 Good morning, everyone. Bonjour. Your excellencies, distinguished guests, and speakers, ladies and gentlemen, it is an honor to address you once again, and welcome to Abu Dhabi to the United Arab Emirates. We are thrilled to open the doors for the 16th edition of the World Policy Conference in Abu Dhabi for the third time. This conference has been a cornerstone of our annual calendar for the last three years, as it continues to foster and drive forward insightful dialogue and discussion on a wide variety of issues, challenges, and opportunities, all led by foremost thinkers, leaders, and dear colleagues. Your considerable expertise forged across years of dedicated service in every field imaginable will all assist to create the kind of open, honest, and meaningful discussions and spirited debates we have come to expect and enjoy from the World Policy Conference. We must never pass up an opportunity to learn from one another. As we strive every year to do so, the organizers have gathered together an impressive group of attendees and speakers so that we might better understand today's and tomorrow's most pressing issues. It is important that we discuss these topics because as challenging as 2022 proved to be, 2023 has proved even more so. Before we can start, though, we must acknowledge the devastating events happening in our region. Since the war on Gaza broke out, we express our deepest condolences for the loss of civilian lives and our thoughts go to those who have lost loved ones as a result of this conflict. Tragically, the loss of civilian lives on Gaza continues to this day. The ongoing damage being perpetrated upon the people has created a humanitarian catastrophe and folding before our very eyes in real time. We're working relentlessly to reach an immediate and full humanitarian ceasefire so that the life-saving aid could be delivered to the Gaza Strip. Every effort must be made to protect civilians and to immediately put an end to this conflict which we were witnessing as a result of decades-long failure to make progress towards a political horizon that ends the occupation and brings peace for Palestinians and Israelis alike. And as we continue working to stop this war, we cannot ignore the wider context and the necessity to turn down the regional temperature that is approaching a boiling point. The risk of regional spillover and further escalation is real, as is the risk that extremist groups will take advantage of the situation to advance ideologies that will keep us locked in cycles of violence. Therefore, as our region is facing a critical test today, we must also consider the wider problem of extremism and terrorism within and across societies. There is no peace for extremism in the world. It is a scourge that is not home to any particular religion or any country. We must use all available tools, and the wisdom occurred through often painful lessons to solve this shared challenge. Ladies and gentlemen, recent events in the Middle East, including the situation on Gaza, other ongoing conflicts, and simmering socio-economic cleavages across the region and the wider world requires strong diplomacy and cooperation among us. This is also the case of the war in Ukraine, which continues unbattled, causing further polarization on the geopolitical front and affecting the global economy and food security. We have largely recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, but there is much concern as there should be on what we will do when the next pandemic occurs. Artificial intelligence has entered the mainstream and impacts our daily lives, while climate change makes itself felt more each year. As all this going on in the world continues to undergo systematic change, as new players emerge, the old order comes under strain and calls for more inclusive world order find more space for discussion. We have our work cut out for us. Despite all of this, there are clear opportunities for all countries and actors to seize if they possess the political will and courage. And so we embark on this path I want to assure you that the United Arab Emirates will remain a true partner and a bridge builder. We are committed to upholding aspirations of peace and prosperity for all in real and practical way, because in the modern world, crisis have far reaching implications for all of us. This also applies to the greatest long-term threat of humanity, climate change. Though climate change is often discussed, it is time that we take stock of our progress and make sure we are heading where we need to go. The UAE is proud to host COP28 this year and only a few weeks which underscores the seriousness with which we'll treat this issue. We have striven to be a leader in our efforts, but ours is not a solitary effort. COP28 is fundamentally a collective effort and our aims for this conference must cover multiple lines of efforts because addressing climate change requires further ambitions each year because solutions are possible. And we must make progress towards an inclusive and results-oriented COP that keeps the 1.5 degrees goal within reach and significantly scales up investment in the coping capacity of vulnerable communities. The struggle to address climate change includes opportunities to alleviate the crisis, including food and water insecurity, as well as global health challenges. We have learned just how vulnerable supply chain systems are in previous years, especially for more frequent climate disasters. Addressing food and water insecurity is of paramount importance and in many ways the base for which to build on. And in recognition of the significant impact climate change has on global health issues, this year COP28 will host the first ever Health Day and Climate Health Ministerial at a COP which will introduce an official high level health initiatives emphasizing, establishing, robust and inclusive health care systems that can withstand the challenges posed by it. Fortunately, we are more equipped than ever to meet these challenges and seize these opportunities both technologically and institutionally. The rapid spread of AI has only just begun to be