Thank you very much Chair and it’s an honour to be able to speak here.
2025 was the most violent year since 1946 and deaths in conflict rose 23 per cent in a single year.
1,000 aid workers have been killed in three years.
Conflict related sexual violence has more than doubled.
And for children in armed conflict, 2025 was the worst year on record.
We all know strategic competition is sharpening and countries’ choices are being constrained by military power and control of the materials and technologies on which we depend.
So if we are serious about building peace, we must be serious about agency.
What do we mean by this? Agency is about all countries being able to make their own choices, being able to determine our own futures, free from threats or coercion.
And this is what Australia works towards.
Because a world in which countries can exercise their sovereignty is a world that is more peaceful, more stable and more prosperous.
Much more so than a world where only some can make these choices.
Colleagues, it would be easy to conclude that the rules have failed.
But walking away from them would leave a vacuum. A vacuum is rarely filled by peace.
So we must recommit to the rules. We must recommit to building peace. And we must act together.
Australia has launched the world’s first Policy Guidance for Effective National Prevention Strategies to help countries develop their own plans for peace and resilience – tackling the drivers of conflict and fragility, from inequality to climate change.
And championing the voices too often absent in these rooms.
Chair, regional institutions are integral partners in peace.
Our region benefits firsthand from ASEAN and also the Pacific Islands Forum.
These entities build norms. They set expectations. They prevent escalation. And their innovations belong here.
Prevention, Chair, is also central to Australia’s campaign for a UN Security Council seat for 2029-30.
If elected, our commitment is we will listen with respect, we will partner as equals and we will work with you to protect what matters most.
Yesterday, I convened the 130 signatories of the Declaration for the Protection of Humanitarian Personnel – more than two thirds of the United Nations – to drive further action to keep aid workers from harm.
Australia is also investing in peace – one of the smartest investments any country can make – and we will provide $5 million to the UN-International Financial Institutions Partnership Facility, to unlock blended financing for conflict prevention and resilience, building on our multi-year $50 million commitment to the UN Peacebuilding Fund.
Because peace is not built in moments of crisis.
It is built in the years before, and we cannot afford to wait.