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Hello, good afternoon, 

We have convened here the informal meeting of the [EU] Ministers for Foreign Affairs.  

This is a traditional meeting, we do that every year when all of us come to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meetings. As you know, the UN General Assembly is the high level, the high moment for the political life of the United Nations. Everybody is here. 

We have coordinated our outreach to third countries – among all [EU] ministers – and I can tell you that, all together, we are going to have meetings with 133 partners here in New York, during this week. 

It shows the intensity of our outreach to the world to talk about the big issues of this week: the climate change, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the reform of the international financial architecture, and certainly Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.  

This will be, as always, one of the points of our meeting’s agenda. We will talk about our future security commitments to Ukraine. 

In Toledo, we already discussed it. I put on the table several proposals, the ministers will continue discussing, and in the preparation of the meeting that we will have in Kyiv in the weeks to come. 

Another point on the agenda – very important – is the situation in the Sahel. We will have a strategic discussion about what is going on there, especially after the coup d'état in Niger. And we will decide which lines to take in the future, in particular with respect to our military activities, military training and our budget support.  

Today is an informal meeting – no decision will be taken – but I think this is a starting point of a deep, strategic discussion about the situation in the Sahel. We cannot continue doing the same things and expect that we will have different results. 

I will debrief the ministers about the last High-level meeting of the [Belgrade-Pristina] Dialogue, with Kosovo and Serbia, to explain what has happened and to have a look at the future developments of the Dialogue. 

Then, I will tell you more after the meeting and answer your questions then. 

Thank you. 

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-246190