Category: Scandinavia

MIL-OSI Economics: Piero Cipollone: The quest for cheaper and faster cross-border payments: regional and global solutions

Source: European Central Bank

Speech by Piero Cipollone, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the BIS Annual General Meeting

Basel, 27 June 2025

Cross-border retail payments are the subject of increasing attention. This is for two main reasons.

First, they play a growing role in the world economy, as international transaction volumes have been increasing at a faster pace than GDP growth. However, despite some improvements in recent years, many payment corridors remain poorly served, which results in slow transaction times and high costs and ultimately hinders economic growth and social cohesion. Moreover, this inefficiency undermines the benefits of globalisation, as the economic gains from lower trade barriers are diverted into rents within cross-border payment markets, rather than benefiting the businesses and households that make use of them.

Second, new risks are emerging. Geopolitical tensions, for instance, could lead to further fragmentation of global payment systems. Moreover, the expansion of stablecoins could introduce several additional challenges, including currency substitution risks and over-reliance on a limited number of dominant private issuers.

This is not a situation we can accept passively. We need continuous efforts to enhance cross-border payments, in line with the G20 Roadmap.^[1] And central banks, given their role in ensuring the smooth functioning of payment systems, have a major role to play. Significant work has already been undertaken at international level, notably by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB).

Today, I would like to share our experience with cross-border payments from a regional perspective, emphasising how regional payment infrastructures can be part of the solution. I will then discuss our vision for advancing cross-border payments at the global level.

The case for enhancing cross-border retail payments

Let me begin by underscoring the costs and risks of inaction.

Over the past few decades, the world has witnessed a surge in cross-border payments, driven by the globalisation of trade, capital and migration flows. According to some estimates, the value of cross-border retail payments could grow from close to USD 200 trillion last year to USD 320 trillion by 2032.^[2]

Yet, the average cost of international retail payments remains high. For nearly one-quarter of global payment corridors, costs exceed 3%. And in too many cases, they are slow – one-third of retail cross-border payments took more than one business day to be settled in 2024.^[3]

Worryingly, there are signs that progress is stalling. The FSB’s 2024 progress report revealed no improvements in costs and noted a deterioration in both costs and speed compared with 2023.^[4]

Geopolitical tensions further compound these challenges, as they risk fragmenting global payment systems and undermining the rules-based international order. This could challenge established correspondent banking networks and lead to greater complexity, higher costs and, in a worst-case scenario, the splintering of the global payment system into multiple, non-communicating blocs.

This raises three pressing issues.

First, high costs and slow transaction times are hampering economic integration and growth, with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) bearing the brunt. For SMEs operating on tight margins, exorbitant fees discourage them from participating in cross-border trade.

Second, the world’s most vulnerable groups – such as migrant workers sending remittances home – shoulder a disproportionate share of these costs. In many regions, sending money internationally remains prohibitively expensive. For example, the average costs of remittances to sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia stand at 7.7% and 6.2% respectively.^[5] As it stands, the global Sustainable Development Goal target of lowering remittance costs to 3% remains a distant goal. The impact that reducing these fees would have on financial inclusion and well-being cannot be overstated.

Third, inefficiencies in cross-border payments have created a gap that alternative players, particularly in the crypto-asset space, are eager to fill. However, many of these solutions come with significant risks. Unbacked crypto-assets, for instance, are highly volatile and speculative in nature, creating risks for unsuspecting households and businesses and lending themselves to illicit activities.^[6]

Furthermore, stablecoins come with their own set of challenges, which the BIS described in detail in a special chapter of its Annual Economic Report published this week.^[7] Stablecoins carry credit risk, making them susceptible to runs, and pose fragmentation risks due to the multitude of stablecoins being issued. Some of these could end up trading at a discount, undermining the singleness of money.^[8] Moreover, because a small number of issuers currently dominate the market, this could also give rise to concentration risks. Lastly, a key concern is the prevalence of US dollar stablecoins, which currently account for 99% of the global stablecoin market.^[9] These stablecoins provide an easy way to store value in dollars, considerably increasing the risk of currency substitution in the form of “digital dollarisation”.^[10] This phenomenon could have destabilising effects, particularly on emerging markets and less developed economies by impairing the effectiveness of domestic monetary policy. It may also increase the risk of capital flight in response to adverse economic shocks.

Enhancing cross-border retail payments at the regional and global level

To address inefficiencies in cross-border payments, we must offer an alternative that connects various parts of the global payments system and delivers tangible benefits in terms of speed and cost. At the same time, this solution must respect the integrity, sovereignty and stability of all countries involved.

At the ECB, we are pursuing this on two levels – regional and global.

Regional cross-border payments: the European experience

At the regional level, Europe serves as a compelling example of what an interconnected payments landscape might look like.

Of course, this has been facilitated by the creation of a single European market and the establishment of a monetary union. One of the key reasons for creating the euro was to support trade and investment by facilitating cross-border transactions. And the launch of our single currency offered a first solution to pay throughout the euro area – in the form of euro cash.

The logical next step was to develop European instruments for electronic euro payments. The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) emerged from close cooperation between the public and private sector to harmonise electronic euro transactions. As a result, individuals and businesses can make payments across the euro area at very low costs using credit transfers or direct debit.

The success of SEPA led to its expansion beyond the euro area and even beyond the European Union. Today, customers in 41 European countries can make euro payments quickly, safely and efficiently via credit transfer and direct debit, just as they would for domestic transactions.

We have also developed the TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) service, which enables the settlement of instant payments across the euro area. Instant payments are further supported by a payment scheme – the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme – that provides harmonised rules, standards and protocols. Moreover, EU legislation has made it mandatory for banks to allow their customers to send and receive instant payment at low cost.

A key feature of TIPS is that it’s a multi-currency platform. Taking advantage of this, Sweden and Denmark are using TIPS to facilitate fast payments in their respective currencies.^[11] Norway will do the same as of 2028.^[12] Furthermore, we are implementing a cross-currency settlement service that will allow instant payments initiated in one TIPS currency to be settled in another. Initially, this service will support cross-currency payments between the euro area, Sweden and Denmark.^[13]

Within Europe, we are also supporting the Western Balkans in developing a regional fast payment system.^[14] As a service provider for TIPS, the Banca d’Italia is collaborating with the central banks of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro to develop an instant, multi-currency payment system based on TIPS software. North Macedonia may join the initiative at a later stage.^[15] The new platform will facilitate instant payments both within each participating country and across borders.

Going global: interlinking fast payment systems

This shows the potential for strengthening regional integration in payments. However, let me be clear: regional integration must not come at the expense of global connectivity. It should not be used as a means to sever ties with global payment networks.

Our approach is that regional and global integration can go hand in hand through the interlinking of fast payment systems across regions and countries. Today, over 100 jurisdictions worldwide have implemented their own fast payment systems.^[16] Interlinking these systems has the potential to address inefficiencies and build lasting connections that are rooted in trade openness and balanced relationships between partners.

This approach offers several advantages. It would reduce costs, increase the speed and transparency of cross-border payments and shorten transaction chains. It would also enable payment service providers to conduct transactions without having to use multiple payment systems or a long chain of correspondent banks. Moreover, it would ensure that the platform for connecting and converting currencies is managed as a public good, thus avoiding closed loops and discriminatory pricing. Accordingly, the G20 Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-border Payments has identified interlinking as a key strategy for enhancing cross-border payments.^[17] In this respect, the excellent work the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) is carrying out on payee verification could make a significant difference.

