OSMAN SALEH MOHAMMED, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Eritrea, speaking on behalf of President Isaias Afwerki, said that the global community is facing triple challenges:  the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and growing international rivalry.  “All of us must climb down from our high horses and ponder on these issues in a holistic manner,” he said, describing the theme for the seventy-sixth General Assembly as apt and optimistic.  Today’s global challenges call for a stronger United Nations that is more representative, transparent and effective.  Therefore, the international community must strengthen and revamp the United Nations system.  Multilateral institutions have been rendered impotent, due to the unilateral actions of a select few, he noted.

Turning to issues of border dispute and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, he said that acrimonious and internationalized forums will likely hinder an enduring and comprehensive arrangement that addresses the requirements of Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.  The Joint Declaration of Peace and Friendship had ushered in a new epoch of hope, but the Tigray People's Liberation Front was not accepting the present realities.  While in power in Ethiopia, they continued to occupy sovereign Eritrean territories in violation of international law and the Arbitral Award of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission.

They were continuing to wage intermittent assaults against Eritrea to provoke a major war, he continued, adding that it was inexcusable that the United States and its European allies were defending the Front’s illicit and dangerous acts.  False narratives have created moral equivalence between the principal culprit and those compelled to take deterrent action warranted by international law.  This situation underlines the structural inadequacy of the global governance system, he pointed out, stressing:  “The injustices meted on Eritrea by powers who feel they can trample the sovereignty of nations and peoples at their whim must come to an end.”