Highlighting the centrality of the UN in his country’s own history, Zoran Milanović, President of Croatia, described the Organization and its Charter as his country’s “safe harbour”.  He added that this experience offered “many lessons for the future – including on how to successfully end a complex war and conduct peaceful territorial reintegration”.

Turning to today’s crises – including in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan - he warned that armed conflicts are “more numerous than at any time since the Second World War”, overwhelming humanitarian systems and eroding trust in the world’s capacity to solve them.  Peace, he underlined, “is more than silencing the guns.  It requires preventing new wars and breaking the cycles of violence from the past”, rooted in democracy, legitimate governance and the right of peoples to choose their leaders freely.

Turning to southeast Europe, he urged all countries to refrain from actions that undermine stability in the region.  He emphasized the importance of upholding the Dayton-Paris Agreement in Bosnia and Herzegovina, along with full respect for the constitutional order, sovereignty and equality of the three constituent peoples.  He called for reform of the humanitarian system, noting that “strict respect for international humanitarian law must remain the moral core of multilateralism”.  Drawing from his country’s painful experience, he highlighted Croatia’s leadership in the Global Alliance for the Missing, noting that “families still search for 1,744 missing loved ones” from its Homeland War.  Moreover, the country has spearheaded the Human Rights Council’s first resolution on landmines adopted by consensus on 4 April.

Addressing technology, he stressed that “artificial intelligence, cyber capabilities, space technologies and robotics - each can be a threat, or a solution.  The choice is ours.”  He went on to emphasize the urgency of UN reform, supporting enlargement of Security Council membership and stronger representation of underrepresented regions, especially Africa.  “The world is not short of strategies, reports or debates.  What it lacks is political courage and determination,” he stressed.  “Let us find that courage together - and prove that multilateralism can meet this moment and rise to the challenges of our time,” he concluded.