What were the highlights, key points, priorities and notable excerpts and quotes in Christophe Mirmand's speech at the UN General Assembly?
Christophe Mirmand, Monaco's Minister of State and head of government, delivered a speech at the 81st UN General Assembly built on a single, clear argument: the law is the only thing that stands between small states and those who would devour them, and right now that law is under assault everywhere at once.
Christophe Mirmand is a senior French civil servant appointed to lead Monaco's government by Prince Albert II, who named him the 26th Minister of State of Monaco. He is a graduate of Sciences Po and holds a specialized postgraduate degree in financial management, a Master's in international and European law, and a Bachelor's in history, and is an alumnus of the École Nationale d'Administration. In Monaco's system, the Minister of State is the head of government, the person who runs the country day to day on behalf of the sovereign. Mirmand spoke on behalf of Prince Albert II, who did not travel to New York himself.
Highlights
- Sovereignty is not a privilege, it is a duty. Mirmand opened by noting Monaco is the smallest member state by land mass, barely two square kilometers, yet at the UN every one of the 193 members carries a voice of equal weight. He stressed that sovereign equality is not a benefit states enjoy but a responsibility they bear: "the equality that our organization bestows upon us is not a privilege that we enjoy. It is a responsibility that we bear." (00:57)
- The law is under assault. He named the central crisis directly: rearmament accelerating worldwide, force being used again as a political tool, trade breaking down, a race to capture critical resources, and disinformation eroding people's trust in their institutions. He said belief in multilateralism "has never been tried to such an extent since 1945." (03:36)
- Ukraine: unambiguous condemnation. Mirmand said a permanent member of the Security Council has been waging a war of aggression against a sovereign state for almost five years, in flagrant violation of the UN Gourma Charter. He confirmed Monaco voted in favor of every General Assembly resolution calling for Russian withdrawal, aligned with all EU restrictive measures, and provided humanitarian support. He stated Monaco "will never recognize any annexation of territory obtained through force." (05:01)
- Gaza ceasefire, two-state solution, West Bank violence. He welcomed the ceasefire in Gaza and the freeing of hostages, condemned the acts of October 7 and the civilian price paid by people in Gaza equally, and called for full humanitarian access. He expressed concern about ongoing violence in the West Bank and reaffirmed that the only viable option is the two-state solution, with Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security within safe and recognized borders. (06:20)
- Lebanon and Iran. He called on all parties to fulfill their commitments under Security Council resolution 1701 on Lebanon, and said only negotiations can produce a global agreement on the Iranian nuclear program and prevent further escalation. (07:27)
- Reform the UN from 2030. Monaco supports the UN80 initiative to make the organization more streamlined and closer to people on the ground. Mirmand called on the "real leaders of the United Nations" to rethink the architecture of the system from 2030, bringing in the public and private sector, civil society, and educational and cultural hubs, and guaranteeing small states genuine inclusivity. He also called for Security Council reform and the revitalization of the General Assembly. (08:51)
- A woman should lead the UN next. On the election of the next Secretary-General, he called for a transparent and rigorous process and said that "after 80 years, the principality hopes that women candidates will be seriously considered." (10:23)
- The ocean as a model for multilateral trust. He pointed to the entry into force of the agreement on marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction as proof that multilateralism can deliver. Monaco was one of the first to sign and ratify it. He called for protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030, an ambitious binding agreement on plastics pollution, and extreme caution on deep-sea mining. (11:12)
- Climate and science. He cited the Paris Agreement as the common framework, committed Monaco to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 67.5% by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, and called on all countries to show more ambition. He noted that the Mediterranean experienced its second-highest surface temperature ever recorded in the preceding year. He defended science directly: "science has never been as certain, as accessible, and as clear." (11:48)
- AI and digital governance. He called for AI technologies to remain at the service of humanity, supported the implementation of the global digital compact, and called for a new normative framework on AI based on law and shared ethical principles. He also called for stronger cooperation on cyber threats. (13:43)
Priorities
- Monaco will never recognize territory annexed by force, and its support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity is unwavering.
- Full, safe, unhindered humanitarian access to Gaza and strengthening the ceasefire there.
