Address to Peace Summit 2023
May 2-5, 2023
Ladies and gentlemen, this Peace Summit 2023 is being held with the heavenly blessings of Father Moon and with the novel initiative of dear Mother Hak Ja Han Moon. I am thankful to the Universal Peace Federation for giving me the opportunity to participate in this Summit and the chance to say a few words and share some of my feelings with you.
I come from India, which is known as the Land of Peace, the birthplace of Buddha and blessed by Mahatma Gandhi, who was an epitome of peace of his time. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, India, a peace-loving country, got its independence in 1947 from colonialism through peaceful, nonviolent means. I think this has shown the way to the world, how we can achieve our goal with peaceful means, nonviolent means. That’s how India got independence and India is committed to that.
You all know what are the present challenges to the world order, what the world is facing today with the issues of peace and security, climate change, the resultant natural calamities, conflicts, etc. These are the contemporary challenges that are being deliberated in this Peace Summit. We all are happy to be here to make our own contributions towards the end objective which is peace, having peace, global peace, peace in our own countries, peace in the family and also peace within ourselves. When we do not have peace within ourselves, society cannot be peaceful. If the society cannot be peaceful, the country cannot be peaceful, the world cannot be peaceful. As we say, peace begins at home. That’s how if we want to proceed towards our goal of achieving peace in world order, then I think we all will have to practice peace within ourselves.
Friends, ladies and gentlemen, today there is a challenge to peace and security. When we talk about peace and security, we cannot separate it from political aggression being practiced by some leaders in some nations. That is again a challenge to the peaceful order of the world. When we talk about peace and security and when we talk about the challenges to it, as we all know, there is only one path. The path is peace. No conflict has been resolved as yet by war or battles being fought by different countries.
Conflicts are resolved only by negotiation and dialogue and by a peace process by one or the other. Thus, here the Universal Peace Federation is playing a greater role. I do not think there is any other organization than Universal Peace Federation that is working among different sectors, working among different regions of this world. Today the Universal Peace Federation is playing a greater role to bring about world peace.
We all know that the United Nations was formed to bring this order and that was our agreement. But the United Nations has not been able to reach that goal up till now. Therefore, our organizations like Universal Peace Federation have more importance and more responsibilities toward world order. We are really grateful. I am grateful for Father Moon who was the co-founder of Universal Peace Federation, and his goal and his activities are being taken to all parts of the world by dear Mother Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon.
I am grateful to her that she is continuing the mission where other luminaries left off. Today, with the participation of the entire world in this process of peacebuilding, peaceful negotiation, and peaceful solutions to our problems, this movement is gaining importance day after day, year after year. I feel very encouraged, I feel very, very inspired to work in this universal peace initiative. As I said, as an Indian, we have responsibility for resolution of conflicts.
As was mentioned by His Excellency Suos Yara regarding peace in the Korean peninsula, they are one nation, one language, one culture. Why two nations? Why this conflict? This conflict also can be resolved by dialogue, by negotiation, and by mutual goodwill. We as global leaders have responsibility and goodwill to support the peaceful reunification of Korea and also other conflicts in other areas, in other regions.
With this, I wish you all the best. We are all peace leaders. We are all peace activists. Let the struggle go on. Thank you very much.
To go to the Peace Summit 2023 Schedule page, click here.