WHO Director-General's remarks at the UNGA side event: Rebuilding trust, cooperation and global stability for a shared future – 23 September 2026

Thank you, Mr Serageldin, our co-chair.

Former President Vike-Freiberga, our other co-chair,

Secretary-General Rza Aliyev - and congratulations on your appointment,

Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,

Let me begin by paying tribute to our dearly departed friend, Rovshan.

His absence leaves a hole that we all feel very deeply.

On behalf of WHO, I extend our sincere condolences to his family, colleagues and friends.

May he rest in peace.

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Rovshan was a tireless champion of dialogue, cooperation and understanding.

In a world that every day feels more fragmented, more divided, and more dangerous, that work is more important now than ever.

Because the reality is that we live in an interconnected and interdependent world.

That interdependence is especially evident in health.

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that no country can protect the health of its people by acting alone.

And this is not only true of infectious diseases.

Climate change is by definition a global phenomenon;

Antimicrobial resistance spreads across species and borders;

And many of the drivers of cancer, heart disease and diabetes are spread by global trade - including tobacco, alcohol and ultra-processed foods.

Cooperation is therefore not an ideal, but a necessity.

In our increasingly polarized world, health remains one of the areas in which countries can still work together to meet common threats with a common response.

Last year, after three years of negotiations, WHO Member States adopted the WHO Pandemic Agreement - a landmark instrument of international law that builds on the lessons of COVID-19 to ensure a more coordinated response to future pandemics.

The Pandemic Agreement is living proof that multilateralism is alive and well.

As you know, countries are continuing to negotiate the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system, which will operationalize the Pandemic Agreement and pave the way for it to enter into force.

There are still differences between countries, but I remain confident that they will find a way to resolve them.

The most important thing is that they are still talking.

Likewise, over the past several months, countries have negotiated a strong political declaration on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, which we expect to be approved at the UN General Assembly high-level meeting on Friday this week.

No one said multilateralism is easy. Nor is it perfect.

Our world is always changing, and the multilateral system must change with it.

Over the past nine years, we have more effective, efficient, resilient and independent.

That work has helped to cushion the impact of the funding cuts we faced last year, and to emerge more focused on our core mandate and comparative advantage.

But reform must extend beyond individual institutions.

The financing pressures in the global health ecosystem have created an opportunity to think differently about how we work together, reduce fragmentation and better align support with country priorities.

That's why WHO is hosting a country-led, joint process of reform of the global health architecture.

We are also contributing actively to the broader UN80 process.

The goal is the same: a more coherent, effective and accountable multilateral system.

Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,

The best way we can honour our friend Rovshan's memory is by continuing his work.

Our shared vulnerabilities have not disappeared. If anything, they have become more apparent.

But vulnerability can be a source of division or a source of solidarity.

The choice is ours.

The future will not be secured by stronger walls between nations. It will be secured by stronger trust between them.

If we can turn shared vulnerability into shared purpose, and shared purpose into action, then we can build a more resilient, more equitable and more stable future for all.

Thank you.