Last October, the ECB’s Governing Council decided to take concrete steps towards interlinking TIPS with other fast payment systems to improve cross-border payments globally.^[18]

We will implement a cross-currency settlement service for the exchange of cross-border payments between TIPS and other fast payment systems worldwide.^[19] This will allow us to explore interlinking TIPS with fast payment systems that have a compatible scheme, are interested in being involved and fully comply with the standards set by the Financial Action Task Force for combating money laundering and terrorist financing.

In addition, we are exploring the possibility of creating bilateral and multilateral links with other fast payment systems.

One possibility under consideration is connecting TIPS to a multilateral network of instant payment systems through Project Nexus, led by the BIS.^[20] By joining Nexus, TIPS could serve as a hub for processing instant cross-border payments to and from the euro area and other countries that use TIPS.^[21]

We are also currently assessing the feasibility of creating a bilateral link between TIPS and India’s Unified Payments Interface^[22], which handles the highest volume of instant payment transactions in the world^[23].

Interlinking fast payment systems has the potential to solve the shortcomings related to the messaging leg of cross-border transactions, by facilitating the message that the payer’s bank in country A sends to the payee’s bank in country B about the incoming transfer of funds. This would already go a long way towards improving the efficiency of cross-border payments.

However, what interlinking does not fully resolve is the settlement leg, through which money moves from the payer’s to the payee’s account. This still requires a bank that has access to both payment systems that are interlinked, or a credit relationship between a bank in country A and a bank in country B. This is particularly challenging, given the increasing retrenchment of the correspondent banking model.

In this context, we need to collectively exercise our creativity. I do not envisage a solution that could cover all possible corridors and use cases: there may be scope for tokenised forms of money, as well as a revival of the correspondent banking model, especially if we can reduce the associated risks.

In the realm of sovereign money, jurisdictions could agree to use their respective central bank digital currencies as settlement assets. In this respect, the current draft legislation on the digital euro provides for an approach that respects the sovereignty of non-euro area countries and mitigates potential risks for them. It does so by opening the possibility for residents of a partner country to use the digital euro, subject to an agreement with that country, complemented by an arrangement between the ECB and the respective central bank.^[24]

Appropriate safeguards – such as individual holding limits for users – would ensure that the digital euro is used primarily as a means of payment and does not fuel currency substitution. Furthermore, the digital euro’s design would include multi-currency functionality, similar to that of TIPS. In practice, this means that non-euro area countries could use the digital euro infrastructure to offer their own digital currencies, thereby facilitating transactions across these currencies.

Conclusion

Let me conclude.

We find ourselves at a pivotal moment for cross-border payments. If we want to make decisive progress and increase their efficiency, we need to work together to develop new solutions. We must, however, be aware of the risks that some of the alternatives on offer may pose.

I would like to thank the BIS – and in particular the CPMI – for the active role they play in this area, not least by bringing us all together today, with representatives from A (Angola) to Z (Zambia). Each of us brings different needs and circumstances to the table. This raises two fundamental questions. What do we have in common? And what principles can guide our collective efforts?

First, we must harness responsible innovation to solve persistent challenges while mitigating the risks I have noted today. Central banks – by ensuring the safety and integrity of payment systems – play an important role in this regard. And by interlinking fast payment systems and exploring the use of central bank digital currencies, we can address settlement inefficiencies while safeguarding monetary sovereignty and financial stability.

Second, regional solutions can serve as a foundation for global progress. I have argued that regional payment integration can be an important part of the solution – provided it remains open to, and actively facilitates, interlinking at a global level. We firmly believe that this open, multi-currency interlinking approach can lay the groundwork for cheaper, faster and more transparent cross-border payments – without compromising the integrity, stability or sovereignty of the countries involved. By designing payment systems that are open, interoperable and multi-currency ready, we can ensure that regional initiatives contribute to global integration rather than fragmentation.

Finally, collaboration is central to our collective success. Forums such as the CPMI community of practice, as well as today’s workshop, provide valuable opportunities for sharing knowledge and experiences. We will continue to find ways to work together to build resilient, inclusive and interconnected payment infrastructures that meet the needs of our people and economies. And we at the ECB remain committed to sharing our expertise and collaborating wherever we can add value.

Thank you for your attention.

MIL OSI Economics –

June 28, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: Piero Cipollone: The quest for cheaper and faster cross-border payments: regional and global solutions

Source: European Central Bank

Speech by Piero Cipollone, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the BIS Annual General Meeting

Basel, 27 June 2025

Cross-border retail payments are the subject of increasing attention. This is for two main reasons.

First, they play a growing role in the world economy, as international transaction volumes have been increasing at a faster pace than GDP growth. However, despite some improvements in recent years, many payment corridors remain poorly served, which results in slow transaction times and high costs and ultimately hinders economic growth and social cohesion. Moreover, this inefficiency undermines the benefits of globalisation, as the economic gains from lower trade barriers are diverted into rents within cross-border payment markets, rather than benefiting the businesses and households that make use of them.

Second, new risks are emerging. Geopolitical tensions, for instance, could lead to further fragmentation of global payment systems. Moreover, the expansion of stablecoins could introduce several additional challenges, including currency substitution risks and over-reliance on a limited number of dominant private issuers.

This is not a situation we can accept passively. We need continuous efforts to enhance cross-border payments, in line with the G20 Roadmap.^[1] And central banks, given their role in ensuring the smooth functioning of payment systems, have a major role to play. Significant work has already been undertaken at international level, notably by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB).

Today, I would like to share our experience with cross-border payments from a regional perspective, emphasising how regional payment infrastructures can be part of the solution. I will then discuss our vision for advancing cross-border payments at the global level.

The case for enhancing cross-border retail payments

Let me begin by underscoring the costs and risks of inaction.

Over the past few decades, the world has witnessed a surge in cross-border payments, driven by the globalisation of trade, capital and migration flows. According to some estimates, the value of cross-border retail payments could grow from close to USD 200 trillion last year to USD 320 trillion by 2032.^[2]

Yet, the average cost of international retail payments remains high. For nearly one-quarter of global payment corridors, costs exceed 3%. And in too many cases, they are slow – one-third of retail cross-border payments took more than one business day to be settled in 2024.^[3]

Worryingly, there are signs that progress is stalling. The FSB’s 2024 progress report revealed no improvements in costs and noted a deterioration in both costs and speed compared with 2023.^[4]

Geopolitical tensions further compound these challenges, as they risk fragmenting global payment systems and undermining the rules-based international order. This could challenge established correspondent banking networks and lead to greater complexity, higher costs and, in a worst-case scenario, the splintering of the global payment system into multiple, non-communicating blocs.

This raises three pressing issues.

First, high costs and slow transaction times are hampering economic integration and growth, with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) bearing the brunt. For SMEs operating on tight margins, exorbitant fees discourage them from participating in cross-border trade.

Second, the world’s most vulnerable groups – such as migrant workers sending remittances home – shoulder a disproportionate share of these costs. In many regions, sending money internationally remains prohibitively expensive. For example, the average costs of remittances to sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia stand at 7.7% and 6.2% respectively.^[5] As it stands, the global Sustainable Development Goal target of lowering remittance costs to 3% remains a distant goal. The impact that reducing these fees would have on financial inclusion and well-being cannot be overstated.

Third, inefficiencies in cross-border payments have created a gap that alternative players, particularly in the crypto-asset space, are eager to fill. However, many of these solutions come with significant risks. Unbacked crypto-assets, for instance, are highly volatile and speculative in nature, creating risks for unsuspecting households and businesses and lending themselves to illicit activities.^[6]

Furthermore, stablecoins come with their own set of challenges, which the BIS described in detail in a special chapter of its Annual Economic Report published this week.^[7] Stablecoins carry credit risk, making them susceptible to runs, and pose fragmentation risks due to the multitude of stablecoins being issued. Some of these could end up trading at a discount, undermining the singleness of money.^[8] Moreover, because a small number of issuers currently dominate the market, this could also give rise to concentration risks. Lastly, a key concern is the prevalence of US dollar stablecoins, which currently account for 99% of the global stablecoin market.^[9] These stablecoins provide an easy way to store value in dollars, considerably increasing the risk of currency substitution in the form of “digital dollarisation”.^[10] This phenomenon could have destabilising effects, particularly on emerging markets and less developed economies by impairing the effectiveness of domestic monetary policy. It may also increase the risk of capital flight in response to adverse economic shocks.

