Allow me, before delivering the message of His Excellency Mr. Denis SASSOU N’GUESSO, President of the Republic of the Congo, to express my deep gratitude for the honour he has bestowed upon me by entrusting me with this mission.
I do so with respect, loyalty and a sense of duty, mindful of the significance of this national statement which it falls to me today to convey faithfully.
MESSAGE OF HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO -=-=-=-=-=-=- The Republic of the Congo welcomes the election of His Excellency Mr. Khalilur Rahman to the presidency of this eighty-first session.
We pay tribute to Her Excellency Ms. Annalena Baerbock for her contribution to our work.
We also express our deep gratitude to His Excellency Mr. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, for his advocacy for Africa, his constant commitment to the Congo Basin, and the attention given to the efforts of peace, mediation and dialogue undertaken by our country.
In this spirit, the Republic of the Congo is following with particular attention the selection process for the next Secretary-General of the United Nations.
We consider that Africa, a continent at the centre of the issues facing the United Nations and of global geostrategic challenges, must remain at the heart of the mandate of the future Secretary-General.
The next Secretary-General must carry a truly universal vision of the United Nations: a vision that leaves no continent at the periphery, and in which Africa’s place, responsibilities and legitimate interests are fully taken into account.
For the Republic of the Congo, restoring trust and managing the transformation of our international institutions represent a collective imperative.
The theme of this session — “Restoring trust, managing transformation” — resonates as a call for lucidity and courage in a world where trust is eroding, where tensions are intensifying, where power relations and double standards threaten to supplant the spirit and letter of the Charter of the United Nations.
Never has humanity had such need of renewed, inclusive and representative multilateralism, capable of reflecting the reality of a multipolar world in which Africa must occupy its full place.
This renewal requires a profound reform of international institutions, first and foremost the Security Council.
Africa, borne by the power of its history, the momentum of its demography and the solidity of its geopolitical weight, can no longer remain on the margins of the decisions that shape its destiny.
It must be an actor, fully and legitimately.
In accordance with the Ezulwini Consensus, its demand for two permanent seats endowed with the right of veto is not a claim: it is a right.
A just right, a well-founded right, a right commensurate with the balances of the twenty-first century.
The world has changed. The world has evolved. The institutions must change with it.
It is an imperative.
Africa is not asking for a favour. It is asking for its rightful place.
The Republic of the Congo, in its capacity as a member of the Committee of Heads of State and Government of the African Union on the reform of the United Nations Security Council (C10), will not compromise on this common demand.
The Republic of the Congo reaffirms its readiness to serve the international community.
With your support, it renews its aspiration to serve as a non-permanent member of the Security Council of the United Nations for the period 2030–2031.
This candidacy is based on a long diplomatic tradition, on our constant commitment to peace and on an exacting conception of international responsibility.
For more than five decades, our diplomacy has contributed consistently and effectively to several peace processes on our continent, with implications at the global level.
We may cite in particular:
• The contribution to the liberation of Namibia and the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola under the Brazzaville Protocol of 1988, with Angola, Cuba and South Africa as the principal parties, under joint mediation by the Congo and the United States, and with an important role for the United Nations;
• Efforts towards the cessation of hostilities in the Central African Republic;
• Initiatives in support of reconciliation in Libya, for which my country holds the responsibility of chairing the African Union High-Level Committee on that country;
• Peace efforts in the Great Lakes region.
Our diplomacy is not a diplomacy of confrontation.
It is a diplomacy of dialogue, mediation, mutual respect and the search for African solutions to African problems.
We reaffirm here the pan-African vocation of our diplomacy.
Sovereignty is not a refusal to cooperate.
Sovereignty is the capacity of a people and a nation to determine freely their priorities, to defend their legitimate interests, to choose their partners and to preserve their independence of decision.
It is this conception of sovereignty that the Republic of the Congo defends.
We intend to pursue a foreign policy based on non-alignment, the diversification of our partnerships, mutual respect among States and the refusal of any interference in the internal affairs of nations.
We are open to the world, but we want to remain masters of our choices, of our destiny.
The Republic of the Congo is not meant to choose one side against another.
It sees itself as a link between Nations.
The Republic of the Congo has embarked on a path of profound transformation through Our Roadmap, “Let Us Accelerate the March Towards Development”, structured around several priorities:
• investing in human capital;
• promoting youth employment;
• strengthening public governance;
• diversifying the economy;
• modernizing agriculture and industry;
• developing infrastructure;
• accelerating digitalization and innovation; and
• consolidating peace and social cohesion.
We are building a Congo that is no longer content merely to export its raw materials, but that further processes its wealth on its own territory.
This is the meaning of our interest in special economic zones, because our vision of political sovereignty must go hand in hand with economic sovereignty.
It should be noted that Our vision, “Let Us Accelerate the March Towards Development”, is part of the dynamic of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 on “The Africa We Want”.
But let us be lucid and pragmatic.
The development ambitions of the Republic of the Congo — like those of many African countries — are today being held back by the burden of debt, the inequalities of the international financial system and the consequences of climate change.
Four years before the 2030 deadline for the SDGs, we cannot afford a new collective fiasco.
The Republic of the Congo therefore calls for an ambitious international response to the question of the debt of developing countries, including through relief mechanisms and, where circumstances justify it, debt cancellation making it possible to free up resources for the investments essential to the SDGs.
Africa is not a periphery of the world.
It is one of its centres of gravity, the source of the renewal of multilateralism.
When Africa speaks with one voice, it advances the international agenda, inspires the world, asserts itself and opens new perspectives.
