New York, May 26. 2026

Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Allow me first to thank China for convening this important debate and for the opportunity to address this Council. Coming from the Czech Republic in Central Europe, let me make one simple observation: While great powers often speak about world order, smaller nations focus rather on what happens when that order breaks down.

Central Europe knows very well what a world looks like when rules between major powers cease to apply. It is a world in which smaller states cease to be subjects of history and become merely the space through which history passes. The United Nations was never created to build a perfect world. It was created to prevent the worst from happening. 

Yes, the United Nations is imperfect. Its structures reflect the reality of 1945 more than the reality of today. But what is the alternative? The alternative to an imperfect United Nations may not be a better world. It may be a return to a new concert of great powers — a world in which most nations will not sit at the table, but will themselves become items on the menu. That is why the United Nations still matters. Not because it can eliminate conflict from human history, but because it still gives smaller states a voice in a world dominated by power.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The world today suffers not only from conflicts of interest. It also suffers from the loss of the ability to speak to one another. The Security Council must therefore not become a place of parallel monologues. Its value lies in the fact that even competing powers are still able to speak to one another here. History teaches us that major conflicts do not begin only with aggression. They also begin with miscalculation, with the loss of communication, and with the conviction that others no longer need to be listened to.

Great powers also need to hear how the rest of the world perceives their actions. Small states often see the consequences of major decisions earlier than the great powers themselves. 

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The twentieth century taught us that not only military empires are dangerous.

Equally dangerous are convictions of one’s own moral infallibility.

Any power that begins to believe it represents the only correct future for humanity gradually loses the ability to respect others.

And then dialogue turns into re-education. Cooperation turns into obedience. And international law becomes an instrument of political selection.

We in Central Europe and in the Czech Republic, former Czechoslovakia, know this from our own historical experience very well…

Today, many speak about a multipolar world. But multipolarity is not a virtue in itself. Without restraint and respect for limits, a multipolar world may become even more dangerous. Small states are not seeking a world without great powers.

What smaller nations seek is a world in which even great powers are capable of accepting limits to their own power.

The world today does not need a new universal ideology or a new hegemon. What it needs are great powers willing once again to practice restraint, respect, and the ability to listen. The Charter of the United Nations was born from the experience that civilizations which refuse to accept limits to their own power sooner or later move toward catastrophe. And the ability to accept limits to one’s own power remains one of the fundamental conditions for peace among nations.

Thank you.