We, the ministers of Foreign Affairs of France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Ukraine and senior officials from Canada, Republic of Korea, Switzerland, the United States of America, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy wish to express our grave concern regarding the threats posed to the safety and security of nuclear facilities devoted to peaceful purposes in Ukraine and their personnel, significantly raising the risk of a nuclear accident.

We wish to note the 2009 IAEA General Conference unanimous decision GC(53)/DEC/13 entitled “ Prohibition of armed attack or threat of attack against nuclear installations, during operation or under construction” which recognised the importance attached to safety, security and physical protection of nuclear material and nuclear facilities devoted to peaceful purposes as well as IAEA General Conference resolutions GC(XXIX)/RES/444 and GC(XXXIV)/RES/533 regarding armed attacks or threats against nuclear facilities devoted to peaceful purposes.

We underscore the importance of the IAEA Director General’s ”Seven Indispensable Pillars of Nuclear Safety and Security”, outlined in his statement to the IAEA Board of Governors meeting on March 2-3, 2022.

These “Seven Indispensable Pillars of Nuclear Safety and Security”, derived from existing IAEA nuclear safety standards and nuclear security guidance, are as follows:

1. The physical integrity of the nuclear facilities, whether it is reactors, fuel ponds, or radioactive waste stores, must be maintained;
2. All safety and security systems and equipment must be fully functional at all times;
3. The operating staff must be able to fulfil their respective safety and security duties, and have the capacity to make decisions free of undue pressure;
4. There must be secure off-site power supply from the grid for all nuclear sites;
5. There must be uninterrupted logistical supply chains and transportation to and from the sites;
6. There must be effective on-site and off-site radiation monitoring systems and emergency preparedness and response measures;
7. And finally, there must be reliable communications with the regulator and others.

We intend to continue to support the IAEA action in helping facilitate the implementation of these principles in Ukraine while fully respecting Ukraine’s sovereignty, including through the IAEA nuclear safety and security assistance plan for Ukraine.

We welcome the IAEA Support and Assistance Mission to Zaporizhzhya (ISAMZ) and commend the Director General and his team for their courage and determination in performing this important mission. We support efforts to maintain a continued IAEA presence at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in order to support Ukraine, and stand ready to support the nuclear safety, security and safeguards objectives of the IAEA mission, as needed.

We emphasize that Russia’s seizure and militarization of the ZNPP is the root cause of the current threats in the field of nuclear safety and security. We recall that the heightened risks of a nuclear incident will remain dangerously high as long as Russia remains present on the site of ZNPP. The Russian Federation must immediately withdraw its troops from within Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders and respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. Should the Russian Federation conduct any sham referenda within occupied territories of Ukraine, we reiterate that these would have no legal and political effect, including on the status of the ZNPP.

We welcome the Director General’s work to follow up on his visit of September 1st and the proposals contained in his report. We reaffirm our support for resolution GOV/2022/58 adopted on September 15 by the IAEA Board of Governors.

We underline the importance of complying with international humanitarian law and renewing efforts aimed at the prompt reinforcing of the international framework relating to the protection of nuclear facilities devoted to peaceful purposes including in armed conflicts.

As a first step, we stand ready to reaffirm the importance of these “Seven Indispensable Pillars of Nuclear Safety and Security” in appropriate fora, in particular at the IAEA and at the United Nations as appropriate.

In due time, we are also ready to review the lessons learned in Ukraine in order to help the IAEA and the international community to prepare for and respond to future events and anticipate new threats, such as cyber-attacks.

The Foreign Secretary is due to meet with his Russian counterpart for the first time today (22nd September) at the United Nations in New York – condemning his country’s aggression in Ukraine.

In a special Foreign Minister-level Security Council meeting on Ukraine, James Cleverly will reiterate, in front of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the UK’s full and unwavering commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.

At the meeting, the Foreign Secretary, will commit to working with the international community to seek justice for the victims of this conflict, and hold those responsible to account, ensuring that Russia’s actions are not tolerated.

Speaking from the UK’s seat at the Security Council, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly is expected to say:

Ukrainians’ resilience and spirit of defiance, in defence of their country, continues to inspire all free people and nations.

