot contain this requirement for representation. As a member of the Security Council for the period 2026-2027, we reaffirm our adherence to the common African position, enshrined in the Ezulwini Consensus and the Sirte Declaration: two permanent seats for Africa, with all the prerogatives attached thereto as long as the right of veto continues to exist, as well as two additional non-permanent seats; this in order to make the Council more representative, more legitimate and, ultimately, more effective.
This requirement for representation goes hand in hand with that of responsibility. And it is in this spirit that the Democratic Republic of the Congo intends fully to exercise its own, notably in the choice of the next Secretary-General, whose mandate will have to continue the effort to transform our Organization and adapt it to the priorities of a world undergoing profound change. We carry this same ambition within La Francophonie through the candidacy of Ms. Juliana Amato LUMUMBA for the post of Secretary-General of the OIF, with the vision of a renewed Francophonie, closer to the peoples and capable of strengthening trust among its members and in the face of the challenges before us.
For the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it is precisely in the gap between the trust that we call for to be restored and the transformations that we aspire to support that the full scope of our international commitments is measured. Our country lies at the heart of several of these transformations and, at times, at the very crossroads of their contradictions.
Few situations illustrate as painfully the gap between international commitments and lived reality as that in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
For more than three decades, millions of Congolese women and men have suffered attacks, forced displacement and bereavement. Territories are occupied, families scattered, women and girls are victims of sexual violence, while children are recruited or deprived of schooling.
At the same time, the plundering of our resources continues to feed international trade channels.
My country remains confronted with a war of aggression waged by Rwanda under cover of AFC/M23, in violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity, as documented by the United Nations. The atrocities perpetrated by other armed groups, notably the ADF and CODECO, further aggravate this humanitarian crisis.
Faced with this ordeal, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has chosen the path of diplomacy, without ever renouncing its rights. The peace agreement signed in Washington on 27 June 2025, the commitments undertaken within the framework of the Doha process and the harmonized roadmap of the African Union have opened prospects that we support consistently. I welcome the engagement of the United States of America, the State of Qatar, the African Union, the African facilitators, regional partners and all those who are sincerely working to restore peace.
However, we owe it to the truth to acknowledge that, for millions of Congolese, this peace still remains a promise.
Security Council resolution 2773 (2025) nevertheless charted an unambiguous path. It demands the effective cessation of hostilities, the withdrawal of Rwandan forces from Congolese territory, the end of all support to armed groups, the disengagement of AFC/M23, the dismantling of parallel administrations, the restoration of State authority, unimpeded humanitarian access, as well as the safe and dignified return of displaced persons and refugees.
We do not expect new texts to replace those that have already been adopted. We expect their implementation.
On the question of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, long invoked by Kigali to justify its military presence on our territory, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is assuming its responsibilities. The protocol signed by the political and military leadership of the FDLR on 30 May 2026 provides for their disarmament, demobilization and the cantonment of its combatants with a view to their repatriation or relocation, without prejudice to judicial proceedings for serious crimes, and this until the dissolution of the movement. The repatriation, on 8 September, with the support of MONUSCO, of 120 persons associated with the FDLR constitutes an initial concrete expression thereof.
The question of the FDLR can therefore no longer serve as a pretext for maintaining a foreign military presence on our territory. The coordinated implementation of the Washington, Doha and African Union mechanisms must therefore rest on a precise timetable, independent verification, regular information-sharing and effective consequences in the event of violation.
In this context, MONUSCO retains an essential role in the protection of civilians, the monitoring of the ceasefire and support for the agreed mechanisms. Any evolution of its presence will have to be determined by the security conditions on the ground, the strengthening of national capacities and the guarantee that no vacuum will be left to the detriment of the populations.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo will continue, for its part, fully to assume its responsibilities, notably through the continuation of reforms of its defence and security institutions, the strengthening of State authority and the reconstruction of territories affected by conflict.
And because the peace sought in the subregion must also go hand in hand with cohesion within our Nation, the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo launched, on 28 August, a National Dialogue for peace, cohesion and the refoundation of the State.
This dialogue is open to the political and social forces committed to the Republic, the Constitution, the integrity of the territory and the rejection of violence. It aims neither to circumvent the institutions nor to organize a power-sharing arrangement. It must enable us to address the structural causes of our fragilities, consolidate national unity and build a State that is fairer, more present and more protective.
Our hand remains extended to all the children of the Congo who choose peace, republican debate and loyalty to the homeland. We will speak among Congolese with frankness and responsibility. But no internal dialogue can transform external aggression into a mere domestic dispute. Likewise, no external aggression should exempt us from correcting our own weaknesses. National cohesion and the defence of territorial integrity are not opposed: they reinforce each other.