understood. And AI is only growing more capable. Yet technology can only be developed and realized through an educated workforce. The UAE is naturally focused on building a knowledge based economy that creates a diverse and inclusive workforce with special attention to investing in youth and women whom we believe will be crucial to creating the necessary solutions. Additionally, at the institutional level, we have developed existing and new institutions to assist us. And the UAE, we also believe very strongly in the importance and role of international organizations as they reflect our deeply held belief in the virtue and necessity of cooperation based on shared values to advance cooperation and build up regional and international integration. Regional organizations, new and old, serve an important purpose in helping tackle our pressing issues. Organizations like the African Union and the League of Arab States play a crucial role in their understanding of their perspective contexts. The problems they face and the best solutions for tomorrow. They furthermore serve a complementary role to traditional international institutions that still fulfill a vital role in cooperation. For despite the changing global order, the UN remains the key institution for international cooperation. At this difficult geopolitical time in our history, polarization is growing within the UN Security Council, making consensus harder and harder to reach. We have witnessed the first hand during our tenure at the Security Council these past two years as we have worked to overcome this issue, reform, and renewal as needed for the UN. Still, there remains no viable alternative to the UN for achieving cooperation through our shared values. It is these values ultimately that define our shared humanity. There are the reasons we recognize the need to combat climate change and to resist falling prey to baser instincts. Tolerance and coexistence are our greatest legacy. Helping each other is in our very nature. It is keeping these ideas in mind that we inaugurate this year's World Policy Conference. We do hope that this year we can spark the types of discussions and generate the ideas that stick with all of the attendees and speakers, that they carry with them what they learned and to their lives and to their work and from there towards a meaningful change. My true best wishes to you for a very successful and a very fruitful conference. Thank you and God bless you all. Well, thank you very much, Madame Minister, for this excellent introduction to our debates and thanks to the Emirates through you for their hospitality here today, especially in those tragic circumstances that you have alluded to. So now I'm going to say a few words myself and as usual, I will alternate French and English. Well, English, French and French, OK? Or French and English, French, OK? That's clear. When, how are you all doing with the helmet? Around 2005-2006, I was thinking about what was going to become the World Policy Conference, the utopia of liberal globalization that had taken shape at the same time as the fall of the Soviet Union had already lost a part of its spark. My way of presenting this utopia in a few words is in the form of a sort of abstract chemical reaction that could be called the formula of Fukuyama, the name of the theorist of the end of history. The real theorist of the end of history is Hegel, of course. So this equation is something like democracy plus market economy is bringing peace and prosperity in both directions. Democracy plus market economy is bringing, as in a chemical reaction, pay plus prosperity. Intellectually, the equation falls flat on two counts. First, none of its four terms is completely and unambiguously definable. Second, even if assuming such definitions did exist, they would tell us nothing about the historical processes likely to pave the way for democracy and the market economy on one hand and peace and prosperity on the other when the starting point is far from an ideal objective situation. There is no such thing as spontaneous generation in life in this or in any other realm. Le premier grand rappel à la réalité fut le choc du 11 septembre 2001 dont les effets se propagèrent instantanément sur toute la planète. Depuis ce jour-là, on sait qu'il suffit de petits group fanatisés résolus à exploiter une religion à leur fin et à recourir aux méthodes du terrorisme pour accroître la haine et finalement l'instabilité partout dans le monde. The end of history ideology would have held up only if major territorial, economic, or other conflicts had been settled first. But then, assuming that such a situation could even be imagined, Foucault-Yama's formula would amount to a simple tautology. For example, the harmonious pairing of democracy and the market economy would necessarily imply a social contract capable of addressing the sense that wealth and power are unjustly distributed, a tall order about which great intellectuals such as the Indian economist Amartya Sen have extensively written. Dès son origine, le projet de la World Policy Conférence repose sur une vision objective et non pas normative du monde. La mondialisation contemporaine est une réalité sans précédent dans l'histoire car elle provient, à partir des États-Unis, d'une vague de technologie qui n'a pas cessé de grossir depuis une bonne soixantaine d'années. Cette vague est caractérisée par la transmission instantanée de l'information en quantité toujours plus grande. Selon l'image que l'on s'en fait, pareil capacité est la meilleure et la pire des choses. Elle peut favoriser l'évolution dans la direction du bien commun comme dans celle du déchaînement de la haine. Mais alors que le progrès se construit pas à part, la haine se répand à la façon des épidémies. Elle finit par s'éteindre, mais seulement après que les foyers qui l'entretenaient ont disparu longtemps après, parfois. Three simple ideas have underpinned the WPC project from its outset. The first is that the objective foundations of globalization are irreversible. This means that all of us must adapt to it the best we can. Not by tearing down borders in the literal