But every day, the devastating consequences of Russia’s invasion become more clear and evidence of Russian atrocities continues to mount…

… We can and must make clear to President Putin that his attacks on the sovereign will of the Ukrainian people – so clearly expressed as they fight for their homes – must stop. His assaults on the UN charter and international norms that protect us will not be tolerated and that he must withdraw from Ukraine to enable a return to regional and global stability.

The Foreign Secretary will expose how Moscow plans to fix the results of sham referendums across their temporarily controlled territories, in a move designed to provide false legitimacy for illegal land grabs.

After Vladimir Putin’s Presidential address this week, Cleverly will also reveal evidence of Russian tactics used to subvert Ukrainian democracy and rob Ukrainians of their homes and identity.

Following on from the Prime Minister’s speech to the UN General Assembly yesterday, the Foreign Secretary will set out the importance of a Ukrainian victory, saying that their fight for freedom is the world’s fight for freedom, because if Ukraine’s sovereignty and territory are not respected, no country is secure.

Later on Thursday, the Foreign Secretary will also attend a meeting on delivering justice for Ukraine and holding Russia to account for its egregious acts.

The meeting will feature Ukrainian Prosecutor General, Andriy Kostin, and the International Criminal Court’s Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, who is leading the court’s investigation into the situation in Ukraine.

Your Excellencies, three decades on from this historic Declaration, members of minority groups in many places, tragically, around the world continue to live in fear.

Citizens in countries face hatred. Why? Because of their race or their religion, the place they were born or their ethnicity, even because of the language they speak.

Members here tonight, this evening, this afternoon, this morning have been united and are committed to change, and today is an opportunity to reflect and make pledges on what we can do collectively.

The United Kingdom’s resolve is reflected in our landmark Inclusive Britain strategy, bringing together over 70 preventative and remedial actions to tackle racism or discrimination, be it in education, health, employment and in the criminal justice system, and indeed in public life as well.

And I want to just share two particular examples. When we look at the issue of religious hatred, I am proud of the fact we have supported organisations such as our Community Security Trust, a charity which specifically protects British Jews from racism and antisemitism. And indeed our funding of the Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks programme, which supports victims of anti-Muslim hatred in the UK. And I’m proud of the fact that we have also laws which protect not only religious freedom or belief, but also allow victims of crimes who have been targeted because of their religion or belief to report them as such. So if you are attacked as a Muslim, a Sikh, a Hindu or a Jew, you can go to your police station and report that crime as a religious hate crime. And as we bolster our efforts domestically to combat hatred at home, we pledge to clamp down on racist abuse online. This is a real challenge we are now facing, and we are doing this through our Online Safety Bill.

And internationally, we pledge to continue working with you, including through the United Nations to uphold international law. But I now wish to touch briefly on country situations as well. There are many parts of the world that tragically we see discrimination rife amongst the country.

Discriminatory provisions within citizenship laws, for example in Myanmar, where the Rohingya community, according to the laws of Myanmar don’t even exist. And other minorities face persecution. And in the case of the Rohingya specifically it culminates itself in ethnic cleansing.

The systematic discrimination, harassment, and targeting of members of minority communities in Iran, such as those of the Baha’i faith.

And we see in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have continued to target particular minority communities, including Sikhs, Christians and of course the Hazaras. And we call upon the Taliban to respect the law, respect the rights of their own constitution. Indeed respect the rights of the very faith they claim to follow which safeguards the rights of all minorities of whatever faith or belief they may be.

And if I may finally turn to the former High Commissioner’s recent report on Xinjiang. We are deeply concerned, indeed it is a great concern to all of us when we see the harrowing evidence which it provided of China’s human rights violations in the region, particularly against the Uyghur muslins, including actions that , and I quote from the report, “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity”. This also includes credible evidence of arbitrary and discriminatory detention, torture, sexual and gender-based violence, and the destruction, tragically, of religious sites. I know there are many in this room who share our concerns and join us in urging China to accept the report’s recommendations.

