When delegates gathered in the very hall you’re standing in 80 years ago, the first words spoken were by Colombian diplomat Eduardo Zuleta Ángel.

Zuleta Angel once observed that the United Nations had proved its democratic nature by allowing him – the delegate of a country with little military force or economic power – to open the General Assembly.

Those words feel especially pertinent today.

We are living in a moment when countries that do hold immense military and economic power are increasingly disregarding multilateralism. We are witnessing ever more flagrant breaches of international law by superpower states laying claim to regions, to influence, even to hemispheres.

This is a dangerous race to the bottom – toward a world in which nobody is protected, where there are no rules and no order.

It is a world that few people alive today can remember, but one we must never forget: a world of global conflict, mass devastation, disease, famine, and poverty. A world that ultimately risks the end of human civilisation itself.

Eighty years ago, humanity escaped that horror by establishing international law and building multilateral institutions. But those protections only work if we choose to uphold them.

We are only protected by law if we abide by it. We only benefit from multilateralism if we are willing to show up, sit down, and talk – not walk away.

Some global powers and privileged nations may believe international law does not apply to them, or that multilateralism no longer serves their interests. That belief is both shortsighted and deeply dangerous.

While it is often the least powerful nations and the most vulnerable people who suffer first when global cooperation breaks down, history shows us that it is only a matter of time before everyone suffers.

Last century taught us this lesson at an unbearable cost. Must we really learn it the hard way again?

Thank you to the United Nations Association UK for highlighting these urgent issues today. And thank you to all of you – and to civil society around the world – for standing up for multilateralism and international law, especially when the most powerful do not.