sense of the term, which would be the quickest way to bring about the shock of civilizations that kept Samuel Huntington up at night. But by fostering cautiously openness to others, so that everyone can benefit from the diversity of an international society that is heterogeneous by nature. In reaction to the consequences of too much openness, we risk closing ourselves off from other to such an extent that the world might again be divided into blocks. What I am expressing is the concept of a reasonably open world. A reasonably open world. La deuxième idée est celle de gouvernance. Ce terme est rarement défini avec précision. Il ne s'agit pas d'un gouvernement mondial inconcevable pour très longtemps encore. Il ne s'agit pas non plus du droit international comme si la régulation du système international pouvait être déléguée par les États à des juges. Autant dire potentiellement à l'intelligence artificielle. Pendant longtemps encore, pareil régulation ne pourra que reposer sur une collection de groupes d'État, une collection de groupes d'État et d'institutions œuvrant de manière cohérente pour assurer la stabilité structurelle du système. En termes simples, l'objectif est de ne jamais trop s'éloigner d'un équilibre non pas figé, mais qui se déplace continuement sous l'action de multiples forces sociales, économiques, politiques ou autres, puisque la figure du changement est indissolublement liée à celle du temps. Les équilibres dont je parle ne s'identifient pas à un simple rapport de force. La absence de stabilité structurelle implique la recherche en commun d'un équilibre entre les intérêts fondamentaux de chaque partie prenante, ce qui oblige chacun à tenir compte du point de vue des autres, quand bien même, quand bien même, il en réprouve certains aspects. Je n'hésite pas à me déclarer qui singère rien à cet égard. Evidence means not allowing imbalances to grow so severe that conflicts could not be resolved by peaceful means. Without claiming to assign responsibility, it is clear in my mind that the fall of the Soviet Union upended the security situation in Europe and that the main stakeholders have never addressed the issue as such. Likewise, as events in recent weeks have painfully recalled, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been simmering on the back burner for years but was always about to boil over. The first condition for progress in the idea of governance is for states and institutions concerned to clearly share the objective. If they do not, opening up the international system increases geopolitical and geostrategic risks rather than reducing them. La troisième idée à l'origine de la WPC est celle de puissance moyenne. En créant cette conférence, j'ai précisé d'emblée qu'elle ne serait pas d'esprit occidental dans le sens des alliances scellées après la Seconde Guerre mondiale autour des États-Unis ou même du point de vue des cultures ou des civilisations. Je ne vois aucune contradiction au contraire entre la nécessaire fidélité à la culture ou la civilisation à laquelle on se rattache en tant que citoyen et le respect que l'on doit manifester pour les autres. De ce point de vue, je m'inquiète lorsque j'entends le président des États-Unis situer son pays en naturelle des démocraties entre guillemets contre les autocraties puisqu'il ne précise ni ce qu'est vraiment une démocratie ni ce qu'est vraiment une autocratie. Comme dans son regard, cette ambiguïté ne s'applique manifestement pas à la Chine. Pareil posture compromet compromet tout progrès ampleur dans le domaine des biens communs comme la lutte contre le réchauffement climatique ou contre les pandémies. La WPC se refuse à toute taxonomie politique simpliste et son point de vue ne s'aligne pas sur celui des plus grandes puissances quel qu'elle soit. Elle entend privilégier la voie des puissances moyennes, c'est-à-dire des États qui, sans être nécessairement dotés de ressources importantes, sont néanmoins résolues à en consacrer une partie de la Chine. The first great global shock of the 20th century came on September 11, 2001. The consequences of this event and of the American policies that ensured, especially in Afghanistan, are still reverberating across the globe. But that was just the first in a series of major events which together revealed how fragile the international system remains today. The first WPC took place in Evian on October 6, 2008 at the same time as a critical moment in the subprime crisis when Lehman Brothers failed and the specter of the 1929 crash and the Great Depression loomed over the horizon. Those attending Evian and some of them are here included Jean-Claude Trichet who is not far from here then president of the European Central Bank who with his central bank counterparts played a key role in averting a crash. Since then the international monetary system has witnessed several tests including the tremendous structural shock caused by the West's response to the Ukrainian war. This event largely but not only fueled the return of inflation and of policies the likes of which had not been seen in 30 years and those effects are partially unforeseeable. The second major jolt was the poorly named Arab Spring of 2011 which set the Middle East ablaze not to mention Libya whose breakdown contributed to the destabilization of the Sahel. One consequence of this overarching fiasco has been uncontrolled migration to Europe. I imagine that here too historians will pass harsh judgment on how these crises were managed or rather not managed at all. More than we the COVID-19 pandemic has overwhelmed societies and the economies of the world and should have helped us to strengthen the World Health Government especially the World Health Organization. Unfortunately as we will see during this crisis, the degradation of the international system paralyzes the necessary reforms so that we can find ourselves at any time in a comparable situation compared to that of 2019-2020 or even worse again. No sooner had the pandemic ended when Russia's invasion of Ukraine opened up a new chapter in the history of Europe and in the West's relations with the rest of the world. This