Finally Mr. Chairman, I end by just saying that when we stand here in the United Nations it is incumbent on not just all of us to not just talk but act. Because everyone, everywhere, deserves the freedom to enjoy their culture, practise their religion and speak in their mother tongue.  This should be celebrated, and I am therefore greatly encouraged by pledges made by many members and hope that we will collectively work together to turn the words of this Declaration into a reality for all.

• Building on the NHS winter plan, Health and Social Care Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister Thérèse Coffey will outline measures across the priorities that matter most to patients – ambulances, backlogs, care and doctors and dentists
• Package of measures will improve access to general practice so all patients who need an appointment can get one within two weeks, with plans to free up over one million appointments per year
• Alongside the government’s plan, the public will be called on to do their bit as part of a “national endeavour” to support the NHS and social care

A new drive to improve access to general practice appointments will be the centrepiece of a new Our Plan for Patients that will be unveiled by the Health and Social Care Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister tomorrow [Thursday 22 September].

As the first step in her efforts to put the NHS and social care on a resilient footing, Thérèse Coffey will set out her expectation that everyone who needs one should get an appointment at a GP practice within two weeks – and that the patients with the most urgent needs should be seen within the same day.

The plan will include changing funding rules to recruit extra support staff so hardworking GPs can focus on treating patients – freeing up over one million appointments per year, as well as more state-of-the art telephone systems to make it easier for patients to get through to their GP surgeries.

There will also be more information available for patients, with appointments data published at a practice level for the first time ever.

Pharmacies will help ease pressures on GPs and free up time for appointments by managing and supplying more medicines such as contraception without a GP prescription, which could free up to two million general practice appointments a year, and taking referrals from emergency care for minor illnesses or symptoms, such as a cough, headache or sore throat.

As part of Our Plan for Patients, Dr Coffey will also call on the public to take part in a “national endeavour” to support the health and social care system, calling on the one million volunteers who stepped up during the pandemic to support the NHS to come forward again. This will include a push for more volunteering across the NHS and social care.

Health and Social Care Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister Thérèse Coffey is expected to say:

I will put a laser-like focus on the needs of patients, making their priorities my priorities and being a champion for them on the issues that affect them most.

Our Plan for Patients will make it easier to get a general practice appointment and we will work tirelessly to deliver that, alongside supporting our hardworking GP teams.

We know this winter will be tough and this is just the first step in our work to bolster our valued NHS and social care services so people can get the care they need.

From November, the NHS will accelerate the roll-out of new cloud-based telephone systems to make it easier for patients to get through to their general practice, with more phone lines to take calls from patients and provide information about their place in the queue, or direct them to the right place for help.

As part of the extra staff to support GPs to focus on seeing patients, the government will free up funding for practices to employ more roles, including GP assistants and more advanced nurse practitioners, in addition to the roles they are already able to recruit such as pharmacists, mental health practitioners and nursing associates. This supports the government’s commitment to deliver 26,000 more primary care staff to help improve access to appointments.

Our Plan for Patients will build on the NHS winter plan and set out further detail on how the public will receive the care they need this winter and next across the Health and Social Care Secretary’s A, B, C and D priorities – ambulances, backlogs, care and doctors and dentists.

Amanda Pritchard, NHS chief executive, said:

I know how much patients value timely, convenient access to GPs and primary care, the front door to the NHS, which is why we are continuing to drive improvements, including new roles to better meet patients’ needs and new tech to make contacting your local surgery easier.

NHS staff are working incredibly hard to deliver record numbers of GP appointments for patients, with 11 million more this year so far than the same period last year, and more than four in five people who need an appointment seen within two weeks, including more than two fifths within one day.

We will work with the government so we can support NHS staff to deliver these new ambitions for patients, underpinned by the development of a long term workforce plan.

Madam Vice President; Madame Speaker; Leader McCarthy; Governors; Senators; Justices; esteemed colleagues from Realms and the Commonwealth; and the Diplomatic Corps welcome and thank you all for joining us today.

I would also like to thank Dean Randolph Hollerith and the Washington National Cathedral, the Bishop and Presiding Bishop, for holding this service in honour of Her Late Majesty The Queen. Their consideration and efforts in a short space of time have been outstanding. We salute too and thank the wonderful Colour Guards and musicians.

