GENERAL DEBATE OF THE EIGHTY-FIRST SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE UNITED NATIONS Statement by the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, Roberto Velasco Álvarez I appear before this Assembly on behalf of the first woman President of my country, Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, whose government places people at the centre of State action and works, every day, for freedom, democracy, social justice and substantive equality.
Mexico guides its public life by a conviction that I bring to this rostrum today: to make shared prosperity a reality for all people.
That conviction is consistent with the commitments that we all undertook in the Charter of the United Nations, whose first article establishes as purposes the maintenance of international peace and security, the development of friendly relations among nations, and cooperation in solving economic, social, cultural and humanitarian problems, while promoting respect for human rights without distinction of any kind.
Mexico, a culture with more than three thousand years of history, is undergoing a profound transformation that continues the path opened by Independence, the Reform and the Revolution: the three moments when my country expanded the rights of its people. My country now aspires to a prosperous society, with rights and a dignified life for all.
This is a transformation with clear purposes: to generate shared well-being, strengthen our competitiveness, develop our own capacities and decide our own destiny.
For that reason, my country comes to share the experience of a nation that decided to demonstrate, in practice, that it is possible to improve people’s quality of life by expanding their rights and their capacity to exercise them. Allow me to highlight the progress achieved.
The first fact is the reduction of poverty. Between 2018 and 2024, more than 13 million people escaped poverty in Mexico: the most significant reduction in the history of our country. It is also important to emphasize that in 2025 we had the lowest level of labour poverty in our history. That effort continues with a social policy of national scope. In 2026, the Well-being Programmes reach 42.8 million people. Added to this is sustained investment in infrastructure: health, railways, highways, schools and hydraulic works. Towards 2030, the Infrastructure Investment Plan for Development with Well-being envisages investments in energy, transport, water, health, education and emerging technologies.
The second fact is security, which President Sheinbaum’s government understands from a comprehensive perspective: one that addresses the causes that push young people towards crime, as well as zero impunity. The results confirm this. In just 22 months, as of July 2026, intentional homicides have been reduced by around 51 per cent.
It is the result of a national security strategy that is strengthened through international cooperation in the face of shared challenges, and which, I respectfully recall, is anchored in four principles: respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity; shared and differentiated responsibility; respect and mutual trust; and cooperation without subordination.
This milestone was not achieved through the logic of war, nor by renouncing human rights or making force the only response.
Mexico combines education and employment for young people with intelligence, investigation, strengthening of institutions and the presence of the State where there had previously been abandonment. Today we can say with pride that our progress in security distinguishes Mexico on the international stage. That is why we maintain before this Assembly a truth that we offer to all peoples: peace is neither decreed nor imposed; it is built with social justice.
The third fact focuses on employment. Since 2018, the minimum wage has accumulated a real increase of 154 per cent and today has reached its highest purchasing power in more than four decades. We achieved this through dialogue among the government, workers and employers, with inflation under control and with one of the lowest unemployment rates among the economies of the OECD. What had been denied in theory for decades was demonstrated in practice: paying those who work better does not impoverish economies; it strengthens them.
The fourth fact transformed the very history of my country. For the first time in two centuries of independent life, Mexico is governed by a woman. And she did not arrive alone: she arrived with a gender-parity cabinet, a gender-parity Congress and a reform that made substantive equality a constitutional mandate. Today, the girls of Mexico are growing up knowing that they can go as far as they decide to go.
And the fifth fact is the exercise of a sovereign and independent foreign policy. Mexico has shown that a country can cooperate closely and respectfully with its partners and, at the same time, fully assert its sovereignty. That independence is also measured in the protection of Mexican women and men living outside our territory. Mexico accompanies its community abroad and defends their human rights wherever they may be, always in strict adherence to international law.
Mexico’s transformation has specific recipients: those who have historically been left behind.