period is all the more fraught with uncertainty given that the war is likely to drag on or freeze over in a Korean-style scenario with immense global consequences. Finally, the aggression of an innocent barbarity of Israel by Hamas has added an additional layer of uncertainty to all of this even more difficult to imagine. The surprise has been total for Israel and its allies and shows once again that we must never fully return to technology to ensure its security. Without talking about an additional category of uncertainty that is intrinsically linked to technological progress itself, as for artificial intelligence whose effects are largely unpredictable even in the mid-term. That, in a nutshell, is where we stand. There are very few places where personalities from the five continents in search of effective governance that will benefit international society as a whole can express themselves in confidence. The way forward must be inspired by deeper collective reflection on the idea of justice because I repeat a sense of injustice is the main fuel for hatred. A minimum of justice even more than material prosperity is necessary for peace. Many, may, may all of us, organizers and participants remain faithful to the spirit of the WPC and never forget that however modest our contribution to peace it is expected and therefore useful not to say I thank you. And now we will listen to a message of Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic who will be read by Lawrence Boone, Secretary of State in charge of European affairs. We are going to listen to a message of Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic and it will be read by Lawrence Boone who is Secretary of the European Affairs. Ladies and gentlemen, in your respect and quality. It is a joy for me to be able to convey some messages to the researchers and to the leaders of the whole world gathered in the framework of the World Policy Conference. This new edition is proof that despite the crises the international community continues to resonate and act together. So I really want to thank this conference and in particular its founder and president, Théorie de Montbriel. My message for the opening of this conference is very simple. We live a period of proliferation of crises. War comes back on the European soil it comes back to the Middle East the Sahel is more than ever threatened by terrorism and on the economic plan the shock of the pandemic has created the conditions of return in the history of globalization and yet we have other choices than to cooperate. Let's be clear, this imperative is not only a moral imperative but an existential imperative because who can still say that climate change is not a threat to our collective security? Who can still say at the age of the generative artificial intelligence that the emergence and dissemination of new technologies beyond the borders is not everyone's business? Who can believe that the extreme poverty and inequalities that are growing in the world will not create the conditions of tomorrow's conflicts? For all these reasons, the polarization of the world is not an option. But let's be clear, it is immobilism that makes the game of those who want to see the world fracturing. We must invent a new global governance because the world needs new ideas. International institutions must be reconsidered. The Security Council of the United Nations is powerful because it has not given a voice to those who could by their weight participate in the safeguard of collective security. The World Bank and the EFMI have not integrated in their right place the emerging economies. The relative weight of these institutions in the global economy declines and we lose in the capacity of collective action. A double-regime system is seeing the day, which even though we urgently need a new partnership between developed and emerging countries, and a massive financial shock for the energy transition. On the climate, we must rethink our methodology. The COP28, which will be the first global bill of the Paris Agreement First of all, we cannot think more than the public in development and the only budget for the action of climate action at the level of the developing countries. More countries have started to participate in the financing of this transition. The private sector must intervene because there are no billions we will need, but trillions. Then we will need our trajectory much more clear for the release of fossil energy. The DNU deli and I will say it again in Dubai, there are no credible scenarios where the Paris Agreement is compatible with the development of fossil energy started by the coal. Finally, we must invent a new software for the world economy. We hear a lot about de-risking. Take care of it again to choose the right method. De-risking of our economy is not the return of protectionism. De-risking is three things. First, it is the multiplication of partners rather than the generalization of the relocation which would be exorbitant. Then, it is the best sharing of the added value because if we want more reliable partners we have to share the technologies, the jobs and the wealth on the planet. Finally, de-risking is the tarification of coal because it is an economy that continues to sub-tariff what is the most and is an economy that puts its own foundations. On all these subjects, invented with CODAS, the solutions we urgently need, rethink the global governance with the same determination that many others have done before us after the Second World War. Finally, but at the heart of your own reflection, the imperative of solidarity without which it would not have a truly effective global governance. It is the sense of the pact of Paris for the people and the planet and the government. This pact rests on a clear principle and at the same time demanding that nothing should have to choose between the fight against poverty and the protection of the planet. We will meet for many of you first at the Paris Forum on Peace that France will welcome again this year on the 10th and 11th of November and on the 28th of Dubai. Until then, I wish you an excellent conference.