- A two-state solution as the only viable path to peace between Israel and Palestine.
- Security Council resolution 1701 implemented fully in Lebanon; negotiations on Iran's nuclear program.
- UN restructured from 2030, with Security Council reform and genuine inclusivity for small states.
- A woman seriously considered for the next Secretary-General role.
- 30% of the ocean protected by 2030; a binding agreement on plastics; caution on deep-sea mining.
- Monaco's own commitment: 67.5% emissions reduction by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050.
- A new AI governance framework anchored in law and human rights.
In his own words
On equal responsibility between states:
"The equality that our organization bestows upon us is not a privilege that we enjoy. It is a responsibility that we bear. This responsibility is our shared unique duty to uphold the law and multilateralism."
On why small states believe in international law:
"When might makes right, it is the smallest states who are the first to be threatened. When force is regulated by the law, all of humanity is protected."
On the scope of today's task:
"In the words of Dag Hammarskjöld, the second Secretary-General of the UN, the UN was not created to take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell. That is the exact scope of our task. And that is why we do not have the right to give up."
On Ukraine:
"For almost five years, a permanent member of the Security Council has been waging a war of aggression against the sovereign state in flagrant violation of the charter. From the very outset, Monaco condemned this aggression unambiguously and unreservedly."
On territorial annexation:
"Monaco will never recognize any annexation of territory obtained through force. Allowing this for one state would be tantamount to allowing it for all."
On Gaza:
"Nothing can ever justify the acts of terror of the 7th of October, but nor can anything justify the price paid by these civilians in Gaza."
On the two-state solution:
"Our Sahel belief remains the same. The only viable option is the two-state solution. Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security within safe and recognized borders. Any policy that makes that scenario less likely through settlement building or sowing terror makes peace less likely too."
On Lebanon:
"The people of Lebanon have the right to a fully sovereign state in peace throughout its territory."
On Iran:
"Only negotiations can lead to a global agreement on the Iranian nuclear program and will prevent further escalation."
On the ocean:
"The ocean is nobody's property. It is everyone's responsibility."
On science and climate:
"Science has never been as certain, as accessible, and as clear." And: "The climate crisis is no longer a distant threat. Heat waves, fires, and floods are multiplying."
On UN reform:
"Monaco calls on the real leaders of the United Nations to rethink the architecture of our system from 2030. Bringing on board the public and private sector, civil society and educational and cultural hubs."
On a woman leading the UN:
"After 80 years, the principality hopes that women candidates will be seriously considered. The organization would do well to demonstrate at its helm the equality for which it stands."
On AI:
"Artificial intelligence is creating enormous opportunities for human development, but it also entails genuine risks. These technologies must remain at the service of humanity and the United Nations cannot remain a spectator."
On trust:
"Trust is not decreed. It is won through deeds and through promises kept."
On the generation's task, quoting Albert Camus:
"The great French writer Albert Camus defined the task of his generation thus: not to reform the world but perhaps even greater to prevent the world from destroying itself. Today that is our task: preventing the world from destroying itself. Preventing law being destroyed by force, preventing trust being destroyed by mistrust, and preventing the planet from being destroyed under the weight of our negligence."
Closing commitment:
"On behalf of his serene highness, Prince Albert II, I wish to reiterate the commitment of Monaco to the United Nations, to its charter, and to the ideal that led to its establishment, saving future generations from the scourge of war, and building together a common house where even the smallest states can take their rightful place, because here the law protects them all."
Worth knowing
Monaco's relationship to the UN is unusual. It is a sovereign principality of roughly 2 square kilometers on the French Riviera, ruled by Prince Albert II of the House of Grimaldi, with a population of around 38,000. It is governed day to day by a Minister of State who by long tradition is a French citizen, appointed by the prince from candidates proposed by the French government. Mirmand, born in Constantine in French Algeria, was appointed the 26th Minister of State of Monaco by Prince Albert II.
Prince Albert II is internationally known for his environmental advocacy, particularly on ocean protection, which explains why that section of the speech carries such personal weight. The BBNJ Agreement, the treaty on marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, is a landmark multilateral deal years in the making. Monaco was among its earliest signatories and ratifiers.
