What did Javier Milei say about the UN and why ?

Argentine President Javier Milei called the UN a "useless organization whose only purpose is to sustain a caste of fatally arrogant parasites masquerading as well-intentioned bureaucrats," delivering the sharpest attack on the institution of the 81st General Assembly and grounding it in a libertarian case against multilateral bureaucracy overtaking national sovereignty.

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Here are the highlights and excerpts from Javier Milei's address to the 81st United Nations General Assembly, delivered in New York.

Highlights

The broken covenant: Milei began by commending the UN's founding mission of resolving conflict peacefully and promoting universal freedom and dignity as "noble words," then said that "today, regrettably, it is time to acknowledge that, in practice, that sacred covenant has been broken."

Failure on security and human rights: He charged that "those who were supposed to guarantee collective security and human rights failed in their task," and "instead they allowed chaos, violence and international terrorism to flourish," while "the alleged defenders of human rights have sheltered bloodthirsty dictatorships and regimes that stone women in the streets."

Anarchy and tyranny together: He called the result "a curious mixture of anarchy and tyranny, impotence in the face of those who break the most basic rules, such as bloodthirsty dictatorships and terrorist organizations, coupled with Orwellian control and impositions on liberal democracies that abide by the rules."

The pandemic as a case study: Milei singled out the pandemic, calling forced lockdowns "a global experiment in social control disguised as science," and cited that as the reason Argentina had left the World Health Organization (WHO), a body under the UN umbrella.

The Falkland Islands: He argued the UN has "built a bureaucratic leviathan devoted to deciding how the peoples of the world and their citizens should live," and separately, accused the UN of looking "the other way" on Britain's unilateral oil exploration and actions in the disputed territory of the Falkland Islands. He called the islands a "national cause" and said there is no shortage of resolutions, only a shortage of consequences.

Systematic bias against Israel: He charged that "the alleged defenders of human rights have sheltered bloodthirsty dictatorships and regimes that stone women in the streets," and that "they have systematically voted against Israel while remaining silent in the face of Islamic terrorism and the genocide of Christians in Africa."

AI and regulation: Milei organized his position on artificial intelligence as a third category of his speech, arguing that Argentina would stand for freedom and "a commitment not to regulate pre-emptively," offering limited liability for companies using AI agents and tax incentives to attract investment.

Priorities

Argentina had embraced free enterprise capitalism, was rebuilding its military and had "unequivocally aligned" itself with the West, the United States and Israel, condemning Iranian attacks on Israel.
Argentina had designated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization.
Argentina called on the United Kingdom to resume negotiations over the Falkland Islands and submitted a sovereignty defense bill to Congress.
On the world stage: the message appears calculated, rejecting international engagement in its multilateral form in favor of direct, transactional bilateral deals with powerful partners who share his politics.
He closed with a direct invitation to "free men and women of the world, the scientists, the entrepreneurs, the creators, those who dream for a land to start anew" to look southward to Argentina.

In his own words

On the UN's founding promise:

"Seventy-eight years ago, this House declared that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, noble words whose spirit I fully share."

On the broken covenant:

"Today, regrettably, it is time to acknowledge that, in practice, that sacred covenant has been broken. That's to say, it has become a useless organization whose only purpose is to sustain a caste of fatally arrogant parasites masquerading as well-intentioned bureaucrats."

On doubling down instead of reviewing:

"Every time [the UN] failed, rather than reviewing the model or apologizing, they doubled down."

On dictatorships in the Human Rights Council:

"In this same house, that purports to defend human rights, we have also included bloody dictatorships in the Human Rights Council, including Cuba and Venezuela without reproach."

On the Falklands:

"There's no shortage of words or resolutions. What is lacking is consequences."

On the pandemic:

"During the pandemic, bodies under the auspices of this house put themselves before scientific evidence and the sovereignty of nations and promoted forced lockdown policies throughout the world. Where some allege a public health policy error, we see a global experiment in social control disguised as science."

On the Mises principle:

"I would remind them of what Mises said, 'Good people do not think about controlling the lives of their fellow human beings.'"

On cooperation versus subordination:

"We will keep taking part in multilateral fora in good faith, but we mustn't confuse cooperation with subordination."

On Argentina's future:

"No nation is guaranteed a place in history. We believe that Argentina still has a great story ahead of it. And we have decided to go out and claim it."

Worth knowing

This was the third time Milei addressed the UN General Assembly after taking office in December 2023, and the third consecutive year he has condemned the organization, after intensely criticizing it in 2024 and 2025. The speech is consistent with his domestic governing style: he came to power on a promise to dismantle Argentina's entrenched state bureaucracy, and the UN address extended that same critique to the global stage. For a leader who has built his political identity around dismantling entrenched bureaucratic structures, the speech extended that critique from domestic institutions to the global stage.

Following the speech, Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon met with Milei and praised his remarks, saying "I was moved to hear the speech of the President of Argentina at the General Assembly. President Milei, you are a true friend of the State of Israel. In this hall where we were slandered all day, you showed courage and supported Israel!"

For a body that depends heavily on member-state buy-in and funding to function, a sitting president calling it useless from its own podium, especially one aligned with the current US administration's skepticism toward multilateral bodies, feeds a broader question hovering over this year's Assembly: whether major powers and their allies still see the UN as a body worth funding.