Bernhard Kotsch, State Secretary in the Federal Foreign Ministry, Nils Hilmer, State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Defence, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would first like to express my sincere gratitude to our host, Germany, and in particular the dedicated teams in the Ministry of Defense and the Federal Foreign Office, as well as the hundreds of others behind the scenes, who made this such a tremendously successful event.
More than 130 Member States – 54 represented by Ministers – and over 1,000 participants came to Berlin for this Ministerial.
We heard unwavering, high-level political support for UN Peacekeeping and for our peacekeepers from over 90 countries.
This political support and advocacy for UN Peacekeeping is more important than ever. We need to harness this support for the benefit of our peacekeeping missions now and in the future. This support helps us advance political solutions on the ground, and it will help us strengthen peacekeeping to make it fit for the future.
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Seventy-four Member States made concrete pledges – to make UN Peacekeeping safer, stronger, more effective and to enhance existing reforms. I thank you so much for these commitments. Peacekeeping is a partnership and only together can it retain the unique legitimacy and capabilities for which it is known.
While we heard ministers make important pledges, the six breakout sessions today allowed us to look at critical issues for today’s and tomorrow’s missions, building on the three panel discussions yesterday. I won’t try to summarize the pledges of all 74 Member States and the discussions but would like to mention just a few takeaways:
- It is critical to ensure that the UN retains the core capacities, expertise and institutional knowledge it has built up through the years. It is uniquely positioned to generate capabilities, conduct and support logistically challenging operations, and can remain ready to deploy new missions or reinforce existing ones at short notice.
- But like the rest of the world, Peacekeeping must adapt to rapid technological advancements. These are altering conflict dynamics but also pose new opportunities.
- Our personnel are our most important capability. We rely on our strong partnerships with troop and police contributing countries to deploy peacekeepers from diverse backgrounds who bring a range of skill sets, experiences and perspectives while furthering our shared values of inclusion and equality.
- I thank Member States for their tangible pledges on Women, Peace and Security as a collective investment in UN peacekeeping and international peace and security. We must continue to make progress in this area, however. We need more women in operational and leadership roles to make our missions more effective.
- Measures to strengthen organizational performance, conduct and accountability are critical and have been mentioned here repeatedly. These measures only work through close collaboration with troop and police contributing countries.
- In our final breakout session today, we focused on “protecting the vulnerable”. At a time when global conflict is at an all-time high and becoming increasingly deadly for civilians, it is more important than ever to find ways of protecting those most at risk. Every day, UN peacekeepers deployed around the world protect hundreds of thousands of people, very often making the difference between life and death. We must collectively redouble our efforts, working closely with host governments, communities, and partners to protect civilians wherever and whenever we can.
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Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Peacekeeping is recognized for having continuously adapted to ever-changing contexts and achieving results in crucial areas ranging from the preservation of ceasefires to the protection of civilians.
We will see further change in 2025 and beyond. The discussions yesterday and today will help inform the review of UN peace operations, as well as ongoing and future reform priorities.
Through this and the UN80 process, we will work to ensure that the United Nations is at the ready to deploy peace operations that meet the challenges of tomorrow.
I have confidence that the discussions here at the UN Peacekeeping Ministerial 2025 will be remembered for their important contribution towards stronger, more resilient UN Peacekeeping, to increased safety and security for peacekeepers deployed, and to even better peacekeeping outcomes in the future.
That future starts today.
Thank you.