AUSTRIA, September 21 - On the evening of 22 September 2022 (local time), Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg gave a speech on behalf of Austria before the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York. He called on the audience to solve conflicts through diplomacy and to advocate for the principles of the rule-based international order.

While Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg was still cautiously optimistic that things were looking up in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in last year’s speech, this year his speech was shaped entirely by the brutal Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.

On 24 February, war returned to Europe when Russia brutally attacked Ukraine – an independent and sovereign state. Russia is attempting to redraw its borders using tanks and missiles […]. It is using explicit nuclear threats and fictitious ‘referenda’, in clear violation of international law,

 said Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg at the start of his speech.

The war, he said, had destroyed several illusions – the illusion that the security architecture created after the fall of the Iron Curtain was continuing to provide peace dividends and could guarantee stability and prosperity; and the illusion that all crises and tensions could and would ultimately be resolved by peaceful means. Referring to the United Nations Charter, the Foreign Minister stated that this war was an attack on the rule-based international order that the community of nations had built jointly in recent decades, and a blatant and intentional violation of the UN’s founding document.

In this charter, each of the countries in this room agreed to resolve international disputes by peaceful means and to refrain from threats of violence against a state’s territorial integrity or political independence. And this violation was not committed by just any state, but by a standing member of the Security Council – the body that is responsible for protecting the charter, world peace, and international security,

said Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, reminding Russia of its duties.

In the conclusion of his speech, he noted that effective multilateralism and respect for the rule of law had been the central focus of Austria’s foreign policy for decades, and he called upon all of the states to also fight for a functional multilateral system and a rule-based international order, since today’s actions would shape the international system of tomorrow.

Let us use these turbulent times to create the foundation for a more just, equitable, and resilient future,

concluded Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg.