Excellencies, colleagues, friends.

The Sustainable Development Goals remain the most important to-do list in the history of humankind.

Yet President Putin’s illegal and senseless invasion of Ukraine has pushed the SDGs further from our reach. He has caused a humanitarian catastrophe and sent global food and energy prices rocketing, impeding the global recovery from COVID and pushing the most vulnerable to the cliff edge.

Despite these setbacks, the UK Government remains committed to meeting the SDGs by 2030, as we have set out in our new International Development Strategy.

We will continue to prioritise humanitarian need, committing $3.7 billion in humanitarian assistance over the next 3 years.

This will allow us to help the people in greatest need and most at risk, as we have this year with our commitment of $352 million to support over 4.4 million Afghans.

With our partners we will anticipate and prevent future shocks, tackling the underlying drivers of crises, instability and extreme food insecurity.

Our investments in research, innovation and access to vaccines will reduce threats to global health, and drive breakthroughs in health systems and health security.

To broaden economic growth, enhance peace and security, and advance equality, we are putting women and girls at the heart of our foreign and development policy.

We are leading global efforts to give all girls access to 12 years of quality education. The Transforming Education Summit must help make this a reality.

We are empowering women and girls by unlocking their social, economic, and political potential, and by standing up for their bodily autonomy.

And we are championing action to end all forms of gender-based violence, including conflict-related sexual violence.

Climate change and nature loss remain urgent, existential threats. Our security and prosperity rely on a transition to Net Zero.

Our planet needs us to deliver on the commitments made at COP26. The window to keep 1.5 degrees alive is closing fast.

Everyone must step up to implement the Glasgow Climate Pact ahead of COP27. This means revisiting and strengthening NDCs; Long Term Strategies aligned to Net Zero; and developed countries doubling their adaptation finance by 2025.

We need an ambitious and transformative global biodiversity framework at CBD this December, including the global 30 by 30 goal, stronger accountability and the finance needed for implementation.

The UK Government will also deliver over $9.5 billion of development investment a year by 2025, through British International Investment – our new development finance institution.

This will support countries to build green, secure and open thriving economies as part of our British Investment Partnerships offer.

Collaboration between government and the private sector will unlock enormous advances in our efforts to finance the SDGs.

We cannot afford to lose focus from Agenda 2030 and the SDGs.

So let’s work together, and all play our part in ensuring no one is left behind.

Thank you President and thank you for Brazil’s leadership on this topic, and thank you to our briefers. I join you in paying tribute to all peacekeepers who have lost their lives in the service of peace.

President, effective strategic communications are essential enablers of mandate delivery. They help to build trust and amplify the voices of those building and sustaining peace. They are also vital to the safety and security of peacekeepers.

As we heard from the Secretary-General, almost half of peacekeepers said disinformation hinders mandate delivery and threatens their safety and security.

I want to make three key points in this regard.

Firstly, strategic communications should be a whole-of-mission activity, integrated into planning and mandate implementation, and measured by the Comprehensive Planning and Performance Assessment System.

And they should leverage digital technologies to keep pace with changing communications landscapes.  We support efforts to this end under Action for Peacekeeping Plus and the Strategy for the Digital Transformation of Peacekeeping.

Secondly, all actors should refrain from anti-UN misinformation and disinformation which undermines mandate delivery and the safety and security of peacekeepers, including in the DRC, the CAR and Mali.

Since the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group deployed in Mali, we have seen a significant increase in the volume of dangerous lies being spread about MINUSMA’s mandate and activities. This puts peacekeepers’ lives at increased risk in an already volatile environment.

It sows distrust which discourages local communities from sharing information with MINUSMA. That hinders the mission’s ability to prevent attacks on civilians and peacekeepers alike.

The continued spread of dis- and mis-information will lead to more lives lost. There is no excuse for such activities.

Thirdly, President, I want to underline the importance of strategic communications in supporting the women, peace and security agenda.

I am proud of the efforts British peacekeepers and their German counterparts have been making in MINUSMA in this regard. They have met local women’s associations and helped local radio stations reach out to female audiences.  This has helped build mutual understanding and given Malian women platforms for their peace advocacy.

In conclusion, President, let me stress that the United Kingdom continues to offer its full support to UN peacekeeping, including in mainstreaming an innovative, modern and integrated approach to strategic communications.

Thank you, President. And I join others in thanking Norway and Ireland for their work as penholders.

The UK approached this renewal, as we have every year since the mandate was first agreed in 2014, on the basis of humanitarian need, and humanitarian need alone.

Humanitarian need in Syria is the highest it has ever been. 4.1 million people are in need of aid across the north-west, of which 2.4 million are reliant solely on the UN cross-border mechanism for life-saving assistance every single month.

We have heard repeatedly from the UN and from NGOs that a renewal for 12 months was necessary to provide operational certainty so they could prepare to meet that humanitarian need, especially during the harsh months of winter. Last Friday, Russia stopped this from happening.

With today’s vote, innocent Syrians can breathe no sigh of relief. The suffering and the uncertainty goes on. Without the confidence of at least 12 months, UN agencies and NGOs risk being caught in a perpetual cycle of pre-positioning and contingency planning.

It is therefore important that we are clear: while this renewal is only for an initial 6-months, the intent of the Council is to renew for a further six months, subject to another resolution.

The Secretary-General’s report, requested by this resolution, will be able to set out the implications were this mandate to come to an end in January as winter is setting in.

The humanitarian case for a further renewal will be self-evident, and to oppose it will be to ignore the suffering of 4.1 million people.

The UK will continue to support the UN’s efforts to deliver its Humanitarian Response Plan. But we will not consider providing any reconstruction assistance without a credible, substantive and genuine political process firmly underway.

A genuine political process is the only sustainable means of ending suffering in Syria.

Thank you, President.