Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan participated in the Summit of the Future during the 79th session of the UN General Assembly in New York. In his speech, he emphasized the importance of creating positive narratives to shape a better future, noting that the challenges we face today stem from decisions made in the past. He stressed that while we cannot change the past, we can influence the future by focusing on constructive actions today.
Pashinyan outlined the global agenda needed for a promising future, including peace, security, prosperity, freedom, justice, human rights, artificial intelligence, and climate change. He pointed out that international platforms have often become arenas for mutual accusations and negative rhetoric, which only perpetuate crises. Instead, he urged global leaders to shift their focus towards positive possibilities and to create narratives that foster optimism and progress.
Pashinyan encouraged leaders to begin with positive words, referencing the Biblical phrase, “In the beginning was the Word,” to emphasize the power of words in shaping reality.
Despite this forward-looking approach, Pashinyan’s speech did not address several critical issues facing Armenia today, including the Artsakh issue, current security threats to Armenia, the peace process with Azerbaijan and Turkey, the situation of displaced Artsakh Armenians, the external pressures being exerted on Armenia by regional powers, among other ongoing domestic, regional, and international challenges.
Pashinyan concluded by calling on the international community to work together in creating a future built on positive foundations, stressing that now is the time to prove the belief that “there is a future.”
Full speech below:
“President of the General Assembly, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is particularly significant for me to take part in this “Summit of the Future»” because I have received my current mandate of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia in the parliamentary elections under the slogan of our party: “There is a future!”
All the problems we are facing today are directly or indirectly related to the decisions made or haven’t been made at some point in the past, and the same we can say about all the successes and achievements of today.
We cannot change the past, we cannot change a lot even today, because today is to some extent a part of the past. But shaping the future is today’s most important task. The agenda of our actions is also known: Peace, Security, Prosperity, Freedom, Justice, Human Rights, Artificial Intelligence, Climate change. But what is of high importance is the concept that we should put in the basis of our vision of the future.
And consequently, how to build the future. It may sound strange, but the most important thing we can do for the future is to create positive narratives and focus on the possibilities of creating the foundations for them, regardless of whether they exist at the moment or not.
One of the reasons for today’s global crisis is that international formats have long become an arena for mutual accusations, threats and the places where crises and deadlocks take place.
I can hardly remember a positive speech on behalf either of myself or other leaders on international platforms. And there are objective reasons for this: there is little material for positive discourse. And maybe it’s because in the past there was very little or there was not any positive narrative at all.
We usually come to the UN to declare how bad it is going to be, because the facts proving this are a lot and everywhere, so it doesn’t require much efforts to see them. Efforts should be made to see the prerequisites of a good future and think about them, because what happens in reality, first happens in our minds.
My party adopted the slogan “There is a future” under the conditions when it seemed that there was no hope for optimism in our region.
Now this happens globally. And at this Summit of the Future, I want to voice that belief of “there is a future,” and by doing this I want to have my portion of contribution.
Unlike the previous three times, this year at the General Assembly, I will more concentrate on opportunities rather than accuse neighboring countries in my speech.
And this will provide room for positive thinking and for talking about the possibilities. Yes, for now let’s only talk, since “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Therefore it is necessary to start with the good words. It is necessary to bring forward the slogan “There is a future” as a theorem and to work to prove it. Let’s do it.
Thank you.”