Our policies proceed from a clear gender perspective, promoting women’s rights. They prioritize the poorest, Indigenous Peoples and Afro-descendants, persons with disabilities, children, older persons, and sexual and gender diversity.
Mexico’s foreign policy is anchored in the normative principles of our Constitution, which transcend the government of the day and the international situation and which our people distilled from their history.
We defend the self-determination of peoples and non-intervention, because we know that they are the best guarantee of peace and stability among nations.
We advocate the peaceful settlement of disputes and the prohibition of the threat or use of force. We believe in the sovereign equality of States, because sovereignty is not measured in armies or material resources: all nations, all peoples, are equal before the law.
We promote international cooperation for development. We ensure respect for, the protection of and the promotion of human rights, which are also at the heart of our Constitution. And we strive for international peace and security, the basis for the development of peoples.
Anyone who reviews those constitutional mandates will note that they are the purposes and principles of the Charter of San Francisco, in which the imprint of Mexican diplomacy is evident.
Mexico does not need to adapt its foreign policy to the Charter of the United Nations, for it bears it written in its Constitution: when my country defends multilateralism, it is fulfilling a constitutional mandate. It is the legacy of Benito Juárez, Venustiano Carranza and Genaro Estrada: three names, one same conviction — law as the only legitimate force among nations.
That conviction admits of no exceptions or selective recipients. Faced with the international conflicts currently under way, Mexico maintains a firm position: international law must prevail over force, the civilian population must be protected, the territorial integrity of nations must be respected and every dispute must find an avenue in dialogue, negotiation and peace. That is why Mexico has for decades defended the two-State solution and recognizes the State of Palestine, with the right of its people to live in peace within secure and recognized borders.
Aware that this position would be insufficient without institutions capable of upholding it, Mexico is working to strengthen this house in an environment of global polarization. Mexico and Norway founded the UN80 Global group in support of the reform undertaken by the Secretary-General, aimed at building, through practical action, a more effective and more transparent United Nations. With Qatar, Norway and Switzerland, we are promoting the strengthening of the Organization’s mediation capacities. Every conflict that diplomacy prevents is worth more than all those that force seeks to resolve.
That same commitment begins in our own region. In Latin America and the Caribbean, Mexico will continue working to preserve the character of a Zone of Peace that our peoples gave themselves, and to strengthen cooperation in forums such as CELAC and the Pacific Alliance.
Our regional vocation also explains a position that Mexico has maintained for more than six decades: solidarity with the people of Cuba and rejection of the embargo and of any unilateral economic measure contrary to the Charter of the United Nations.
We will continue sending humanitarian aid to address the most urgent needs of its population, because the fraternity between our peoples does not depend on circumstances or differences. That same solidarity calls on us to join efforts to close regional divides on the basis of dialogue and concertation.
Beyond our hemisphere, we are strengthening our ties with Asia and Africa, and the recent modernization of our partnership with the European Union confirms that closeness with some partners has never meant distance from others.
Mexico believes in this Organization, which today faces a challenge of enormous magnitude: to renew itself in fulfilling its founding mandate to save succeeding generations from the scourge of armed conflict, protect human rights, improve the condition of millions of vulnerable people and ensure the primacy of international law.
That renewal also extends to the leadership of the Organization. We will soon have a new person at the head of the Secretariat. Mexico states it clearly: in the United Nations too, it is time for women.
Alfonso Reyes, diplomat and humanist, left Mexico a lesson that today we offer to this Assembly: “the only way to be profitably national is to be generously universal”. That is the calling of our foreign policy. Mexico knows that no nation builds its future from isolation, and that its sovereignty is strengthened through dialogue and respectful collaboration with all peoples.
Mexico comes to this rostrum with one conviction and leaves with the same one: the legitimacy of institutions depends on their ability to transform, in practice, people’s lives. As President Claudia Sheinbaum has said, Mexico moves along the path of shared prosperity, with independence, with freedom and always, with dignity. With that course, we will continue working for a United Nations equal to its founding promise.
Thank you very much.
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