The reference to Dag Hammarskjöld is to the Swedish diplomat who served as the UN's second Secretary-General from 1953 until his death in a plane crash in 1961. He remains one of the most revered figures in UN history, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously. The Camus quote comes from Albert Camus's Nobel Prize acceptance remarks in 1957, when Camus defined his generation's task not as reforming the world but as preventing it from destroying itself. Mirmand used both to frame Monaco's philosophy: the UN exists not to perfect humanity but to keep it from the worst.
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Watch the full speech on YouTubeFollow-ups
What is the Loss and Damage Fund?
The Loss and Damage Fund, now officially called the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD), is the first global financial mechanism designed to help developing countries cope with the climate impacts they can no longer avoid, impacts they did almost nothing to cause.
The Loss and Damage Fund, now officially called the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD), is the first global financial mechanism designed to help developing countries cope with the climate impacts they can no longer avoid, impacts they did almost nothing to cause.
spio.comIt is the mechanism President Hilda Heine of the Marshall Islands was pressing for when she told the 81st UN General Assembly that the world needs to wake up and act. For low-lying Pacific and African nations like hers and Niger, this is not an abstract policy debate: it is about who pays when your coast disappears.
What "loss and damage" actually means
Loss and damage refers to the negative consequences that arise from the unavoidable risks of climate change: rising sea levels, prolonged heatwaves, desertification, acidification of the sea, and extreme events such as bushfires, species extinction and crop failures. The key word is "unavoidable." These are harms that mitigation, cutting emissions, and adaptation, building seawalls or drought-resistant crops, can no longer prevent. They are already happening.
The fund's aim is to provide financial support to the world's most vulnerable countries as they deal with devastating climate impacts they did little to cause. Since the concept was first proposed in 1991, progress had been painfully slow, blocked repeatedly by wealthy nations wary of financial liability.
How it came to exist
The formal concept of loss and damage originated in 2013 at COP19 in Warsaw, Poland, with the establishment of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage. Progress crawled for a decade. At COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, parties agreed to establish a loss and damage fund and a Transitional Committee to make recommendations for operationalization at COP28. At COP28 in Dubai, countries formally agreed on how the fund would be structured and governed, solidifying its role as the first truly global fund for responding to climate-induced loss and damage.
The deal created a fund in which countries responsible for high carbon emissions would compensate vulnerable countries suffering from climate impacts. The fund would initially draw on contributions from developed countries and other private and public sources. While major emerging economies such as China would not initially be required to contribute, that option remains on the table.
Where it stands now
As of early 2025, a total of $768.4 million had been pledged to the fund by 27 contributors. At an initial pledging session at COP28, wealthy governments offered around $820 million to the fund, of which only 55% has been delivered into its coffers.
The fund launched an early call for proposals under its Barbados Implementation Modalities for 2025 to 2026, financing country-led initiatives to address climate-change-induced loss and damage, with a total envelope of $250 million. Grants range from $5 to $20 million per project, prioritizing national-scale interventions in the most climate-vulnerable countries.
The hard problem: the money is nowhere near enough
Despite not yet paying out any money as of mid-2026, the fund could face liquidity issues by the end of next year. With ten projects already requesting $166 million in total, the fund's Executive Director Ibrahima Cheikh Diong warned a board meeting in Zambia that the fund was likely to be oversubscribed.
Some governments, particularly in small island states and parts of Africa, have raised concerns about slow disbursement timelines, access barriers, and a lack of transparency around how decisions are made. Meanwhile, major contributors like the United States have already pulled out, casting uncertainty over the fund's future.
For countries like Niger and the Marshall Islands, that gap is not a budget line: it is the difference between rebuilding after a flood and not rebuilding at all.
How low-lying is the Marshall Islands and how much of it is at risk from rising seas?
At its highest point, the Marshall Islands stands just two meters above sea level — that is the peak, not the average.
