Speech by Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany at 'Summit of the Future', 22 September 2024 in New York

Mr President,
Colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to thank all the previous speakers, especially the youth representatives, for their important input.

It is for them, the youth around the world, that we have come together today.

It's about their hopes for a better world, it's about their future.

A special word of gratitude goes to you, Mr. President! Your leadership has proven of vital importance.
At a time of great tension and uncertainty, we need the Pact for the Future more than ever.

The previous speakers have already explained how deeply our fates are linked by the global challenges we are facing:

• war,
• climate change,
• poverty and hunger,
• impediments to free and fair trade,
• global health threats,
• technological developments such as AI, which - as well as huge opportunities - also harbour the potential for abuse and for exacerbating economic imbalances.

The Pact does not just acknowledge these challenges.

It expresses our commitment to confronting them! Not alone, not one by one, but together, East and West, North and South.

The Pact for the Future can serve as a compass for us.

A compass whose needle points towards more cooperation and partnership, instead of towards more conflict and fragmentations.

A compass guiding us to a more just, inclusive and cooperative world.

The Pact shows our determination to restore trust in our common institutions.

It shows that all the talk of division, polarisation and uncertainty will not be the end of the story of our United Nations.

Because we still cooperate.
We are still placing trust in one another.
We are still committed to the principles of the Charter.
And we are still willing to treat each other with respect and fairness.

Respect and fairness - these principles have also been guiding us - Namibia and Germany - as co-facilitators of this Pact.

We come from different continents. Our political and social-economic situations differ.

And yet we managed to work together as friends.

Thank you, President Mbumba, for your friendship and for the excellent cooperation.

I also wish to thank everyone who helped us to carry the negotiations so far.

The text before us today is the achievement of the countless men and women who overcame fatigue, the occasional feeling of frustration, political and ideological divides to achieve this global consensus today.

You have proved that multilateralism is alive. That we can find common ground.

Let's take steps towards a world that is safe, just, equal, inclusive, sustainable, prosperous - and above all, peaceful.

The Pact outlines what those steps are - over 50 of them.

Not only history would judge us if we didn't take them. But also young people around the world.

The road is rocky - but was that ever any different?

Germany will extend its hand to anyone who wants to walk this road with us.

Let's get moving. The future starts now.

Thank you.