Enhancing cross-border retail payments at the regional and global level

To address inefficiencies in cross-border payments, we must offer an alternative that connects various parts of the global payments system and delivers tangible benefits in terms of speed and cost. At the same time, this solution must respect the integrity, sovereignty and stability of all countries involved.

At the ECB, we are pursuing this on two levels – regional and global.

Regional cross-border payments: the European experience

At the regional level, Europe serves as a compelling example of what an interconnected payments landscape might look like.

Of course, this has been facilitated by the creation of a single European market and the establishment of a monetary union. One of the key reasons for creating the euro was to support trade and investment by facilitating cross-border transactions. And the launch of our single currency offered a first solution to pay throughout the euro area – in the form of euro cash.

The logical next step was to develop European instruments for electronic euro payments. The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) emerged from close cooperation between the public and private sector to harmonise electronic euro transactions. As a result, individuals and businesses can make payments across the euro area at very low costs using credit transfers or direct debit.

The success of SEPA led to its expansion beyond the euro area and even beyond the European Union. Today, customers in 41 European countries can make euro payments quickly, safely and efficiently via credit transfer and direct debit, just as they would for domestic transactions.

We have also developed the TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) service, which enables the settlement of instant payments across the euro area. Instant payments are further supported by a payment scheme – the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme – that provides harmonised rules, standards and protocols. Moreover, EU legislation has made it mandatory for banks to allow their customers to send and receive instant payment at low cost.

A key feature of TIPS is that it’s a multi-currency platform. Taking advantage of this, Sweden and Denmark are using TIPS to facilitate fast payments in their respective currencies.^[11] Norway will do the same as of 2028.^[12] Furthermore, we are implementing a cross-currency settlement service that will allow instant payments initiated in one TIPS currency to be settled in another. Initially, this service will support cross-currency payments between the euro area, Sweden and Denmark.^[13]

Within Europe, we are also supporting the Western Balkans in developing a regional fast payment system.^[14] As a service provider for TIPS, the Banca d’Italia is collaborating with the central banks of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro to develop an instant, multi-currency payment system based on TIPS software. North Macedonia may join the initiative at a later stage.^[15] The new platform will facilitate instant payments both within each participating country and across borders.

Going global: interlinking fast payment systems

This shows the potential for strengthening regional integration in payments. However, let me be clear: regional integration must not come at the expense of global connectivity. It should not be used as a means to sever ties with global payment networks.

Our approach is that regional and global integration can go hand in hand through the interlinking of fast payment systems across regions and countries. Today, over 100 jurisdictions worldwide have implemented their own fast payment systems.^[16] Interlinking these systems has the potential to address inefficiencies and build lasting connections that are rooted in trade openness and balanced relationships between partners.

This approach offers several advantages. It would reduce costs, increase the speed and transparency of cross-border payments and shorten transaction chains. It would also enable payment service providers to conduct transactions without having to use multiple payment systems or a long chain of correspondent banks. Moreover, it would ensure that the platform for connecting and converting currencies is managed as a public good, thus avoiding closed loops and discriminatory pricing. Accordingly, the G20 Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-border Payments has identified interlinking as a key strategy for enhancing cross-border payments.^[17] In this respect, the excellent work the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) is carrying out on payee verification could make a significant difference.

Last October, the ECB’s Governing Council decided to take concrete steps towards interlinking TIPS with other fast payment systems to improve cross-border payments globally.^[18]

We will implement a cross-currency settlement service for the exchange of cross-border payments between TIPS and other fast payment systems worldwide.^[19] This will allow us to explore interlinking TIPS with fast payment systems that have a compatible scheme, are interested in being involved and fully comply with the standards set by the Financial Action Task Force for combating money laundering and terrorist financing.

In addition, we are exploring the possibility of creating bilateral and multilateral links with other fast payment systems.

One possibility under consideration is connecting TIPS to a multilateral network of instant payment systems through Project Nexus, led by the BIS.^[20] By joining Nexus, TIPS could serve as a hub for processing instant cross-border payments to and from the euro area and other countries that use TIPS.^[21]

We are also currently assessing the feasibility of creating a bilateral link between TIPS and India’s Unified Payments Interface^[22], which handles the highest volume of instant payment transactions in the world^[23].

Interlinking fast payment systems has the potential to solve the shortcomings related to the messaging leg of cross-border transactions, by facilitating the message that the payer’s bank in country A sends to the payee’s bank in country B about the incoming transfer of funds. This would already go a long way towards improving the efficiency of cross-border payments.

However, what interlinking does not fully resolve is the settlement leg, through which money moves from the payer’s to the payee’s account. This still requires a bank that has access to both payment systems that are interlinked, or a credit relationship between a bank in country A and a bank in country B. This is particularly challenging, given the increasing retrenchment of the correspondent banking model.

In this context, we need to collectively exercise our creativity. I do not envisage a solution that could cover all possible corridors and use cases: there may be scope for tokenised forms of money, as well as a revival of the correspondent banking model, especially if we can reduce the associated risks.

In the realm of sovereign money, jurisdictions could agree to use their respective central bank digital currencies as settlement assets. In this respect, the current draft legislation on the digital euro provides for an approach that respects the sovereignty of non-euro area countries and mitigates potential risks for them. It does so by opening the possibility for residents of a partner country to use the digital euro, subject to an agreement with that country, complemented by an arrangement between the ECB and the respective central bank.^[24]

Appropriate safeguards – such as individual holding limits for users – would ensure that the digital euro is used primarily as a means of payment and does not fuel currency substitution. Furthermore, the digital euro’s design would include multi-currency functionality, similar to that of TIPS. In practice, this means that non-euro area countries could use the digital euro infrastructure to offer their own digital currencies, thereby facilitating transactions across these currencies.

Conclusion

Let me conclude.

We find ourselves at a pivotal moment for cross-border payments. If we want to make decisive progress and increase their efficiency, we need to work together to develop new solutions. We must, however, be aware of the risks that some of the alternatives on offer may pose.

I would like to thank the BIS – and in particular the CPMI – for the active role they play in this area, not least by bringing us all together today, with representatives from A (Angola) to Z (Zambia). Each of us brings different needs and circumstances to the table. This raises two fundamental questions. What do we have in common? And what principles can guide our collective efforts?

First, we must harness responsible innovation to solve persistent challenges while mitigating the risks I have noted today. Central banks – by ensuring the safety and integrity of payment systems – play an important role in this regard. And by interlinking fast payment systems and exploring the use of central bank digital currencies, we can address settlement inefficiencies while safeguarding monetary sovereignty and financial stability.

Second, regional solutions can serve as a foundation for global progress. I have argued that regional payment integration can be an important part of the solution – provided it remains open to, and actively facilitates, interlinking at a global level. We firmly believe that this open, multi-currency interlinking approach can lay the groundwork for cheaper, faster and more transparent cross-border payments – without compromising the integrity, stability or sovereignty of the countries involved. By designing payment systems that are open, interoperable and multi-currency ready, we can ensure that regional initiatives contribute to global integration rather than fragmentation.

