Category: The Civic Circle

At the United Nations General Assembly, world leaders marked the 30th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995. The high-level meeting focused on recommitting to, resourcing and accelerating the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, considered the most progressive blueprint ever adopted for advancing women’s rights.

Secretary-General António Guterres described the Beijing Declaration as “the most ambitious global political commitment on women’s rights ever achieved.” He said it helped power advances in education, maternal health, and legal protection, but warned that “progress has been slow and uneven. And no nation has achieved full equality for women and girls. Sustainable Development Goal Five – gender equality – is lagging far behind.”

“Let us be clear: equal rights and opportunities are not partisan issues,” Guterres said. “They are global imperatives – and the foundation of peace, prosperity and progress.”

He noted that earlier this year, governments recommitted to the Beijing platform. “The Commission on the Status of Women adopted a new Political Declaration, committing to implement the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action – fast and in full,” Guterres said. “So now, all countries must live up to that responsibility. We need strong, visible support at the highest levels – and concrete plans, backed by real investment.”

Assistant Secretary-General Miroslav Jenča today told the Security Council that a series of recent incidents, including Russian fighter jets reportedly breaching Estonia’s airspace last week, “further underscore the already high tensions that endanger European security,” and stressed that “violations of sovereign country’s airspace are unacceptable.”

Jenča urged all concerned “to act responsibly, to use all available channels and to take immediate steps to de-escalate tensions and prevent further risks to regional security.”

He said, “the world simply cannot afford such danger to spiral out of control and for the devastating war in Ukraine to further escalate and expand.”

On the Ukraine war, Jenča said, “the continuing trend of intensifying widespread attacks once again underscores the need to build on recent initiatives for diplomatic efforts towards peace before the situation reaches even more dangerous levels.”

He called “for a full, immediate and unconditional ceasefire to pave the way for a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in Ukraine, in line with the UN Charter, international law and relevant UN resolutions.”

Russian Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told the Council that “any events are immediately interpreted through an anti-Russian prism,” and said, “Russia is being branded all sorts of things portrayed as an enemy, not even going to the trouble in principle of using facts or evidence.”

“When these assertions turn out to be false,” Polyanskiy said, “no one even thinks about apologising for spreading such blatant lies.”

The Russian Ambassador said, “our neighbours have now imagined that Russia is at fault for an incursion into Estonian airspace. As always, there is no proof except the rise of phobic hysteria coming from Tallinn, which our Estonian colleague will wax lyrical about a little bit later. As for the facts, the facts prove that on the 19th of September, three Russian MiG 31 fighter jets conducted a planned flight from Karelia to an airbase in Kaliningrad Oblast, carried out in strict accordance with international airspace use rules. The Russian aircraft did not stray from the agreed route, nor did they cross into Estonian airspace. The trajectory of their flight was over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea, over three kilometres from the island of Väima. Flight recorder data confirmed this.”

The new United States Ambassador Mike Waltz, in his first Council intervention said the US “stands by our NATO allies in the face of these airspace violations,” and emphasised that “the United States and our allies will defend every inch of NATO territory.”

Waltz said, “Russia must urgently stop such dangerous behaviour. At a time when President Trump in the United States has been focussed and spent an enormous amount of time and effort to end this horrific war between Russia and Ukraine, we expect Russia to seek ways to de-escalate, not risk expansion.”

Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told the Council that “on 19th September 2025, three armed Russian MiG 31 fighter jets deliberately entered Estonia airspace in violation of our territorial integrity. They remained in our skies for 12 minutes, penetrating up to ten kilometres deep and covering nearly 100km inside our sovereign territory.”

Tsahkna said, “these are the hard facts based on solid evidence, whatever Russia is claiming.”

Opening remarks by Annalena Baerbock, President of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, at the High-level plenary meeting to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations – General Assembly, 80th session.

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