Secretary-General’s Joint Press Encounter with the President of the Spain Pedro Sanchez

Secretary-General: At a time of profound global turmoil, we must keep working for peace, for peace in the Middle East. 

For an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the immediate release of all hostages, and unimpeded humanitarian access as a first step to achieve the two-State solution. 

For the ceasefire between Iran and Israel to hold. 

For a just and lasting peace in Ukraine based on the UN Charter, international law and UN resolutions.  

For an end to the horror and bloodshed in Sudan. 

We know that sustainable peace requires sustainable development. 

Ladies and gentlemen of the media. 

As I said in opening the Conference this morning, development is not just about numbers on a page. 

It’s about food, health care and education. 

It’s about jobs and social protection. 

It’s about infrastructure like water systems, internet access and climate-resilient buildings. 

It’s about providing equal opportunity for girls and women which moves all societies ahead. 

It’s about easing human suffering, and driving progress across every community, large and small. 

Development is about people. 

And we have collectively made great strides in development in recent decades. 

But progress doesn’t happen on its own. 

It takes support and investment. 

As we meet, the world is falling behind in its commitments to advance the Sustainable Development Goals. 

Achieving them will take an investment of more than $4 trillion a year. 

And meanwhile, global growth is slowing, trade barriers are rising, and aid budgets are falling. 

Developing countries are drowning in debt service payments, which have skyrocketed to $1.4 trillion every year. 

And the great enabler of development — international cooperation — is being chipped away by geopolitical mistrust and division. 

Now, this Conference is about rebuilding that trust with concrete commitments. 

With the adoption of the Sevilla Commitment document, countries are proving their dedication to getting the engine of development revving again: 

Through new domestic and global commitments that can channel public and private finance to the areas of greatest need… 

By overhauling the world’s approach to debt to make borrowing work in service of sustainable development... 

And by reforming the global financial architecture to reflect today’s realities and the urgent needs of developing countries, that must have a much stronger voice and participation in the institutions of this financial architecture. 

The Sevilla Platform of Action being launched later today will help us move from words to action. 

It contains dozens of new practical initiatives to accelerate funding for development around the world. 

This includes the commitment to establish a borrowers forum for countries to learn from one another and coordinate their approaches in debt management and restructuring. 

This is one of 11 immediately actionable proposals to help resolve the debt crisis, backed by my group of experts on debt that will be publishing their report. 

I look forward to working closely with Member States — including the G20 — to bring this forum to life.

[END]

Q &A:

Question: [AFP] 

Secretary-General: Well, let's be clear. This conference takes place in one of the most difficult moments that I have witnessed in my public life. A moment of division, a moment in which we see conflicts multiplying and we see enormous difficulties for developing countries to overcome the challenges they face. And this is true in relation to debt, it's true in relation to climate, it's true in relation to all the aspects of development. And what is remarkable is that in this moment that is so difficult and where countries are so divided, it was possible to approve a Sevilla Commitment that represents one step ahead of both the Addis Ababa development conference, and – more important than that – one step ahead in relation to the Summit of the Future, just one year and a half ago. And so, the question is clear. There is a solid will of the bulk of the international community to change the system in order to allow for developing countries to benefit with the progress and development. And we know that there are resistances. We know that this is essentially a question of power. But I have a clear message to the powerful: It is better for them to lead the reform of the system now than to wait and eventually suffer the resistance later, when power relations change. And I believe that the reforms that are proposed in Sevilla, in line with the work that was done in the Summit of the Future, are reforms that are absolutely needed both for developing and developed countries. 

Question: [Reuters] My question is for the Secretary-General Guterres. In the event that the United States were to pull out from some of the major multilateral and development banks, who do you believe would be able to step in to try and fill that investment gap, and how can the United Nations help the MDB system cope in such a scenario? Thank you. 

Secretary-General: There is one thing that clearly evident for me. This is a moment in which we cannot expect increases in the official development assistance, but there are ways to multiply the resources available. And one of the things that we have approved here in Sevilla is to triple the lending capacity of multilateral development banks. And the logic is very simple. You have less ODA, okay. If you use your ODA, financing project by project, one dollar or one euro has the value of one dollar or one euro. If you use that dollar or that euro to increase the capital of a multilateral development bank, it allows the bank to go to the market to find more – six, seven or eight – and to increase the funds available to support developing countries. It's a question of political will. There are ways to multiply resources. The same with the special drawing rights. The special drawing rights are created from nothing, let us say. And if you distribute special drawing rights through the IMF, one dollar is one dollar. One euro is one euro. If you do it through multilateral development banks, again, you multiply the resources. So, it's time to seriously think about innovative forms of financing. To put a tax on carbon, to create levies in relation to several areas of activity, namely the impacts of maritime transportation in relation to climate change. I mean, there are many ways to multiply the resources available if we have the political will for that. And this can be done with the countries that are willing to do so, of course. To have the United States on board would be excellent, but it can be done in any case by those willing to do so. 

 ***