For the peace we seek cannot be limited to the cessation of hostilities. It must also enable our country to take full possession once again of its future, by transforming the wealth that has for too long fuelled conflicts into instruments of development and shared prosperity.
There is another paradox that my country’s experience shows the world: some of its resources that fuel conflicts on its territory are also those on which a growing share of the transformations of the world economy depends. The governance of strategic resources must henceforth be an issue of peace, development and global security.
The energy transition, the electrification of transport, energy storage, as well as the expansion of digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence are accelerating demand for copper, cobalt, lithium, nickel and other critical minerals. As the world’s leading producer of cobalt and a major copper power, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is at the heart of this transformation.
Congolese cobalt already contributes to the operation of batteries, electricity grids, digital equipment and technologies indispensable to the decarbonization of the world economy. It would be both unjust and dangerous for value added, jobs, know-how and technologies to remain concentrated far from the communities that make this transformation possible. A decarbonized economy will not be built with blood-stained minerals. Nor will the transition be made just by reproducing, under a green colour, the dependencies of the past.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo therefore rejects the old model that confines producing countries to raw extraction, while processing, research, technology and the bulk of profits are concentrated elsewhere. Our ambition is clear: we no longer want to be only the subsoil of the world economy; we intend to become a workshop, a laboratory and a sovereign partner in it.
We want to process more cobalt and copper on our territory, develop battery precursors and industrial components, train our engineers, support our researchers and integrate our enterprises into global value chains. We want to build, with our African and international partners, competitive regional sectors that create jobs, skills and shared prosperity.
This ambition first requires us to assume our own responsibilities fully.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is continuing the modernization of mining governance through the transparency of contracts, extractive revenues and beneficial owners, the strengthening of the mining cadastre, the deployment of traceability mechanisms and the fight against fraud. It is also accelerating the formalization of artisanal mining, the supervision of traders, the organization of cooperatives and the securing of mining areas.
In this regard, the fight against child labour in mines constitutes a moral and national obligation. With the International Labour Organization, UNICEF and our other partners, we are strengthening mechanisms for identification, monitoring and remediation, the training of inspectors, the schooling of children and the economic solutions offered to their families. Our objective admits of no ambiguity: zero children in the mines.
This responsibility falls to the Congolese State. But it also involves companies, traders, refiners, manufacturers, financial institutions and destination markets. The first test of a responsible chain is not the electric vehicle at the end; it is the child who no longer goes down into the mine at the beginning.
That is why the Democratic Republic of the Congo proposes the development, under the auspices of the United Nations, in partnership with the African Union and in consultation with producing, processing and consuming countries, of a Global Framework for fair, traceable and resilient critical mineral value chains. Based on the sovereignty of producing States, it must guarantee the traceability of minerals, the responsibility of economic actors, the protection of workers and communities, as well as a fairer sharing of value through local processing and technology transfer.
The Lobito Corridor must become one of the instruments of this ambition. We welcome the commitment of Angola, Zambia, the United States of America, the European Union, the African Development Bank, financial institutions and the private sector to its realization. The rehabilitation of rail links, the modernization of infrastructure, the facilitation of trade and energy investments can open up our territories, reduce logistical costs and stimulate regional trade.
But our vision goes far beyond the accelerated export of raw materials. A corridor that merely shortened the path from the mine to the port would only reproduce the past. The Lobito Corridor must become a true backbone of regional industrialization with the support of investors with whom we hope to build transparent, sustainable and mutually beneficial partnerships for the well-being of our future generations.
As you will have understood, the transformation that we seek at the scale of our organization, we chose first to initiate at home, in the conviction that by investing in our population, the foremost wealth of our Nation, we will succeed in building the foundations of renewed trust and lasting prosperity.
Introduced in 2019, free primary education has enabled more than 5 million additional children to gain access to school. During the 2023-2024 school year, more than 21 million children were attending primary school, compared with fourteen million seven hundred thousand four years earlier.
This quantitative progress must now be translated into quality. We are continuing the construction and rehabilitation of schools, and have recently launched the rollout of school canteens. Because access is not enough: every child must be able to learn in a safe, inclusive, equipped school open to the tools of its time.
This requirement applies in particular to girls, children with disabilities, displaced children and those whose schooling is threatened by conflict.
The same ambition guides our health policy. We are continuing the gradual extension of universal health coverage, notably through free maternity care, the improvement of maternal and neonatal care, vaccination, access to essential medicines, the strengthening of health personnel and the expansion of social protection.