The Queen was a great friend and admirer of the United States. She paid some 6 official visits in total – many more to the Kentucky stables – addressing Congress as well as speaking to Presidents and attending football and baseball games and commemorative events such as America’s Bicentennial and the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown settlement. She well understood the affinity between the US and the UK stressing not just out common heritage and kinship but our common values. To Congress She said that “some people believe that power grows from the barrel of a gun. We have gone a better way; our societies rest on mutual agreement, on contract and on consensus.”

The values She personified and the traditions She upheld are fundamentally in their essence the same that underpin America and Her institutions, indeed guide the Commonwealth and all those who cherish democracy. She was proud that the values begun by the Magna Carta had their vivid restatement through the Founding Fathers.

That is why, I think, Her death has touched so many people round the world and especially here. As America celebrated with us The Queen’s 70 years on the throne earlier this year, so America has mourned in solidarity. We have been humbled and honoured by the immense number of tributes – from the President and First Lady and you Madam Vice President being some of the first world leaders to come in person to sign the condolence book, through to the two House and Senate Resolutions and the presentation by you Madam Speaker of the Stars and Stripes that flew at half-mast over the Capitol, to the many tributes form Governors and Mayors, the Empire State lit in purple and silver; the Union Jack flag lowered to half-mast at the site of the battle of New Orleans – the last time US and UK militaries fought as enemies – with Her deep sense of history I think She would have liked – to the flowers and messages from ordinary Americans some of whom queued for hours at the Embassy. Biden State funeral.

This affinity was exemplified by The Queen’s ordering – after 9/11, whose anniversary we commemorated recently – the Star Spangled Banner to be played at Buckingham Palace and the Star and Stripes to be flown on the 10 and 20th anniversaries at half-mast.

In a moving reciprocal gesture Mayor Bowser ordered Union Jacks to fly at half-mast along Pennsylvania Avenue. We thank you from King Charles and The Royal Family down for these amazing tributes. That the President was the first sitting President we believe to attend a State Funeral is another deep honour. The tributes from all former Presidents have been very moving.

This is a Service of Thanksgiving. There have been plenty of lively and happy stories about The Queen. Many people in this Cathedral today have met Her whether in America, in the Realms and Commonwealth and other countries or in the UK. You know Her dignity, Her warmth and kindnesses but also Her quick-wittedness, Her mischievous smile. My favourite story out of so many concerns an agricultural Show in the east of the UK. One of the exhibitors went up to a middle-aged lady in a headscarf and tweeds. “Excuse me”, said the exhibitor, “but you do look an awful lot like The Queen”. “How very reassuring”, The Queen replied.

She sought to move with the times. She was the archetypal Bond Girl, parachuting into the London Olympics; she poured tea for Paddington Bear as well as heads of State, and here in the US She was honoured to receive the Ruth Bader Ginsburg award for Women in Leadership – one of the very few times, we believe, that She accepted a non-State award – you can check it out on the Buckingham Palace YouTube entry.

President Biden said that The Queen defined an era. I think that nails it. She was a remarkable woman – coming to the Throne at 25; she saw decades of history and met hundreds of world leaders including 13 of 14 US Presidents during Her reign; She was present at the opening of the United Nations in London. She was very proud to head the Commonwealth. Whenever I met The Queen or even saw her on TV She seemed to embody the whole nation and its long history. The human and the heroic coming together in one extraordinary person, exemplified so well by the majesty and history of Monday’s State Funeral.

I would like to close by remarking on that duty and public service. Her now famous pledge at the age of 21 to devote Her whole life “whether it be long or short ..to your service” still has the power to animate us today and has been clearly restated by the new King Charles III. We are grateful for Her long life and, as King Charles said, “we draw strength from the light of her example”.

For me personally, it has been an immense honour to serve as Her Majesty’s Ambassador from Afghanistan to America, and points in-between. The Embassy and I are now very proud to serve our new King.

Thank you.

Video of the full event is available on The Washington National Cathedral’s YouTube channel.