At its highest point, the Marshall Islands stands just two meters above sea level — that is the peak, not the average.
spio.comWith an average elevation of just seven feet above sea level, the Republic of the Marshall Islands is acutely vulnerable to inundation from both episodic events such as storm surge and chronic conditions such as sea-level rise. Seven feet sounds like something you could stand in, until you remember that a storm surge or king tide doesn't need to overtop you permanently to destroy a freshwater lens, flood a hospital or salt a crop field.
The Marshall Islands is a string of atolls in the central Pacific Ocean and consists of 29 atolls, with sea levels rising at twice the global average rate. An atoll is a ring-shaped coral reef that barely clears the surface of the ocean, enclosing a lagoon. It is not a volcanic island with a mountain at its center. It is essentially a thin strip of coral sand sitting in open water.
What is at risk
The atolls of the Marshall Islands are some of the most at-risk areas in the world as sea level continues to rise.
The numbers from the capital tell the story plainly. A World Bank study found that rising sea levels are projected to endanger 40% of existing buildings in the capital, Majuro, with 96% of the city at risk of frequent flooding induced by climate change. That is not some distant scenario: already, residents are facing extreme high tides and 16-foot swells that flood the islands with saltwater, damaging homes and infrastructure and contaminating the freshwater supply.
The risk scales sharply with every centimeter gained. A 1-meter sea level rise will mean 40% of the buildings in Majuro would be permanently inundated, and entire islands will disappear, according to a study by the Marshall Islands government and the World Bank. In Ebeye, the risk is even higher, with 50% of buildings being permanently flooded under the same scenario. With a 2-meter sea level rise, all the buildings of Majuro will be permanently flooded or at high risk of flooding.
Some projections estimate that future sea-level rise could exceed the average elevation of these islands by 2100. When the sea exceeds your highest point, there is no higher ground to retreat to.
The threat that arrives before the flooding
Research suggests the loss of freshwater resources could make the islands uninhabitable long before they might sink below the ocean waves. Saltwater infiltrating the underground freshwater lens, the thin bubble of fresh water beneath each island, is a slower but equally decisive threat. You don't need the island to disappear to make it unlivable. You just need the water to go bad.
This is the existential arithmetic behind President Hilda Heine of the Marshall Islands pressing for the Loss and Damage Fund at the 81st UN General Assembly. The country emits almost nothing, sits on nothing tall enough to save it, and is already paying the price.
What were the highlights, key points, priorities and notable excerpts and quotes in Hilda Heine's speech at the UN General Assembly?
President Hilda Heine of the Republic of the Marshall Islands brought her country's two defining crises, nuclear injustice and climate collapse, to the 81st UN General Assembly in New York, delivering a call so direct the Associated Press distilled it to five words: "We all need to wake up and act."
President Hilda Heine of the Republic of the Marshall Islands brought her country's two defining crises, nuclear injustice and climate collapse, to the 81st UN General Assembly in New York, delivering a call so direct the Associated Press distilled it to five words: "We all need to wake up and act."
spio.comHilda Heine, 74, is the president of the Marshall Islands, the chain of 29 low-lying coral atolls scattered across more than 750,000 square miles of the central Pacific. She is the first woman ever to lead the country and the first Our Marshallese person to earn a doctorate degree. She has served as president twice, first from 2016 to 2020 and again since 2024, and before politics spent decades as a classroom teacher, school counselor, and college president. She studied at the University of Oregon, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and earned her doctorate from the University of Southern California.
The Associated Press, pulling voices from the fourth day of the general debate, quoted Heine on climate change:
"We all need to wake up and act."
Highlights
- A nation that cannot move to higher ground. The Marshall Islands consists of narrow strips of land on low-lying coral atolls. In a Time essay published during this week's general debate, Heine put it plainly: the world's other vulnerable communities can move people to higher ground when the seas rise. The Marshalls have no higher ground. The question, she wrote, is how Marshallese people continue to live there safely, not if the nation survives legally: the UN General Assembly this week affirmed that statehood endures even the loss of land.
- Climate urgency framed as survival, not statistics. Heine does not speak about climate change in the abstract. At the 80th session a year earlier, she said: "If I could find a louder alarm for the Pacific Islands than my words today, I would sound it." The alarm she brought to the 81st session carried the same force. The AP's note that she called on the world to "wake up and act" on climate signals she kept the pressure on rich nations to move from pledges to action.
