Thank you President Amherd, President Zelenskyy.
Colleagues, Russia chose to wage war on Ukraine, and we come here united because we choose peace.
Peace based on the foundational principles of the United Nations Charter.
The Ukrainian people did not ask for this fight.
But, in defending their country, their valour and their sacrifice has been truly humbling to witness.
It is a cruel paradox…
…that the things that make life worth living…
…are also the things for which brave men and women are prepared to die.
For family.
For freedom.
For the ability to shape one’s own future.
We salute them all…
…just as we abhor all of those who have pushed this fate upon them.
I recall my first visit to Kyiv where I saw the explosive devices that departing Russian soldiers had placed in children’s toys and footballs.
There can be no justification for that.
There can be no justification for escalating nuclear rhetoric.
There can be no justification for disrupting food supplies to tens of millions of vulnerable people.
Now there will be of course a diversity of views round this table, but I commend and thank everyone for their participation here today, demonstrating that you all seek a genuine peace to this conflict.
Because Putin has no interest in genuine peace.
He has launched a sustained diplomatic campaign against this very summit, ordering countries to stay away.
And we should ask, why does Russia feel that they are so threatened by a summit discussing the basic principles of territorial integrity, food security and nuclear safety?
Instead, Russia’s representative at the United Nations said recently that:
“The only topic for any international meetings on Ukraine will be the unconditional surrender of the Kyiv regime”.
Well that will never happen.
Because aggression cannot and will not prevail.
Instead, we must set out the principles for a just and lasting peace, based on international law and the UN Charter.
That is the path to a permanent cessation of hostilities.
Showing that we will always protect the right of all nations to determine their own future.
This summit is a chance to start down that path…
To respond together to the global impacts of the war in Ukraine, to send a strong message from the international community to Russia and beyond, that we want to end the suffering.
We want to see an end to this war.
And we want to make this the day that the path towards a just and lasting peace in Ukraine became that much closer.
Thank you.