Finally, collaboration is central to our collective success. Forums such as the CPMI community of practice, as well as today’s workshop, provide valuable opportunities for sharing knowledge and experiences. We will continue to find ways to work together to build resilient, inclusive and interconnected payment infrastructures that meet the needs of our people and economies. And we at the ECB remain committed to sharing our expertise and collaborating wherever we can add value.

Thank you for your attention.

MIL OSI Economics –

June 28, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: Piero Cipollone: The quest for cheaper and faster cross-border payments: regional and global solutions

Source: European Central Bank

Speech by Piero Cipollone, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the BIS Annual General Meeting

Basel, 27 June 2025

Cross-border retail payments are the subject of increasing attention. This is for two main reasons.

First, they play a growing role in the world economy, as international transaction volumes have been increasing at a faster pace than GDP growth. However, despite some improvements in recent years, many payment corridors remain poorly served, which results in slow transaction times and high costs and ultimately hinders economic growth and social cohesion. Moreover, this inefficiency undermines the benefits of globalisation, as the economic gains from lower trade barriers are diverted into rents within cross-border payment markets, rather than benefiting the businesses and households that make use of them.

Second, new risks are emerging. Geopolitical tensions, for instance, could lead to further fragmentation of global payment systems. Moreover, the expansion of stablecoins could introduce several additional challenges, including currency substitution risks and over-reliance on a limited number of dominant private issuers.

This is not a situation we can accept passively. We need continuous efforts to enhance cross-border payments, in line with the G20 Roadmap.^[1] And central banks, given their role in ensuring the smooth functioning of payment systems, have a major role to play. Significant work has already been undertaken at international level, notably by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB).

Today, I would like to share our experience with cross-border payments from a regional perspective, emphasising how regional payment infrastructures can be part of the solution. I will then discuss our vision for advancing cross-border payments at the global level.

The case for enhancing cross-border retail payments

Let me begin by underscoring the costs and risks of inaction.

Over the past few decades, the world has witnessed a surge in cross-border payments, driven by the globalisation of trade, capital and migration flows. According to some estimates, the value of cross-border retail payments could grow from close to USD 200 trillion last year to USD 320 trillion by 2032.^[2]

Yet, the average cost of international retail payments remains high. For nearly one-quarter of global payment corridors, costs exceed 3%. And in too many cases, they are slow – one-third of retail cross-border payments took more than one business day to be settled in 2024.^[3]

Worryingly, there are signs that progress is stalling. The FSB’s 2024 progress report revealed no improvements in costs and noted a deterioration in both costs and speed compared with 2023.^[4]

Geopolitical tensions further compound these challenges, as they risk fragmenting global payment systems and undermining the rules-based international order. This could challenge established correspondent banking networks and lead to greater complexity, higher costs and, in a worst-case scenario, the splintering of the global payment system into multiple, non-communicating blocs.

This raises three pressing issues.

First, high costs and slow transaction times are hampering economic integration and growth, with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) bearing the brunt. For SMEs operating on tight margins, exorbitant fees discourage them from participating in cross-border trade.

Second, the world’s most vulnerable groups – such as migrant workers sending remittances home – shoulder a disproportionate share of these costs. In many regions, sending money internationally remains prohibitively expensive. For example, the average costs of remittances to sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia stand at 7.7% and 6.2% respectively.^[5] As it stands, the global Sustainable Development Goal target of lowering remittance costs to 3% remains a distant goal. The impact that reducing these fees would have on financial inclusion and well-being cannot be overstated.

Third, inefficiencies in cross-border payments have created a gap that alternative players, particularly in the crypto-asset space, are eager to fill. However, many of these solutions come with significant risks. Unbacked crypto-assets, for instance, are highly volatile and speculative in nature, creating risks for unsuspecting households and businesses and lending themselves to illicit activities.^[6]

Furthermore, stablecoins come with their own set of challenges, which the BIS described in detail in a special chapter of its Annual Economic Report published this week.^[7] Stablecoins carry credit risk, making them susceptible to runs, and pose fragmentation risks due to the multitude of stablecoins being issued. Some of these could end up trading at a discount, undermining the singleness of money.^[8] Moreover, because a small number of issuers currently dominate the market, this could also give rise to concentration risks. Lastly, a key concern is the prevalence of US dollar stablecoins, which currently account for 99% of the global stablecoin market.^[9] These stablecoins provide an easy way to store value in dollars, considerably increasing the risk of currency substitution in the form of “digital dollarisation”.^[10] This phenomenon could have destabilising effects, particularly on emerging markets and less developed economies by impairing the effectiveness of domestic monetary policy. It may also increase the risk of capital flight in response to adverse economic shocks.

Enhancing cross-border retail payments at the regional and global level

To address inefficiencies in cross-border payments, we must offer an alternative that connects various parts of the global payments system and delivers tangible benefits in terms of speed and cost. At the same time, this solution must respect the integrity, sovereignty and stability of all countries involved.

At the ECB, we are pursuing this on two levels – regional and global.

Regional cross-border payments: the European experience

At the regional level, Europe serves as a compelling example of what an interconnected payments landscape might look like.

Of course, this has been facilitated by the creation of a single European market and the establishment of a monetary union. One of the key reasons for creating the euro was to support trade and investment by facilitating cross-border transactions. And the launch of our single currency offered a first solution to pay throughout the euro area – in the form of euro cash.

The logical next step was to develop European instruments for electronic euro payments. The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) emerged from close cooperation between the public and private sector to harmonise electronic euro transactions. As a result, individuals and businesses can make payments across the euro area at very low costs using credit transfers or direct debit.

The success of SEPA led to its expansion beyond the euro area and even beyond the European Union. Today, customers in 41 European countries can make euro payments quickly, safely and efficiently via credit transfer and direct debit, just as they would for domestic transactions.

We have also developed the TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) service, which enables the settlement of instant payments across the euro area. Instant payments are further supported by a payment scheme – the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme – that provides harmonised rules, standards and protocols. Moreover, EU legislation has made it mandatory for banks to allow their customers to send and receive instant payment at low cost.

A key feature of TIPS is that it’s a multi-currency platform. Taking advantage of this, Sweden and Denmark are using TIPS to facilitate fast payments in their respective currencies.^[11] Norway will do the same as of 2028.^[12] Furthermore, we are implementing a cross-currency settlement service that will allow instant payments initiated in one TIPS currency to be settled in another. Initially, this service will support cross-currency payments between the euro area, Sweden and Denmark.^[13]

Within Europe, we are also supporting the Western Balkans in developing a regional fast payment system.^[14] As a service provider for TIPS, the Banca d’Italia is collaborating with the central banks of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro to develop an instant, multi-currency payment system based on TIPS software. North Macedonia may join the initiative at a later stage.^[15] The new platform will facilitate instant payments both within each participating country and across borders.

Going global: interlinking fast payment systems

This shows the potential for strengthening regional integration in payments. However, let me be clear: regional integration must not come at the expense of global connectivity. It should not be used as a means to sever ties with global payment networks.

Our approach is that regional and global integration can go hand in hand through the interlinking of fast payment systems across regions and countries. Today, over 100 jurisdictions worldwide have implemented their own fast payment systems.^[16] Interlinking these systems has the potential to address inefficiencies and build lasting connections that are rooted in trade openness and balanced relationships between partners.

This approach offers several advantages. It would reduce costs, increase the speed and transparency of cross-border payments and shorten transaction chains. It would also enable payment service providers to conduct transactions without having to use multiple payment systems or a long chain of correspondent banks. Moreover, it would ensure that the platform for connecting and converting currencies is managed as a public good, thus avoiding closed loops and discriminatory pricing. Accordingly, the G20 Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-border Payments has identified interlinking as a key strategy for enhancing cross-border payments.^[17] In this respect, the excellent work the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) is carrying out on payee verification could make a significant difference.

