What did Belgium’s Maxime Prévot say at the UN General Assembly (UNGA 81)?

He addressed the general debate on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, as the seventeenth speaker of the afternoon session.

The speech in brief

• The Blind. He opened with Maurice Maeterlinck’s play “Les Aveugles” as an image of societies that depend on each other but cannot see each other.
• Ukraine. Any lasting peace must rest on the Charter and Ukraine’s borders.
• Aid. He opposed cuts to humanitarian aid, naming Palestine, Sudan, Myanmar, Congo and Haiti.
• The courts. He defended the independence of the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice against pressure and sanctions.
• AI. Rules that protect the vulnerable, especially children, without stifling innovation.
• The seas. Freedom of navigation, including in the Strait of Hormuz, and Belgium’s bid to host the high seas treaty’s secretariat.

In his own words

He spoke in French. The English is our translation.

Avons-nous encore une boussole commune? Pour la Belgique, oui. Cette boussole, c’est la Charte des Nations Unies. (Do we still have a common compass? For Belgium, yes. That compass is the UN Charter.)

“Plus nous sommes interdépendants, plus nous avons besoin de règles communes.” The more we depend on each other, the more we need common rules.

Outside the hall

• Speaking to the Belga news agency, not in the speech, he called President Trump’s address “completely biased” and said Trump “must have got the wrong assembly”.
• Prime Minister Bart De Wever stayed in Brussels for budget talks.

Watch and read the full speech

The UN’s own video of the whole Day 1 session:

Watch Day 1 of the UNGA 81 general debate on the UN’s YouTube channel

The UN posts the statement on its general debate website.

Every Day 1 speaker, in order: What happened on Day 1 of UNGA 81.