00:13Hello, join us. We go live to New York City to the United Nations headquarters at this hour.
00:19Roberto Velasquez, the Foreign Affairs Minister of Mexico, is offering statements. Let's listen.
00:44Peace and security, to engage in friendly relations between nations and to cooperate to resolve economic, social and cultural problems
00:53and humanitarian problems, promoting respect for human rights without any type of distinction.
00:59Mexico, a culture with more than 3,000 years of history, is experiencing a profound transformation that is a continuation
01:09of the journey that was started with the independence movement, the reform and then the revolution, the three defining moments
01:19when my country expanded the rights of its people.
01:21My country today aspires to achieve a prosperous society with rights and a decent life for all.
01:28This is a transformation with clear goals to bring about shared well-being, to strengthen our competitivity, to develop our
01:36own capacities and to determine our own destiny.
01:40It's for this reason that my country has come to share the experience of a nation that decided to show
01:46through concrete actions that it is possible to improve the quality of life of our people by expanding their rights
01:52and their capacity to exercise these rights.
01:55Please allow me to underscore some of the progress made.
01:58The first is the reduction of poverty. Between 2018 and 2024, more than 13 million people were lifted out of
02:06poverty in Mexico, the most significant reduction in the history of our country.
02:09It's also important to underscore that in 2025, we had the lowest in work poverty rate in our history.
02:17This effort continues with national social policy.
02:22In 2026, the well-being programs of our countries reached 42.8 million people.
02:28In addition to this, we have sustained investment in infrastructure, healthcare, trains, highways, schools and water infrastructure.
02:37Looking towards 2030, the investment in infrastructure for development with well-being plan plans to make investments in energy, transport,
02:48water, health, education and emerging technology.
02:51The second concrete action is security that the government of President Scheinbaum understands from a comprehensive perspective, addressing the causes
03:00that push youth towards crime and also zero impunity.
03:07And the results speak for themselves.
03:09In just 22 months, the 22 months to July 2026, intentional homicides declined by around 51%.
03:17This is the result of a national security strategy that is being strengthened thanks to international cooperation on shared challenges
03:25and that respectfully, I'd like to respectfully recall, is grounded in four principles.
03:32One, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity.
03:35Two, shared but differentiated responsibility.
03:38Three, mutual respect and trust.
03:42And four, cooperation without subordination.
03:45This milestone was not achieved through war nor by renouncing human rights or through reliance on force as the sole
03:53response.
03:56Mexico combines education and employment for youth with intelligence, investigation, strengthening institutions and boosting the presence of the state where
04:05before it was absent.
04:06Today, we can say proudly that our progress in security really make Mexico stand out on the international stage.
04:13That's why we wish to put forward a truth to this assembly, a truth that is valid for all peoples,
04:24that peace cannot be decreed or imposed.
04:26It's built with social justice.
04:28The third action is focused on employment.
04:31Since 2018, the minimum wage has increased in real terms by 154%.
04:38And today, we have the highest purchasing power in more than four decades.
04:42And we achieve this with dialogue between the government, workers and employers with inflation under control and one of the
04:48lowest unemployment rates of any OECD economy.
04:51We've demonstrated in practice something that was denied for decades in theory, that is that paying workers better does not
05:01make economies poorer.
05:02It actually strengthens them.
05:04The fourth action that we've engaged in has transformed the history of our country.
05:10For the first time in two centuries of independent life, Mexico is being governed by a woman.
05:16And this did not happen alone.
05:18And she's not governing alone.
05:20Either she has a cabinet with gender parity, a congress with gender parity and a reform that made substantive equality
05:29a constitutional mandate.
05:30And today, girls in Mexico grow up knowing that they can achieve anything they want to.
05:37The fifth action is the exercise of a foreign policy with sovereignty and independence.
05:43Mexico has shown that a country can cooperate closely and respectfully with its partners and at the same time fully
05:49uphold its sovereignty.
05:50This independence is also measured by how we protect Mexican citizens that live outside of our territory overseas.
05:58Mexico supports its diaspora, its community abroad, by defending their human rights wherever they are, always strictly respecting international law.
06:08This Mexican transformation is designed to benefit precisely those who historically have been left behind.
06:15Our policies are based on a very clear gender perspective, boosting the rights of women, prioritising the poorest indigenous peoples,
06:26persons of African descent, persons with disabilities, children, infants, older persons and people of different sexual and gender identities.
06:38President excellencies, Mexico's foreign policy is rooted in the normative principles of our constitution that transcend any particular administration or
06:47international circumstance
06:48and that our people have forged throughout our history.
06:51We defend the self-determination of peoples, non-interference, because we know that they are the best guarantee of peace
06:58and civility between nations.
06:59We are in favour of the peaceful settlement of disputes by prohibiting the threats to use or the use of
07:07force.