Last October, the ECB’s Governing Council decided to take concrete steps towards interlinking TIPS with other fast payment systems to improve cross-border payments globally.^[18]

We will implement a cross-currency settlement service for the exchange of cross-border payments between TIPS and other fast payment systems worldwide.^[19] This will allow us to explore interlinking TIPS with fast payment systems that have a compatible scheme, are interested in being involved and fully comply with the standards set by the Financial Action Task Force for combating money laundering and terrorist financing.

In addition, we are exploring the possibility of creating bilateral and multilateral links with other fast payment systems.

One possibility under consideration is connecting TIPS to a multilateral network of instant payment systems through Project Nexus, led by the BIS.^[20] By joining Nexus, TIPS could serve as a hub for processing instant cross-border payments to and from the euro area and other countries that use TIPS.^[21]

We are also currently assessing the feasibility of creating a bilateral link between TIPS and India’s Unified Payments Interface^[22], which handles the highest volume of instant payment transactions in the world^[23].

Interlinking fast payment systems has the potential to solve the shortcomings related to the messaging leg of cross-border transactions, by facilitating the message that the payer’s bank in country A sends to the payee’s bank in country B about the incoming transfer of funds. This would already go a long way towards improving the efficiency of cross-border payments.

However, what interlinking does not fully resolve is the settlement leg, through which money moves from the payer’s to the payee’s account. This still requires a bank that has access to both payment systems that are interlinked, or a credit relationship between a bank in country A and a bank in country B. This is particularly challenging, given the increasing retrenchment of the correspondent banking model.

In this context, we need to collectively exercise our creativity. I do not envisage a solution that could cover all possible corridors and use cases: there may be scope for tokenised forms of money, as well as a revival of the correspondent banking model, especially if we can reduce the associated risks.

In the realm of sovereign money, jurisdictions could agree to use their respective central bank digital currencies as settlement assets. In this respect, the current draft legislation on the digital euro provides for an approach that respects the sovereignty of non-euro area countries and mitigates potential risks for them. It does so by opening the possibility for residents of a partner country to use the digital euro, subject to an agreement with that country, complemented by an arrangement between the ECB and the respective central bank.^[24]

Appropriate safeguards – such as individual holding limits for users – would ensure that the digital euro is used primarily as a means of payment and does not fuel currency substitution. Furthermore, the digital euro’s design would include multi-currency functionality, similar to that of TIPS. In practice, this means that non-euro area countries could use the digital euro infrastructure to offer their own digital currencies, thereby facilitating transactions across these currencies.

Conclusion

Let me conclude.

We find ourselves at a pivotal moment for cross-border payments. If we want to make decisive progress and increase their efficiency, we need to work together to develop new solutions. We must, however, be aware of the risks that some of the alternatives on offer may pose.

I would like to thank the BIS – and in particular the CPMI – for the active role they play in this area, not least by bringing us all together today, with representatives from A (Angola) to Z (Zambia). Each of us brings different needs and circumstances to the table. This raises two fundamental questions. What do we have in common? And what principles can guide our collective efforts?

First, we must harness responsible innovation to solve persistent challenges while mitigating the risks I have noted today. Central banks – by ensuring the safety and integrity of payment systems – play an important role in this regard. And by interlinking fast payment systems and exploring the use of central bank digital currencies, we can address settlement inefficiencies while safeguarding monetary sovereignty and financial stability.

Second, regional solutions can serve as a foundation for global progress. I have argued that regional payment integration can be an important part of the solution – provided it remains open to, and actively facilitates, interlinking at a global level. We firmly believe that this open, multi-currency interlinking approach can lay the groundwork for cheaper, faster and more transparent cross-border payments – without compromising the integrity, stability or sovereignty of the countries involved. By designing payment systems that are open, interoperable and multi-currency ready, we can ensure that regional initiatives contribute to global integration rather than fragmentation.

Finally, collaboration is central to our collective success. Forums such as the CPMI community of practice, as well as today’s workshop, provide valuable opportunities for sharing knowledge and experiences. We will continue to find ways to work together to build resilient, inclusive and interconnected payment infrastructures that meet the needs of our people and economies. And we at the ECB remain committed to sharing our expertise and collaborating wherever we can add value.

Thank you for your attention.

MIL OSI Economics –

June 28, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: Meeting of States Parties to United Nations Convention on Law of Sea Held at Headquarters, 23-26 June

Source: United Nations General Assembly and Security Council

NEW YORK, 27 June (Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea) — The thirty-fifth Meeting of States Parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was held at Headquarters from 23 to 26 June. The background press release can be found at: https://press.un.org/en/2025/sea2232.doc.htm and https://press.un.org/en/2024/sea2195.doc.htm.

The Meeting elected Nguyen Minh Vu (Viet Nam) as President, by acclamation. Milan Jaya Nyamrajsingh Meetarbhan (Mauritius), David Antonio Giret Soto (Paraguay), Laura McIlhenny (Australia) and Mykola Prytula (Ukraine) were elected as Vice-Presidents, also by acclamation.

The Meeting took note of the annual report of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea for 2024, as well as the information reported by the Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority and the Chairperson of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, on the activities of these bodies since the thirty-fourth Meeting of States Parties held in 2024.

In his capacity as Co-Coordinator of the Open-Ended Working Group on the Conditions of Service of Members of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, John Pangipita (United Republic of Tanzania) delivered a report on its work since the thirty-fourth Meeting. Following the resignation of Sidney Kemble (Netherlands), the Meeting decided to defer the consideration of the appointment of a Co-Coordinator of the Open-Ended Working Group from developed States until the thirty-sixth Meeting of States Parties and that the Working Group would continue to function for the time being under the coordination of Mr. Pangipita.

The Meeting conducted a by-election for vacancies in the Commission allocated to members of the Commission from the Group of Eastern European States and the Group of Western European and Other States, electing Stig-Morten Knutsen (Norway) for a term of office commencing on the date of the election and ending on 15 June 2028.

In the absence of other nominations, the Meeting decided in respect of the vacant seat allocated to members of the Commission from the Group of Eastern European States, which had remained unfilled since 2015, that the Secretary-General would circulate a call for nominations with a view to conducting elections at the thirty-sixth Meeting of States Parties in 2026, if the President received information about potential candidates no later than 1 March 2026. If a candidate had not been identified by that date, the Group should transmit, by the same date, a proposal on how to address the ongoing vacancy.

In its consideration of administrative and budgetary matters of the Tribunal, the Meeting took note of the report on budgetary matters for the financial periods 2023 and 2024 and the report of the external auditor for the financial period 2024. The Meeting also decided to extend Indonesia and Canada as member and alternate member, respectively, of the staff pension committee of the Tribunal for a three-year term of office starting on 1 January 2026.

Under article 319 of the Convention, the Meeting considered the reports of the Secretary-General for the information of States Parties on issues of a general nature, relevant to States Parties, which had arisen with respect to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (see A/79/340 and A/80/70). In their interventions, delegations addressed a wide range of matters of relevance to oceans and the law of the sea.

A more detailed account of the proceedings of the thirty-fifth Meeting of States Parties will be included in the report of the Meeting, to be issued in due course as document SPLOS/35/11.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which was adopted on 10 December 1982, entered into force on 16 November 1994. It sets out the legal framework within which all activities in the oceans and seas must be carried out and is of strategic importance as the basis for national, regional and global action and cooperation in the marine sector.

For further information on the Meeting, including its documents, please see the website of the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs, https://www.un.org/Depts/los/meeting_states_parties/meeting_states_parties.htm.

