Speech at a New Year’s Reception for Members of the Diplomatic Corps
Áras an Uachtaráin, 29th January 2015
A Oirircis, A Dhéin an Chóir Thaidhleoireachta, Your Excellency, Dean of the Diplomatic Corps,
A Oirirceasa, Excellencies,
A Aire, Minister Deenihan,
A Uaisle Uile agus a Dhaoine Óga, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Cuireann sé áthas orm agus ar mo bhean chéile, Sabina, céad míle fáilte a chur romhaibh go léir go hÁras an Uachtaráin.
Sabina and I are delighted to welcome you and your families to Áras an Uachtaráin. May I thank you, Your Excellency, for your kind greetings, which I am delighted to receive on behalf of the people of Ireland. As a New Year begins, my wish for all of you, and for the citizens of the countries you represent is one that I share also for the people of Ireland: a year of peace, hope and renewal.
The year that has passed has left us a legacy of great concern, in the form of new conflicts and evidence of unacceptable levels of inequalities within and between societies. Thus 2015 opens with a series of enduring challenges, but it also provides us with real opportunities to positively transform the atmosphere of international relations.
Indeed this year 2015 is one of seminal importance for the future of human development; it is a year that presents both a test and a challenge for diplomacy, as the nations of the world have engaged in two processes of negotiations of immense, and interrelated, significance: the post-2015 sustainable development agenda, due to be adopted in New York in September 2015; and the new climate change global agreement, that will be signed two months later, in Paris.
The choices that will be made in relation to both agendas will have a real impact on this and future generations. Our decision-makers are presented with a unique opportunity to address the most urgent and fundamental needs of millions of people around the world who aspire to live their lives in dignity. They are invited to forge novel paradigms for thought and action – and in that regard, there is little more pressing than the need to provide new ideas and tools linking economics, ecology and ethics.
Our diplomats – who, assiduously, apply their competence, energy and creativity to the day-to-day advancement of the negotiations – are challenged to respond to the task both as representatives of their country’s best interests, but also as ethical subjects, conscious of their fellow citizens’ shared vulnerabilities and solidarity with all those who dwell with them on this fragile planet.
Indeed diplomacy is, at its best, a practice which constantly strives to balance the pursuit of national interests – ideally sourced in an inclusive public sphere – with an open, enlarged ethical consciousness grounded in a recognition of our profound interdependence with the fate of other nations.
Over the course of the past year, I undertook a series of international visits to different regions of the world: to the United States in May; to Africa in November – where I visited Ethiopia, Malawi and South Africa – and to China in December.
Each of these journeys provided a valuable opportunity to celebrate and further enhance Ireland’s warm political, economic and cultural relationships with those countries. Each also brought home to me the interrelations that exist between continents – the ways in which our complex and interdependent world requires a fundamental rethink of the purpose, the process, the means and goals of diplomacy.
Indeed the urgency of global environmental and social issues – be it climate change or forced migration – demand that we go beyond thinking in binary terms of ‘us’ and ‘them’. Simplistic oppositions between “Northern” and “Southern” countries risk obscuring the fact that, in many ways, elements of “the South” are now in “the North”, and that, vice versa, some features of “the North” have migrated to “the South”.
The high levels of youth unemployment experienced in many European countries, the recent debt crises, the existing and looming poverty and the consequences of externally-imposed fiscal rectitude which can strain democratic legitimacy itself, are but some of the phenomena which must prompt us to interrogate the relevance of old distinctions between “developed” and “developing worlds”.
All of us are invited to complete a shift in mindset and discourse – to take part, not just in a North-South conversation, but in a conversation about our humanity itself.
To achieve this, we will need a revitalised architecture of legitimate and well-resourced multilateral institutions. This was a theme I addressed in my speech at Fudan University in Shanghai last December. This new multilateralism must be based on genuine representativeness, an ability to translate agreed principles into action, and a recognition of the intergenerational nature of our responsibility towards the planet. However complex the task may be, it is, for the diplomats of all nations, one worth undertaking with real commitment and an appropriate sense of urgency.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In the year ahead, Ireland’s active engagement with the European Union will remain central to our work of economic and social renewal. A Union that actively seeks the support of its citizens as well as institutional reform provides a fundamental and indispensable frame for our political discussions on the options for a truly inclusive Union.
These discussions, of course, must include Ireland’s friend and nearest neighbour – the United Kingdom. As you know, one of the most important diplomatic events of the year 2014 was, for my country, the State Visit I, as President, paid to the United Kingdom – the first such visit since Ireland’s independence in the 1920s. It was a most meaningful opportunity to celebrate the many strands of the relationship that bind together the Irish and the British peoples. It was, too, the occasion for joint acts of remembrance, a recognition that only through wilful acts of ethical remembering, imagination and generosity can we prevent tragic and bitter memories from colonising our future.
Ireland and Britain’s joint efforts to further entrench peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland remain a vital work in progress. The signature of the Stormont House Agreement, just before Christmas, struck a note of hope for our people, as 2014 came to a close. It is my fervent wish that this agreement will help to ease the difficulties that continue to face communities in Northern Ireland, including in their dealing with a painful past. I hope, too, that what we have achieved on this island can give some inspiration for the resolution of other conflicts.
The institutions and instruments of pan-European cooperation – which encompass the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights, which I visited earlier this week – have, since the end of WWII, provided the indispensable framework for the protection of human rights and the upholding of peace, justice and democratic pluralism on the European continent. This is an overall framework we must continue to consciously care for and nurture.
Last August, I joined other European Heads of State in Liège, Belgium, as we commemorated the hundredth anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War. And last week, Europe commemorated the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. These acts of remembrance powerfully remind us that we must not let unravel the architecture of unity, peace and human dignity we have sought to build on this continent over the decades. The preservation, or, more appropriately, the revitalisation, of European cooperation is all the more important as Europe is faced with a series of new conflicts, both internally and externally.
Indeed there can be no doubt that the year 2014 has seen the maturation of conflicts which present diplomacy with most acute challenges, be it the ongoing war in Ukraine, the conflict in North-Eastern Nigeria, or that in the Middle East.
Then of course, the threat posed by new forms of violence was brought home to us most recently in Paris, where – within the space of three days – we saw freedom of expression and freedom of the press assaulted in the most direct and dreadful of ways, through the murder of a satirical paper’s entire editorial team, and a further four men coldly assassinated in an act of pure anti-Semitism.
Heads of State, public representatives, indeed all citizens, and diplomats of all nations are challenged, not just to respond to the threats, but to endeavour to address their root causes. This is a task of immense complexity, for these new forms of violence arise at the obscure intersection of global geopolitical tensions, individual trajectories and beliefs, and complex structures of social inequalities. I know that it is a task to which all of you are willing to apply the best of your diplomatic skills.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
This year of 2015 is, as I emphasised in my opening, a year of seminal importance for our shared future on this planet. I have no doubt that each of you here will employ whatever means you have at your disposal to advance the cause of humanity at large.
As we start this new year with hope and anticipation, may I thank you all for the vital role you perform on a daily basis, operating in the spaces between nations to foster understanding and cooperation. I also wish to acknowledge the vital support which you receive from your loved ones in this important duty.
Please convey the good wishes of the Irish people to all those you represent so well.
Gúim rath agus sonas oraibh go léir.
I wish you all prosperity and happiness, and I would now like to propose a toast:
TO THE HEADS OF STATE HERE REPRESENTED.