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It has even gone as far as the United States exerting a unseen pressure on sovereign governments so that they renounce the medical services they requested from us for the benefit of their respective populations, and which are offered by Cuban professionals altruistically, because the US government is opposed to such cooperation, regardless of the impact and harm that this may cause to those populations, if they are deprived of free quality medical care, that is to say, deprived of an elemental human right. Last Thursday, the State Department convened within this General Assembly a humiliating meeting specifically with the states that are the recipients of this cooperation in order to apply pressure and make threats. According to the US Secretary of State, the official policy of the United States is to shut down every relief valve from Cuba to block every possible way out and eliminate any form of survival for Cuba. The impact of such an ironclad and ruthless siege has a human face.
I welcome this opportunity for Bolivia to be with you and to express our concerns. I will conclude by talking about Pando and Santa Cruz, two departments, and Cochabamba as well, which in September, this is the anniversary of those, nine departments. But I would also like to express my fond affection to young Bolivians, young Bolivians, just like the young people in all of the nations of the United Nations needs to find the meaning and purpose of their lives. Our nations need to give our young people that purpose. There will be the United Nations, Bolivia and countries in the future if we give that meaning to our young people a meaning and a purpose in their lives, the very reason for being. I am here to be part of building a society. That is why in these difficult moments that we are experiencing now, we are working in particular to ensure that young people have a purpose. They want to build the fatherland. They want to build our nation and want to be part of the United Nations as a concept of United Nations, so that we can cooperate, work together. And to be firm in that conviction, to be able to carry out a form of transformation and bring change to our work as a nation. I believe we need to build a new agenda, an agenda of energy critical minerals, industrialization, infrastructure, digitalization, water, biodiversity, food security, education, health, gender science, technology, connectivity, and other things.
My administration is also seeking a fundamental change in the situation in Cuba where the communist regime is under great pressure, the biggest pressure they've ever been under. It's an absolutely failed state. It's failing like never before, and it will fall. Marco Rubio is handling a negotiation. He's deep into negotiations with Cuba. Let's see what happens. We'll not allow a haven for foreign adversaries to threaten America on our own doorstep. It's right at our doorstep. The Cuban regime has also spent decades coordinating with the left wing radicals and communist networks here in the United States. As our State Department has detailed, they've cultivated ties to subversive and radical groups such as the Communist Party USA, Antifa, and the Democrat Socialists of America. Communism will never be coming to America, but freedom will be coming to Cuba, and safety and security will be coming to Mexico. I'm very proud to tell you we have a very good relationship with the Mexican government. We've made great strides, very great strides with Mexico. They don't want the cartels either. And when that day comes, this entire region will be a better, safer and more beautiful place in which to live and thrive. As I announced just days ago, the United States has also reached an unprecedented agreement regarding the northern frontier of North America, the large and strategically vital piece of land known as Greenland. This agreement, made with the Kingdom of Denmark, an incredible, beautiful country, and the Greenland people itself gives the United States permanent control over security and all other needs. On that territory, we will have the complete ability to do what is necessary to defend the American continent, and also Europe and other places. No U.S. adversary will ever be permitted to establish a military presence in Greenland anymore, or make sensitive investments there without our express written approval. We will immediately begin the process of developing a large military presence in the appropriate locations. We will be building two very major military bases. This agreement will be signed later today, and I look forward to working with the wonderful people of Denmark and Greenland. It's been a great experience, amazing experience, and we've really formed a bond in doing it. By expanding America's footprint in the Arctic and North Atlantic, this deal also protects Europe in addition to America and greatly protects them. It also very much enhances NATO, which has a great leader in Mark, I know you're in the audience and you are indeed a great leader, Mark Rutte, which is now growing stronger than ever before. NATO is doing things that nobody thought they would be able to do, including raising their number to 5% from 2% number. That's a protection that's going to be much greater protection for them. We continue to seek an end to the disastrous war between Russia and Ukraine, which is killing, as I said, thousands and thousands of people every month. Last week, in honor of Senator Lindsey Graham, I signed a powerful new law passed by Congress providing me with enormous new tariff authorities. And if necessary, I will have to use them. It's time to stop the killing.
The proclamation at the Initiative of Turkmenistan of the United Nations Decade of Sustainable Transport for 2026 2035 has launched an important mechanism for systematic work coordinated by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, to put into practice the Decade's Implementation Plan. Within the framework of this long term undertaking, our country will continue its work toward the creation of a global atlas of sustainable transport connectivity, a comprehensive, analytical and informational tool for assessing progress, identifying infrastructure gaps and coordinating international efforts. During the 81st session, Turkmenistan will actively support the implementation of the Programme of Action for Landlocked Developing Countries for the decade 2024 2034 and the Awaza Political Declaration. In this context, we particularly welcome the election of Turkmenistan as a chair of the Group of Landlocked Developing Countries for 2027 2028.