MIL OSI United Nations News –

June 28, 2025
MIL-OSI Canada: Defence Minister McGuinty concludes productive visit to Europe

Source: Government of Canada News (2)

June 27, 2025 – Riga, Latvia – National Defence / Canadian Armed Forces

Yesterday, the Honourable David J. McGuinty, Minister of National Defence, concluded a successful visit to Latvia, where he met with Latvian Minister of Defence Andris Sprūds, participated in a flower laying ceremony, and attended the first Transfer of Command Authority ceremony of the Canada-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Multinational Brigade in Latvia (MNB-LVA) since its establishment last year.

During his meeting in Riga, Minister McGuinty reaffirmed Canada’s unwavering commitment to NATO’s deterrence and defence posture through the MNB-LVA. The Ministers discussed concrete opportunities to deepen defence cooperation following Canada’s June 9 defence investment announcement and underscored the importance of closer collaboration through initiatives such as Readiness 2030 (formerly ReArm Europe).

Minister McGuinty also attended the MNB-LVA Transfer of Command Authority ceremony at Ādaži Military Base, which saw Colonel Kris Reeves assume command of the 14-nation Brigade from Colonel Cédric Aspirault. The Minister was joined by Minister Sprūds, Lieutenant-General Steve Boivin, Commander of the Canadian Joint Operations Command, and Major General Jette Albinus, Commander of Multinational Division North, among other distinguished guests. Minister McGuinty also took the opportunity to thank Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members deployed in Latvia for their dedication and service.

This historic transition marks a milestone in Canada’s contribution to NATO’s largest reinforcement to collective defence in a generation. Canada’s contributions to the Brigade support Operation REASSURANCE, the CAF’s largest overseas mission, which plays a critical role in NATO’s deterrence and defence posture in Central and Eastern Europe.

Prior to his visit to Latvia, Minister McGuinty joined Prime Minister Mark Carney and Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand at the Canada-European Union (EU) and NATO Summits, where they reaffirmed Canada’s commitment to European defence and reinforced Canada’s support for Ukraine.

At the Canada-EU Summit, Ministers McGuinty and Anand signed the Canada-EU Security and Defence Partnership (SDP), strengthening Canada-EU ties and enhancing security cooperation. The SDP provides a framework for dialogue and co-operation in security and defence priorities. For Canada and the EU Member States who are also NATO Allies, this will help deliver on capability targets more quickly and economically. This new partnership is the first step toward Canada’s participation in Security Action for Europe (SAFE), an instrument under Readiness 2030, which will create significant defence procurement and industrial opportunities for Canada.

On the margins of the Canada-EU Summit, Minister McGuinty met with Belgian Minister of Defence Theo Franken as well as High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Kaja Kallas. Together, they highlighted the importance of transatlantic security and welcomed the signature of the Canada-EU SDP.

At the NATO Leaders’ Summit on June 24–25, in The Hague, Prime Minister Carney and Minister McGuinty reaffirmed Canada’s strong commitment to NATO and Euro-Atlantic security. Alongside their counterparts, they endorsed a new Defence Investment Pledge—outlined in the Leaders’ Declaration—committing Allies to invest five percent of GDP in defence by 2035, including at least 3.5 percent for core military spending and 1.5% for defence-related expenditures.

Minister McGuinty also held several bilateral meetings with key Allies to advance defence cooperation. On June 24, he signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) for Canada to join a NATO project regarding cooperation on establishing a multinational capacity for stockpiling of defence critical raw materials. This project will help showcase Canada’s advantage in critical minerals, while supporting Canadian defence industries and improving supply chain security across the Alliance.

Minister McGuinty also joined Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, and Norwegian Defence Minister Tore O. Sandvik in signing a LOI welcoming Denmark to the Maritime Security Partnership (MSP). It was established between Canada, Germany, and Norway on the margins of last year’s NATO Summit in Washington, D.C. This expanded cooperation builds on the MSP’s core pillars—innovation, materiel cooperation, industry resilience, and joint training—and strengthens maritime security in the North Atlantic.

MIL OSI Canada News –

June 28, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: 27 June 2025 Departmental update Partners unite to launch WHO Disability Health Equity
Source: World Health Organisation

WHO has launched the WHO Disability Health Equity Initiative, a landmark global initiative to advance health equity for over 1.3 billion people with disabilities.

Unveiled on 10 June 2025, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York during the 18^th session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the initiative marks a bold step toward achieving health equity for all. The initiative aims to guide governments, health institutions, and communities in addressing barriers to care, promoting inclusive policies, and strengthening data and research on disability and health. Over 150 participants—government leaders, civil society, academia, and persons with disabilities—gathered in person, while many more joined online.

Darryl Barrett, WHO’s Technical Lead on Disability presented a bold vision for the initiative. He discussed persistent systemic failures – political inaction, underinvestment, fragmented collaboration, and the exclusion of organizations of persons with disabilities – as critical barriers to progress. “Health systems are not fit-for-purpose,” Barrett said. “If we agree on Health for All, then we must agree that services must be inclusive and accessible. Right now, we can’t say that with confidence.”

The Initiative is built around four strategic pillars:
1. Leadership by persons with disabilities and their organizations
2. Political prioritization of disability-inclusive health
3. Inclusive health systems and service delivery
4. Strengthening data and evidence
Barrett also outlined how this new initiative will facilitate strategic engagement with key partners to advance health equity for persons with disabilities, including through a multi-stakeholder network, partnerships with the private sector, technical guidance development, and support for country-level implementation. He emphasized that WHO’s work has been shaped by years of collaboration with diverse partners, including organizations of persons with disabilities. “We at WHO haven’t done this by ourselves,” Barrett noted. “The strong presence of partners – both in the room and online – reflects the shared commitment needed to drive meaningful, lasting change.”

David Duncan, Special Olympics athlete and Chair of the Global Athlete Leadership Council, delivered a powerful testimony about the discrimination people with intellectual and developmental conditions often face in health care. “Invisible, unknown, disrespected… but I know it’s possible to do better – and that’s something everyone deserves,” Duncan said.

Norway’s Minister of Culture and Equality, Lubna Jaffery, issued a powerful call to action, urging governments to close health access gaps and uphold the rights of persons with disabilities. Emphasizing access to health services, reproductive autonomy for women with disabilities, and expanded availability of assistive products, Jaffery affirmed Norway’s leadership in disability-inclusive development. “Inclusion is not just a policy, it is a principle and we are committed to making it a reality for all.”

Sweden’s Director-General of the Agency for Participation, Malin Ekman-Aldén, echoed this commitment, stressing that advancing health equity for persons with disabilities is a human rights imperative. She highlighted Sweden’s continued investments in inclusive development and welcomed the WHO initiative as a key driver of accountability, better data, and systemic change.

Dirk Platzen, Director at Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, underscored the need for political leadership in building inclusive health systems. Introducing Australia’s new International Disability Equity and Rights Strategy, he called for recognition of health as a fundamental human right, not a privilege.

Representing Germany, Michael Schloms of the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development emphasized international collaboration, sustainable financing, and shared responsibility. Reflecting on Germany’s experience hosting global disability events and co-leading the Global Disability Summit, he reaffirmed support for the initiative and the Amman-Berlin Declaration.

Speakers from civil society, funding agencies, and academia highlighted the importance of funding, civil society engagement, and academic research in sustaining momentum and ensuring accountability. Ola Abualghaib, Director of the Global Disability Fund, emphasized the Fund Strategy’s alignment with the new WHO initiative. Hannah Loryman, Co-Chair of the International Disability and Development Consortium UN Task Force, stressed the vital role of civil society in advocacy, technical input, and accountability. Bonnielin Swenor, Director of the Disability Health Research Center at Johns Hopkins University, highlighted academia’s responsibility to advance disability health equity through inclusive research, education, and community engagement. She called for a paradigm shift from “living with a disability” to “thriving with a disability,” driven by data and implementation science.