Each health crisis confirms the same truth: health sovereignty is built before the emergency. It rests on accessible health systems, robust epidemiological surveillance, effective laboratories, sufficiently funded research and, above all, the trust of populations.
In this regard, the Ebola virus disease outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo strain remains a major ordeal. For the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the fight against this epidemic constitutes an absolute priority.
Having contained sixteen previous outbreaks, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is mobilizing recognized scientific and operational expertise; and thanks to national mobilization and the support of our partners, the response undertaken has recently been producing tangible results.
Moreover, clinical trials are simultaneously evaluating vaccines and treatments adapted to this strain. I would like to pay tribute to Congolese and foreign health personnel, to researchers, to communities and to our partners, in particular the World Health Organization and the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), for the valuable support provided to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in eradicating this disease and in strengthening its resilience.
This requirement of resilience does not stop at the borders of health alone. It is imperative in the face of climate disruption, the effects of which are already placing our societies under growing pressure. Floods, droughts and erosion, not to mention population displacement, threaten our stability.
In the face of these upheavals, not all countries bear the same responsibility or the same burden. Those that contribute the least to global warming often suffer its heaviest consequences. This paradox is all the more striking because some of these countries are also among the principal guardians of the natural assets on which our common future depends.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of them. It contains an essential part of the Congo Basin, one of the planet’s great climate regulators. Its forests, its peatlands, its fresh waters and its biodiversity render considerable ecosystem services to humanity. This global heritage will continue to be preserved, while maintaining that the communities that ensure its protection should be able to derive benefit from it. Climate financing in this regard represents a fair solution. It should, however, be accessible, predictable and proportionate to the services rendered. Indeed, climate justice cannot consist in indebting further those who already bear the cost of damage they did the least to cause.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this ambition is taking shape in particular through the Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor, which combines preservation of ecosystems, economic development and the improvement of the living conditions of the population. With a production of 60 megawatts of electricity, this initiative also carries, by 2027, the ambition of creating 25,000 jobs and protecting 5,000 square kilometres of natural forest.
The climate crisis is also a water crisis. Following on from the African Water Forum held last July in N’Djamena, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has proposed the creation of an African Coalition for Water Security, intended to strengthen regional cooperation and to mobilize the financing necessary to make water a lever for development and the prevention of tensions.
These transformations require considerable resources. Four years before the 2030 deadline, the Congolese roadmap for accelerating the Sustainable Development Goals assesses our needs at more than 70 billion dollars. We are strengthening our domestic revenues and improving the quality of public expenditure. But a country simultaneously confronted with war, epidemics, poverty and climate shocks cannot alone bridge such a gap.
At the same time, official development assistance fell by more than 23 per cent in real terms in 2025, the largest annual contraction ever recorded. This contraction weakens development efforts and compromises the prevention of crises whose consequences far exceed national borders.
Assistance remains indispensable, but it will not be enough. The Seville Commitment must now be translated into better access to concessional financing, greater mobilization of the multilateral development banks and debt relief mechanisms that preserve the investment capacities of our States.
Lastly, no financial architecture will be sustainable without tax justice. International cooperation must combat illicit financial flows, tax evasion, transfer pricing manipulation and the laundering of proceeds derived from natural resources. Stolen assets must be swiftly identified, frozen and returned. Every penny recovered can finance a vaccine, a school textbook, a borehole or a road.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo knows that the trust which it calls for to be restored on the international stage must first and foremost be earned through the commitments it honours on its own soil. That is the meaning of the efforts it is undertaking to consolidate peace, strengthen its institutions and make its natural and human wealth the foundations of shared prosperity.
Our experience teaches us, however, that no national transformation can fully bear fruit in an international order whose principles continue to be applied unequally and whose institutions are insufficiently adapted to the realities of our time.
That is why our ambition for the United Nations is inseparable from the one we hold for our own country. We want a transformation that inspires trust because it keeps its promises, and a trust that makes lasting transformations possible.
At a time when humanity is wavering between fragmentation and cooperation, it is therefore incumbent upon us to make this ambition a collective responsibility.
Restoring trust means applying the law when it is costly, and not only when it is convenient. Supporting transformations means sharing their benefits fairly. Putting the United Nations at the service of all means guaranteeing that no people is too remote to be protected, too deprived to be heard, or too rich in resources to remain sovereign.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo intends to play its full part in this endeavour. At the heart of Africa, it will pursue its own transformation while contributing to that of our Organization, in the conviction that justice done to the latter will strengthen the security of all. For it is by restoring to institutions the strength of their principles, to peoples proof of our word, and to future generations the right to hope that we will restore the full meaning of the promise of the United Nations.
I thank you.