07:08And we believe in legal equality between states because sovereignty is not measured in armies or material resources.
07:14All nations, all nations, all peoples have the same value before the law.
07:18We promote international cooperation for development.
07:20We ensure the respect, protection and promotion of human rights that are also something that are at the very heart
07:28of our constitution.
07:30And we also fight for international peace and security, which is the basis of the development of peoples.
07:36Those who look to these constitutional mandates will find reflected in them the purposes and principles of the San Francisco
07:44Charter,
07:45in whose drafting the contribution of Mexican diplomacy is clearly relevant.
07:50Mexico does not need to adapt its foreign policy to the UN Charter because the UN Charter is enshrined in
07:57our constitution.
07:57When my country defends multilateralism, we are fulfilling a constitutional mandate.
08:03This is the legacy of Benito Juárez, Benustiano Carranza and Genaro Estrada.
08:09Three names, three men with the same conviction that the law is the only legitimate force between nations.
08:18And this conviction does not allow for any exceptions or any selective uses.
08:24In the face of international conflicts, Mexico has a firm position that international law must prevail over force,
08:32that civilian populations must be protected, that the territorial integrity of nations must be respected,
08:37and that all disputes must be settled by way of dialogue, negotiations and peace.
08:42It's for this reason that Mexico has defended the two-state solution for decades and recognised as the state of
08:49Palestine,
08:50as well as the right of its people to live in peace within safe and recognised borders.
08:56Aware that this position would not be sufficient without institutions that are able to uphold it,
09:03Mexico is working to strengthen this house and make it, in particular, in an environment of global polarisation.
09:13Mexico and Norway founded the UNAT Global Group, supporting the reforms undertaken by the Secretary-General
09:19focused on building, with practical actions, a more effective and transparent United Nations.
09:25With Qatar, Norway and Switzerland, we are engaging in a strengthening of the mediation capacities of the organisation.
09:32Each and every conflict that diplomacy can prevent is worth more than all of those that force seeks to resolve.
09:40This same commitment is also being engaged in in our own region.
09:45In Latin America and the Caribbean, Mexico will continue to work to preserve the nature of the zone of peace
09:51that our peoples created for ourselves and to strengthen cooperation in forests such as CELAC and the Pacific Alliance.
09:59Our regional vocation also explains Mexico's position, the position that we have had for more than six decades,
10:08and that's solidarity with the people of Cuba, rejecting the embargo and any unilateral measure that is against the UN
10:16Charter.
10:16We will continue to send humanitarian aid to address the most urgent needs of its population because the fraternity between
10:23our nations does not depend on any given situation in any moment or differences between us.
10:32This solidarity is also calling on us to pull our efforts to deal with regional differences on the basis of
10:40dialogue and working with one another.
10:42Above and beyond our hemisphere, we are strengthening our links with Asia and Africa
10:47and recently modernised our partnership with the European Union, confirming the close links between partners.
11:05President Excellencies, Mexico believes in this organisation and today faces a huge challenge resolving and renewing compliance of the foundational
11:15mandate
11:16to save humanity from the scourge of armed conflicts, to protect human rights, to improve the situation of millions of
11:23vulnerable people and to ensure that international law is respected.
11:26This renewal also reaches the leadership of this organisation because soon we will have a new person at the helm
11:34of the UN Secretariat
11:35and Mexico would like to be crystal clear on this. At the United Nations, it is also time for women.
11:44Alfonso Reyes, a diplomat and humanist, left Mexico, taught Mexico rather a lesson that today we'd like to bring to
11:53this assembly.
11:54The only way of being usefully national is being generously universal.
11:59This is the vocation of our foreign policy and Mexico knows that no nation can build its future in isolation
12:06and that sovereignty is strengthened through dialogue and respectful collaboration between all peoples.
12:12Mexico came up to this rostrum with a conviction and we are ending with the very same conviction
12:18that the legitimacy of institutions depends on their ability to transform through action the life of people.
12:23As President Claudia Scheinbaum has said, Mexico is advancing along the path of shared prosperity with independence, with freedom and
12:33always with dignity.
12:34With this as our lodestar, we will continue to work for a United Nations that lives up to its founding
12:40promise.
12:40Thank you very much.
12:45We are listening at this hour to the statements from Roberto Velasco, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico,
12:52as he was reinforcing Mexico's willingness to keep defending its sovereignty and also to have as well a strong relationship
13:02with its partners.
13:03But based on respect, he also said that Mexico is willing to keep supporting Cuba in the face of the
13:10economic blockade
13:11that has been imposed on the nation and that is going as well to keep sending solidarity support for the
13:18people of Cuba
13:19in the face of the hardships imposed by the economic blockade.
13:22So this is all for the moment.
13:24Stay tuned with Telesur English for more information.
13:26Stay tuned with us.
13:31Makes sense.
13:36Thank you very much.
13:39You
