European Union External Action
Speaking at the launch at the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday 26 September 2019 alongside German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian, Federica Mogherini said the EU had "joined the alliance for Multilateralism precisely because we all share the same goal: we all want to protect, reform and expand the multilateral system of global governance."
She said the ideas that led to the creation of this Alliance are at the core of the European Union's Global Strategy for foreign and security policy which was adopted in 2016.
In her speech she focused on two elements that form part of the Alliance, namely on cyber security and autonomous weapon systems and then on climate security.
On cyber security and on autonomous weapon systems, Mogherini said the EU had set up the Global Tech Panel as a place "where governments and tech need to work together in partnership to solve global problems or at least contribute to solve global problems."
She went on to say "we have benefitted from their collective genius and their technical expertise on complicated issues such as lethal autonomous weapons systems - which we discussed jointly with EU defence ministers in August - and on cybersecurity. The Global Tech Panel can offer important contributions to the Alliance work on fostering genuine conversations in problem-solving spirit."
On climate security she said "In these years, we have put "Climate, peace and security" at the core of our agenda. And I totally subscribe to your call for coordination, sharing of information, and regular reports on climate-related risks."
She went on to say "let me just mention that in recent years we have made our European satellite images available to countries that were facing extreme weather events. This is world-class technology, the best global system of satellite images, which we shared for free. When we invest in the fight against climate change, we invest in our own security. This is a hard-core security issue. The good news is: this is not irreversible. Climate change is man-made, and solutions are also man-made."
To conclude Mrs. Mogherini said "on climate, just like on all security issues, the world needs our cooperation. Multilateral solutions are, first and foremost, more just and equal, because they take more voices into account. But multilateral solutions are also much more effective, because only by joining forces we can tackle the complex crises of our times. Multilateralism is the answer, and we are proud to be part of this Alliance."
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