 Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends of the ocean, I very much regret that I'm unable to attend the Towards an Inclusive Sustainable Blue Economy Conference in person, but I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to send you this recorded message here from Stockholm. During the last years, I've witnessed the international community take several important steps forward. The adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with its specific ocean goal was crucial. We now have a globally agreed action plan for saving the seas. Equally critical was the adoption of the Paris Agreement and more recently the Katowice Rule Book. And you know that if we can't beat climate change, we can't save our oceans. It's as simple as that. Promoting the health of the ocean and its resources has been a defining feature of my career, both as previously a journalist and now as a politician. But despite the huge leaps forward in global awareness of climate challenges and in particular on how we treat our oceans, the urgency to do more has never been more acute. The focus of this conference is highly relevant. Achieving an inclusive and sustainable blue economy is critical for livelihoods, for food security, biodiversity and carbon sequestration among other things. It plays a key role in the realization of the whole 2030 Agenda and I commend the cutting edge work carried out by the International Institute for Environment and Development within this area. Globally, Sweden supports the promotion of an inclusive sustainable blue economy in various ways. We have, for example, provided substantial contributions to ProBlue, the Blue Action Fund, WorldFish and the FAO. But these actions are already taken and we must all stretch ourselves now beyond what we achieved yesterday. Today, we need to talk not only about what we could do tomorrow but what we will start doing today. Friends, during this conference, you with your bright minds and experiences from various sectors will discuss how the high seas can be governed, how fiscal tools can make fisheries inclusive and sustainable and finally, how data can improve our understanding of the value of small-scale fisheries. All these topics have critical bearing on the possibilities of achieving an inclusive, sustainable blue economy. The high seas hold vast potential. However, the fulfillment of this potential requires that the resources are effectively managed and conserved. The importance of the ongoing negotiations on a treaty for the high seas cannot be stressed enough. It's also high time that we abolish the subsidies that enable large fishing vessels to thrive but which hurt small-scale fisheries. Reaching an agreement on fisheries subsidies within the World Trade Organization is critical. As women have known for centuries, much valuable work never makes its way into national accounts. The first step to unlocking the potential of small-scale fisheries is to ensure that their contribution to national welfare is adequately recognized. With that, I want to conclude and I wish you all a very successful and productive conference. Thank you for listening.