Pedro Sánchez is committed to multilateralism to face the challenges facing Europe, Asia and Oceania

During his speech, Pedro Sánchez defended the need for an effective multilateralism with real solutions to face the global challenges of today's societies, which, as he pointed out, are in permanent progress.

The president of the Government of Spain underlined: "Only in a truly multilateral society can we achieve the collective progress needed to fight pandemics and climate change, and to achieve peace and security.

On the pandemic, Sánchez highlighted Spain's good vaccination figures, with nearly 90% of the target population having been fully vaccinated, but insisted that the global vaccination process is uneven, "which is why we must continue to promote this process through multilateralism".

Spain has led the solidarity response to ensure equitable access to vaccines because, as Sánchez reminded us, "we will not be safe until we are all safe". As a result, Spain has already donated more than 30 million vaccine doses and has committed to donate another 20 million during the first quarter of 2022.

The president underlined the Government's commitment to the fight against climate change - another of the global challenges. "Again we are talking about a common problem that must have shared responses from the highest level of multilateralism. We must significantly increase our ambition in line with the Paris Accord. The time to act is now. We can't wait any longer," said Sánchez. Spain has therefore pledged to increase its contribution to the Green Climate Fund by 50% to 1.35 billion euros per year from 2025.

Finally, Pedro Sánchez pointed out that world peace and security will only be preserved in a "truly" multilateral society. In this context in 2020, Spain, together with Sweden and other countries, promoted the Joint Declaration 'Together for a strengthened multilateralism', an initiative that proposes specific actions in fields such as health, inequality, protection of the planet and work towards peace and security.

"History teaches us that no country achieves far-reaching goals on its own. It is important to draw lessons from the current challenges and to learn that we need renewed global action, and a real and effective multilateralism. Spain is fully aware of this and is therefore firmly committed to this objective," concluded the President of the Government of Spain.

ASEM comprises 51 countries from Europe, Asia and Oceania, including the 27 EU member states, as well as the United Kingdom, Norway, Switzerland and Russia. It also includes China, India, Japan, Korea and the 10 ASEAN countries, as well as Australia and New Zealand, the ASEAN Secretariat and the European Union.

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