- Nuclear accountability: the UN owes the Marshall Islands an apology. Between 1946 and 1958, the United States conducted 67 nuclear weapons tests in the Marshall Islands under the UN flag, during the trusteeship period when the UN was responsible for the islands. At the 80th session Heine demanded the organization formally reckon with that: "The UN should now be capable of delivering a contemporary acknowledgment and apology for what took place in its name and under its flag." That demand carried into her 81st session advocacy.
- Promises don't reclaim land. She has drawn a sharp line between diplomatic language and physical reality. "Promises don't reclaim land in atoll nations like mine," she said at the 80th session. "Those things require money." The argument is the same at the 81st: climate finance that exists only in communiqués does nothing for a country already measuring its future in centimeters of sea-level rise.
- Deep seabed mining moratorium. The Marshall Islands has banned deep seabed mining in its own waters, and Heine has called on the rest of the world to follow. "We cannot afford to destroy what we don't yet understand," she said. The Pacific Ocean floor is the Marshall Islands' most intimate neighbor, and she treats its protection as inseparable from the country's survival.
- Small voices carry lived truth. Her framing of Pacific island states is not one of helplessness but of moral weight. "Small island states may be small in size, but our voices carry the weight of lived truth." At the 81st session, that voice arrived against the backdrop of the UN General Assembly having just affirmed the legal continuity of states whose land is disappearing beneath the sea.
Priorities
- Urgent, funded climate action from the major emitting countries, not new pledges
- A formal UN acknowledgment of nuclear testing harm done in the Marshall Islands under the UN flag
- A global moratorium on deep seabed mining
- The Marshall Islands' right to persist as a sovereign state regardless of sea-level rise, a principle the 81st session has now enshrined
- Multilateral solidarity and accountability applied equally, without exception
In her own words
From this week's debate, as quoted by the Associated Press:
"We all need to wake up and act." — on climate change
From her Time essay published during the 81st session's high-level week:
"My country, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, will persist despite rising seas. The question is how Marshallese people go on living here safely."
"Our nation consists of narrow strips of land on 29 low-lying coral atolls scattered across more than 750,000 square miles of the central Pacific Ocean. For many, adapting to rising seas may mean moving communities to higher ground. In the Marshalls, we have no higher ground to move to."
From the 80th session speech, which establishes her standing position at this rostrum:
"Our Marshallese pleas to the Trusteeship Council to stop nuclear testing were disregarded. We were told we were safe, but we were not."
"The UN should now be capable of delivering a contemporary acknowledgment and apology for what took place in its name and under its flag."
"If I could find a louder alarm for the Pacific Islands than my words today, I would sound it. Only urgent action at scale can protect our people and our future."
"Promises don't reclaim land in atoll nations like mine. Those things require money."
"We cannot afford to destroy what we don't yet understand."
"Small island states may be small in size, but our voices carry the weight of lived truth."
Worth knowing
The Marshall Islands sits at the intersection of two historical grievances that give Heine's voice unusual moral authority at the UN. The United States tested nuclear weapons there for over a decade under a UN trusteeship arrangement, meaning the UN itself was the administering authority when the tests happened. Communities were displaced, land was contaminated, and the health effects have run across generations. At the same time, the country faces erasure not through war but through the slow physics of a warming ocean, and it has among the least responsibility of any nation for causing it. Heine also co-founded Women United Together Marshall Islands in 1987, and her career before and during the presidency has tied women's rights to climate survival as connected rather than separate causes. Her daughter, Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner, is one of the Pacific's best-known climate poets, and the two have appeared together on the world stage.
Watch Day and read the full speech
Watch Marshall Islands at the UN General Assembly 80th Session on YouTube
Read Kiribati her Time essay published during the 81st session's high-level week: What the World Owes the Marshall Islands — Time
Today, September 25, is Day 4 of the 81st UN General Debate, running two sessions at UN Headquarters in New York, and it also hosts a dedicated High-level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response.
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