Artificial intelligence, which we've heard so many times from the podium this week, is arguably the most urgent frontier. AI offers with extraordinary potential, but its capability is advancing faster than our appreciation of its risks. There are fundamentally three categories of risk. First, the loss of control of autonomous systems. Second, that rogue actors could use AI to create bioweapons or other weapons of mass destruction or mass disruption. Third, the economic, the social the political domestic disruptions are only just emerging. But excellencies, the genie is already out of the bottle. It is too late to call for a halt, especially given the superpower rivalry and the huge financial incentives for companies who already have frontier models. But let me offer a metaphor of driving a high performance car. To drive a high performance car quickly and safely, you need a powerful engine. But equally, you need good brakes. And especially if you are going to go beyond your neighborhood or cross boundaries, you need effective shared rules, traffic lights, insurance norms of behavior, seat belts. The engine is innovation. Every one of us has to continue to invest in science, the talent, and the infrastructure that will drive AI forward. For small states, this entails especially developing our people, equipping them with the skills necessary to master and deploy AI quickly, widely, at scale and safely. The real productivity gains from AI comes not from the IT department, but from our businesses and workers having the skills, the tools and the wherewithal to engineer their work processes, workflow by workflow. That's where the cutting edge of value creation arises. But having said that, every powerful engine needs good brakes, safeguards. As the capabilities of AI advance, our safeguards must keep pace. We need rigorous testing and evaluation before deployment. We need clear limits on what autonomous systems can do and mechanisms to intervene when they behave in ways we do not intend. And since the risks from AI do not remain confined behind borders, it means we also need rules of the road that will form a shared global understanding of how we will collectively confront this challenge. Just as all of us instinctively understand traffic lights the same way, whether we're here in New York or in Beijing, Moscow or Singapore. Most importantly, human beings must ultimately remain in control and accountable. Let me give you an extreme thought experiment. Do you want the nuclear button to be in the hands of a human being or an AI? Think about that. The scarce resource today is not legal architecture or technology. It is trust. Trust that the risks will be disclosed, that testing will be comprehensive and credible, and that cooperation will be inclusive and not be used to secure unilateral advantage. The technology has already become an arena for strategic competition precisely when international cooperation is most needed. Any durable international approach must give all states a meaningful stake. Not only those who already have the most advanced models, or the deepest pockets, or the largest set of armaments. So the question is how do we build trust? We begin with the science. Even where states have differences on governance, I believe it is possible for us to work together to collectively understand the capabilities and risks of AI models, to develop comparable methods for testing and evaluation, and to report serious incidents quickly across borders. We are not starting from zero. If you carefully go through what we already have today, the UN's Independent International Scientific Panel on AI already helps to establish a common understanding based on evidence. The Global Dialogue on AI Governance can help to translate that common understanding into common objectives, and the ITU's AI for Good Global Commission brings together leaders from government, industry and international institutions to discuss challenges and to come up with practical solutions. We must urgently establish common rules and safeguards for AI, and we should build on the many ongoing discussions in different formats and groupings. And here I want to make a point: the UN, the United Nations has a critical role to play in building convergence, because this is the only apex international institution with universal membership. We must explore all options, including the idea of a UN framework Convention on AI safeguards. We may also need an international institution that can perform for AI some of the functions that currently exist for institutions that perform this function of setting common technical standards and the examples are the International Telecommunications Union, which provides all the International Atomic Energy Agency, which provides verification. Ultimately, the global commons are best protected by collective action agreed through an inclusive process, and Singapore commits to contribute where we can. This week we joined the call for greater safety and security of frontier AI models, and I'm glad that this was led by Finland and Norway. We will continue to contribute through platforms such as the Digital Pillar for the Forum of Small States, and by making our governance frameworks and testing tools available to all. But the work of building trust and laying the ground for global cooperation must begin now.
Rather, they must contribute to creating conditions conducive to sustainable peace through supporting state institutions, the rule of law, the empowerment of local communities and enhancing development. Tunisia reaffirms its readiness to continue contributing to the development of the peacekeeping system in ways that enhance its effectiveness and credibility. Drawing on our long standing and active participation in UN peacekeeping operations, Tunisia believes that advancing these operations requires investment in human and institutional capacities and a greater protection of civilians as a collective responsibility and humanitarian imperative. In this regard, Tunisia calls for building upon the outcomes of the international conference hosted by Tunisia in July 2025 in cooperation with the UN Department of Peace Operations on the role of armed forces and the protection of civilians, including through the establishment of an international platform for exchanging expertise and information, the development of a unified operational manual and the strengthening of training, capacity building and civil military coordination, which should include both men and women.
