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D.S. das Neves: Address to World Summit 2022, Session VIII
Written by Hon. Delfim Santiago das Neves, President of the National Assembly, São Tomé and Príncipe
Saturday, February 12, 2022
Address to World Summit
February 11-13, 2022
Note: World leaders were invited to World Summit 2022 but due to air travel restrictions, participated by submitting a video message. The following text is a transcription of the recording.
Ladies and Gentlemen, first of all, from myself and on behalf of the other members of the delegation of the Parliament of Sao Tome, I would like to express our gratitude to the Universal Peace Federation and, in this context, to thank you for the invitation extended to us, which has allowed us to meet colleagues from different corners of the world, to whom I would like to extend my most heartfelt and fraternal greetings.
Allow me, therefore, to take this sublime opportunity to thank the distinguished organizers of this magnificent event, in the person of its co-founder, Dr. Moon, in recognition of the innumerable efforts made in its organization.
Excellencies, the Charter of the United Nations establishes that countries must resolve their disputes on the international plane by peaceful means, so as not to jeopardize justice, peace and international security, which implies that this must undoubtedly be the path to follow. [We are faced with] conflict on the Korean peninsula, opposing the current status of division into two states in the logic of the Cold War, and the permanence of a conflict with such serious political and ideological aspects.
The controversy in the Korean family has attracted international attention in recent decades, and a change in the “status quo” there would have immediate and significant regional and even international implications.
We believe that ensuring reliable security in the Asia-Pacific region must involve a unified Korea, with a commitment to neutrality, at equal distance from the tactical and strategic interests of other world powers.
This means that only through approaches based on collectively viable solutions in terms of nuclear disarmament can the foundation for a definitive peace in the region be laid.
Since the end of the Cold War, the international community has been faced with conflicts in various regions that have fostered international social and economic instability. But today, the world is facing a war against an invisible enemy—COVID-19—which, without weapons, has taken human lives and crippled the economies of the poorest and most disadvantaged countries, as well as those of the most industrialized countries.
Hence, the Korean leaders must learn from this accursed pandemic and replace the attitude of hostility and separation between two brotherly peoples with dialogue as a peaceful means of lasting peace, as a path to the desired swift unification.
In that regard, I would like to express my well-deserved praise to the co-founder of the Universal Peace Federation, Dr. Moon, for this brilliant initiative and for the outstanding role she plays in this international platform, with a vision of maintaining peace, security and the resulting human development, based on the ideal principle of freedom. This is absolutely fundamental in the promotion of a favorable climate in which people can live with a better quality of life and in accordance with their goals and aspirations.
Let us therefore pool our synergies in order to create interests capable of gradually gathering around us all those who are willing to collaborate in such an undertaking. In this manner, let us be certain, the dream will become reality.
Good luck!
To go to the World Summit 2022 Schedule page, click here.