This initiative offers a pathway to making better choices – choices that ensure dignity, autonomy, and the right to health for all persons with disabilities.

Jarrod Clyne / Deputy Director of the International Disability Alliance

Audience members raised critical issues including the need for sustainable health system funding in humanitarian crises, the inclusion of Deaf people and persons with a psychosocial condition, the importance of training health professionals, digital health acccessibility, and support for independent living – highlighting the diverse and intersectional challenges that must be addressed to achieve true health equity for persons with disabilities.

Jarrod Clyne, Deputy Executive Director of the International Disability Alliance, closed the event by stressing the importance of persistence, partnership, and shared responsibility. “This initiative offers a pathway to making better choices – choices that ensure dignity, autonomy, and the right to health for all persons with disabilities,” he said.

MIL OSI United Nations News –
June 28, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: Piero Cipollone: The quest for cheaper and faster cross-border payments: regional and global solutions

Source: European Central Bank

Speech by Piero Cipollone, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the BIS Annual General Meeting

Basel, 27 June 2025

Cross-border retail payments are the subject of increasing attention. This is for two main reasons.

First, they play a growing role in the world economy, as international transaction volumes have been increasing at a faster pace than GDP growth. However, despite some improvements in recent years, many payment corridors remain poorly served, which results in slow transaction times and high costs and ultimately hinders economic growth and social cohesion. Moreover, this inefficiency undermines the benefits of globalisation, as the economic gains from lower trade barriers are diverted into rents within cross-border payment markets, rather than benefiting the businesses and households that make use of them.

Second, new risks are emerging. Geopolitical tensions, for instance, could lead to further fragmentation of global payment systems. Moreover, the expansion of stablecoins could introduce several additional challenges, including currency substitution risks and over-reliance on a limited number of dominant private issuers.

This is not a situation we can accept passively. We need continuous efforts to enhance cross-border payments, in line with the G20 Roadmap.^[1] And central banks, given their role in ensuring the smooth functioning of payment systems, have a major role to play. Significant work has already been undertaken at international level, notably by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB).

Today, I would like to share our experience with cross-border payments from a regional perspective, emphasising how regional payment infrastructures can be part of the solution. I will then discuss our vision for advancing cross-border payments at the global level.

The case for enhancing cross-border retail payments

Let me begin by underscoring the costs and risks of inaction.

Over the past few decades, the world has witnessed a surge in cross-border payments, driven by the globalisation of trade, capital and migration flows. According to some estimates, the value of cross-border retail payments could grow from close to USD 200 trillion last year to USD 320 trillion by 2032.^[2]

Yet, the average cost of international retail payments remains high. For nearly one-quarter of global payment corridors, costs exceed 3%. And in too many cases, they are slow – one-third of retail cross-border payments took more than one business day to be settled in 2024.^[3]

Worryingly, there are signs that progress is stalling. The FSB’s 2024 progress report revealed no improvements in costs and noted a deterioration in both costs and speed compared with 2023.^[4]

Geopolitical tensions further compound these challenges, as they risk fragmenting global payment systems and undermining the rules-based international order. This could challenge established correspondent banking networks and lead to greater complexity, higher costs and, in a worst-case scenario, the splintering of the global payment system into multiple, non-communicating blocs.

This raises three pressing issues.

First, high costs and slow transaction times are hampering economic integration and growth, with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) bearing the brunt. For SMEs operating on tight margins, exorbitant fees discourage them from participating in cross-border trade.

Second, the world’s most vulnerable groups – such as migrant workers sending remittances home – shoulder a disproportionate share of these costs. In many regions, sending money internationally remains prohibitively expensive. For example, the average costs of remittances to sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia stand at 7.7% and 6.2% respectively.^[5] As it stands, the global Sustainable Development Goal target of lowering remittance costs to 3% remains a distant goal. The impact that reducing these fees would have on financial inclusion and well-being cannot be overstated.

Third, inefficiencies in cross-border payments have created a gap that alternative players, particularly in the crypto-asset space, are eager to fill. However, many of these solutions come with significant risks. Unbacked crypto-assets, for instance, are highly volatile and speculative in nature, creating risks for unsuspecting households and businesses and lending themselves to illicit activities.^[6]

Furthermore, stablecoins come with their own set of challenges, which the BIS described in detail in a special chapter of its Annual Economic Report published this week.^[7] Stablecoins carry credit risk, making them susceptible to runs, and pose fragmentation risks due to the multitude of stablecoins being issued. Some of these could end up trading at a discount, undermining the singleness of money.^[8] Moreover, because a small number of issuers currently dominate the market, this could also give rise to concentration risks. Lastly, a key concern is the prevalence of US dollar stablecoins, which currently account for 99% of the global stablecoin market.^[9] These stablecoins provide an easy way to store value in dollars, considerably increasing the risk of currency substitution in the form of “digital dollarisation”.^[10] This phenomenon could have destabilising effects, particularly on emerging markets and less developed economies by impairing the effectiveness of domestic monetary policy. It may also increase the risk of capital flight in response to adverse economic shocks.

Enhancing cross-border retail payments at the regional and global level

To address inefficiencies in cross-border payments, we must offer an alternative that connects various parts of the global payments system and delivers tangible benefits in terms of speed and cost. At the same time, this solution must respect the integrity, sovereignty and stability of all countries involved.

At the ECB, we are pursuing this on two levels – regional and global.

Regional cross-border payments: the European experience

At the regional level, Europe serves as a compelling example of what an interconnected payments landscape might look like.

Of course, this has been facilitated by the creation of a single European market and the establishment of a monetary union. One of the key reasons for creating the euro was to support trade and investment by facilitating cross-border transactions. And the launch of our single currency offered a first solution to pay throughout the euro area – in the form of euro cash.

The logical next step was to develop European instruments for electronic euro payments. The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) emerged from close cooperation between the public and private sector to harmonise electronic euro transactions. As a result, individuals and businesses can make payments across the euro area at very low costs using credit transfers or direct debit.

The success of SEPA led to its expansion beyond the euro area and even beyond the European Union. Today, customers in 41 European countries can make euro payments quickly, safely and efficiently via credit transfer and direct debit, just as they would for domestic transactions.

We have also developed the TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) service, which enables the settlement of instant payments across the euro area. Instant payments are further supported by a payment scheme – the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme – that provides harmonised rules, standards and protocols. Moreover, EU legislation has made it mandatory for banks to allow their customers to send and receive instant payment at low cost.

A key feature of TIPS is that it’s a multi-currency platform. Taking advantage of this, Sweden and Denmark are using TIPS to facilitate fast payments in their respective currencies.^[11] Norway will do the same as of 2028.^[12] Furthermore, we are implementing a cross-currency settlement service that will allow instant payments initiated in one TIPS currency to be settled in another. Initially, this service will support cross-currency payments between the euro area, Sweden and Denmark.^[13]

Within Europe, we are also supporting the Western Balkans in developing a regional fast payment system.^[14] As a service provider for TIPS, the Banca d’Italia is collaborating with the central banks of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro to develop an instant, multi-currency payment system based on TIPS software. North Macedonia may join the initiative at a later stage.^[15] The new platform will facilitate instant payments both within each participating country and across borders.

Going global: interlinking fast payment systems

This shows the potential for strengthening regional integration in payments. However, let me be clear: regional integration must not come at the expense of global connectivity. It should not be used as a means to sever ties with global payment networks.