Three major initiatives carried forward by our countries bear witness to this:
• the United Nations Decade for Afforestation and Reforestation (2027–2036), carried forward by the Republic of the Congo;
• resolution 80/250 relating to the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved Africans as a “crime against humanity”, carried forward by Ghana; and
• the “Correct the Map” resolution, carried forward by Togo.
These initiatives demonstrate that Africa contributes to defining the international agenda.
It is in this spirit that the Republic of the Congo will continue its Pan-African commitment.
The abolition of visas for Africans as from 1 January 2027 reflects Our desire to revive Pan-Africanism and the ideals of our Founding Fathers, to strengthen free movement on our continent, to build intra-African tourism, to make exchanges and solidarity among African peoples more inclusive, while preparing the African Continental Free Trade Area — the AfCFTA.
The duty of remembrance also requires us to face our history.
Near Pointe-Noire, in the Republic of the Congo, there rises a project of historical significance: the Loango Bay Memorial.
From this land departed many human beings torn from their families, their culture and their homeland by the transatlantic slave trade.
Loango must become a place of truth; A place of memory; A place of contemplation; But also a place of rebirth.
Our ambition is for Loango, like Gorée in Senegal, Cape Coast in Ghana or Ouidah in Benin, to be a bridge between Africa and its diaspora.
That people of African descent from all over the world may there recover a part of their history, their identity and their dignity. That is also the meaning of our commitment in September 2025 in Harlem with people of African descent.
The Republic of the Congo also reaffirms its desire to mobilize Congolese abroad in the work of transforming Our country.
Our diaspora constitutes a human, intellectual, scientific, cultural and economic asset. Its skills, its experience, its investments and its commitment are indispensable to accelerating our development.
The Congo needs all its children, its precious human capital.
The Republic of the Congo is a land of opportunities.
It has significant natural resources, critical minerals, considerable agricultural potential, tourism potential still largely to be developed, expanding infrastructure and a major geostrategic position at the heart of Central Africa.
We invite investors and development partners to support this ambition, notably through mutually beneficial public-private partnerships.
We want partnerships that create added value, develop national skills, promote technology transfer, respect our interests and contribute sustainably to our economy.
The Republic of the Congo also bears a particular responsibility with regard to the Congo Basin, the second ecological lung of the planet.
This exceptional heritage constitutes a major reservoir of biodiversity and plays an essential role in regulating the global climate.
The Congo Basin is one of Africa’s principal responses in the fight against global warming.
We cannot continuously accept that the countries that preserve these ecosystems bear alone the cost of this responsibility.
Conservation has a cost. International solidarity must also have a price.
We therefore call for:
• fair and predictable remuneration for ecosystem services and carbon;
• innovative and sustainable financing mechanisms;
• increased capitalization of the Blue Fund;
• recognition of the Congo Basin as a global priority and strengthened international cooperation dedicated to its preservation.
We regret the absence in the Republic of the Congo of a United Nations institution dedicated to this cause that is commensurate with the strategic importance of the Congo Basin.
The Republic of the Congo also calls for the official launch of the United Nations Decade for Afforestation and Reforestation, and for the development of ambitious national road maps for its implementation.
Beyond its majestic rivers, its age-old forests and its ancestral lands, Congolese territory represents far more than a geographical space.
It is the bedrock of our Nation; It is the foundation of our identity; It is the territory of our sovereignty.
The Republic of the Congo will always defend the integrity of its territory, the security of its borders, the control of its natural resources and the freedom of its strategic choices.
Our sovereignty is not negotiable.
It is the responsibility that we owe to the generations that came before us and the heritage that we must pass on to future generations.
As a fervent defender of peace on the international stage, the Republic of the Congo calls:
• for talks between the Russian Federation and Ukraine;
• for de-escalation in the Strait of Hormuz;
• for a just and lasting political solution in the Middle East;
• for the stabilization of the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo;
• for the lasting return of peace in the Sudan;
• for the continuation of reconciliation in Libya;
• for the lifting of the embargo against Cuba;
• for the return of peace and stability in the Sahel.
We reaffirm that: Peace is not weakness; Negotiation is not renunciation; Dialogue is not capitulation.
In this spirit, the Republic of the Congo will continue to give priority to mediation, dialogue and the search for political and peaceful solutions.
In order to build a prosperous and peaceful Africa, from Libya to the Sahel, from the Sudan to the Great Lakes region, we reiterate our readiness to support our brotherly countries in resolving crises and towards a return to peace and stability.
Through our history, we know that peace is always more difficult to build, but that it remains the only victory that benefits everyone in a lasting way.
In this same spirit of responsibility, the recurrent Ebola crises and repeated pandemics remind us that the threats we face are no longer only military or economic.
Health security has become an essential component of collective security.
In this regard, the Republic of the Congo will play fully its part in consolidating the seat of the WHO Regional Office in Brazzaville, in accordance with the Headquarters Agreement of 1952.
We also call for international governance of artificial intelligence and outer space.
These technologies must remain at the service of humanity, progress and the emancipation of peoples.
Technological progress must not become a new instrument of domination.
Africa too must be a place of creation, innovation and digital sovereignty.
In conclusion, the Republic of the Congo will remain faithful to its principles: peace, development, sovereignty, good-neighbourliness, dialogue, cooperation and mutual respect among Nations.
We will continue to defend our national interests while assuming our international responsibilities.
We will continue to believe in Africa and in our common destiny.
And We will continue to choose the United Nations as the privileged space for dialogue among peoples.
I thank you.