Our approach is that regional and global integration can go hand in hand through the interlinking of fast payment systems across regions and countries. Today, over 100 jurisdictions worldwide have implemented their own fast payment systems.^[16] Interlinking these systems has the potential to address inefficiencies and build lasting connections that are rooted in trade openness and balanced relationships between partners.

This approach offers several advantages. It would reduce costs, increase the speed and transparency of cross-border payments and shorten transaction chains. It would also enable payment service providers to conduct transactions without having to use multiple payment systems or a long chain of correspondent banks. Moreover, it would ensure that the platform for connecting and converting currencies is managed as a public good, thus avoiding closed loops and discriminatory pricing. Accordingly, the G20 Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-border Payments has identified interlinking as a key strategy for enhancing cross-border payments.^[17] In this respect, the excellent work the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) is carrying out on payee verification could make a significant difference.

Last October, the ECB’s Governing Council decided to take concrete steps towards interlinking TIPS with other fast payment systems to improve cross-border payments globally.^[18]

We will implement a cross-currency settlement service for the exchange of cross-border payments between TIPS and other fast payment systems worldwide.^[19] This will allow us to explore interlinking TIPS with fast payment systems that have a compatible scheme, are interested in being involved and fully comply with the standards set by the Financial Action Task Force for combating money laundering and terrorist financing.

In addition, we are exploring the possibility of creating bilateral and multilateral links with other fast payment systems.

One possibility under consideration is connecting TIPS to a multilateral network of instant payment systems through Project Nexus, led by the BIS.^[20] By joining Nexus, TIPS could serve as a hub for processing instant cross-border payments to and from the euro area and other countries that use TIPS.^[21]

We are also currently assessing the feasibility of creating a bilateral link between TIPS and India’s Unified Payments Interface^[22], which handles the highest volume of instant payment transactions in the world^[23].

Interlinking fast payment systems has the potential to solve the shortcomings related to the messaging leg of cross-border transactions, by facilitating the message that the payer’s bank in country A sends to the payee’s bank in country B about the incoming transfer of funds. This would already go a long way towards improving the efficiency of cross-border payments.

However, what interlinking does not fully resolve is the settlement leg, through which money moves from the payer’s to the payee’s account. This still requires a bank that has access to both payment systems that are interlinked, or a credit relationship between a bank in country A and a bank in country B. This is particularly challenging, given the increasing retrenchment of the correspondent banking model.

In this context, we need to collectively exercise our creativity. I do not envisage a solution that could cover all possible corridors and use cases: there may be scope for tokenised forms of money, as well as a revival of the correspondent banking model, especially if we can reduce the associated risks.

In the realm of sovereign money, jurisdictions could agree to use their respective central bank digital currencies as settlement assets. In this respect, the current draft legislation on the digital euro provides for an approach that respects the sovereignty of non-euro area countries and mitigates potential risks for them. It does so by opening the possibility for residents of a partner country to use the digital euro, subject to an agreement with that country, complemented by an arrangement between the ECB and the respective central bank.^[24]

Appropriate safeguards – such as individual holding limits for users – would ensure that the digital euro is used primarily as a means of payment and does not fuel currency substitution. Furthermore, the digital euro’s design would include multi-currency functionality, similar to that of TIPS. In practice, this means that non-euro area countries could use the digital euro infrastructure to offer their own digital currencies, thereby facilitating transactions across these currencies.

Conclusion

Let me conclude.

We find ourselves at a pivotal moment for cross-border payments. If we want to make decisive progress and increase their efficiency, we need to work together to develop new solutions. We must, however, be aware of the risks that some of the alternatives on offer may pose.

I would like to thank the BIS – and in particular the CPMI – for the active role they play in this area, not least by bringing us all together today, with representatives from A (Angola) to Z (Zambia). Each of us brings different needs and circumstances to the table. This raises two fundamental questions. What do we have in common? And what principles can guide our collective efforts?

First, we must harness responsible innovation to solve persistent challenges while mitigating the risks I have noted today. Central banks – by ensuring the safety and integrity of payment systems – play an important role in this regard. And by interlinking fast payment systems and exploring the use of central bank digital currencies, we can address settlement inefficiencies while safeguarding monetary sovereignty and financial stability.

Second, regional solutions can serve as a foundation for global progress. I have argued that regional payment integration can be an important part of the solution – provided it remains open to, and actively facilitates, interlinking at a global level. We firmly believe that this open, multi-currency interlinking approach can lay the groundwork for cheaper, faster and more transparent cross-border payments – without compromising the integrity, stability or sovereignty of the countries involved. By designing payment systems that are open, interoperable and multi-currency ready, we can ensure that regional initiatives contribute to global integration rather than fragmentation.

Finally, collaboration is central to our collective success. Forums such as the CPMI community of practice, as well as today’s workshop, provide valuable opportunities for sharing knowledge and experiences. We will continue to find ways to work together to build resilient, inclusive and interconnected payment infrastructures that meet the needs of our people and economies. And we at the ECB remain committed to sharing our expertise and collaborating wherever we can add value.

Thank you for your attention.

MIL OSI Europe News –

June 28, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: Piero Cipollone: The quest for cheaper and faster cross-border payments: regional and global solutions

Source: European Central Bank

Speech by Piero Cipollone, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the BIS Annual General Meeting

Basel, 27 June 2025

Cross-border retail payments are the subject of increasing attention. This is for two main reasons.

First, they play a growing role in the world economy, as international transaction volumes have been increasing at a faster pace than GDP growth. However, despite some improvements in recent years, many payment corridors remain poorly served, which results in slow transaction times and high costs and ultimately hinders economic growth and social cohesion. Moreover, this inefficiency undermines the benefits of globalisation, as the economic gains from lower trade barriers are diverted into rents within cross-border payment markets, rather than benefiting the businesses and households that make use of them.

Second, new risks are emerging. Geopolitical tensions, for instance, could lead to further fragmentation of global payment systems. Moreover, the expansion of stablecoins could introduce several additional challenges, including currency substitution risks and over-reliance on a limited number of dominant private issuers.

This is not a situation we can accept passively. We need continuous efforts to enhance cross-border payments, in line with the G20 Roadmap.^[1] And central banks, given their role in ensuring the smooth functioning of payment systems, have a major role to play. Significant work has already been undertaken at international level, notably by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB).

Today, I would like to share our experience with cross-border payments from a regional perspective, emphasising how regional payment infrastructures can be part of the solution. I will then discuss our vision for advancing cross-border payments at the global level.

The case for enhancing cross-border retail payments

Let me begin by underscoring the costs and risks of inaction.

Over the past few decades, the world has witnessed a surge in cross-border payments, driven by the globalisation of trade, capital and migration flows. According to some estimates, the value of cross-border retail payments could grow from close to USD 200 trillion last year to USD 320 trillion by 2032.^[2]

Yet, the average cost of international retail payments remains high. For nearly one-quarter of global payment corridors, costs exceed 3%. And in too many cases, they are slow – one-third of retail cross-border payments took more than one business day to be settled in 2024.^[3]

Worryingly, there are signs that progress is stalling. The FSB’s 2024 progress report revealed no improvements in costs and noted a deterioration in both costs and speed compared with 2023.^[4]

Geopolitical tensions further compound these challenges, as they risk fragmenting global payment systems and undermining the rules-based international order. This could challenge established correspondent banking networks and lead to greater complexity, higher costs and, in a worst-case scenario, the splintering of the global payment system into multiple, non-communicating blocs.

This raises three pressing issues.

First, high costs and slow transaction times are hampering economic integration and growth, with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) bearing the brunt. For SMEs operating on tight margins, exorbitant fees discourage them from participating in cross-border trade.

Second, the world’s most vulnerable groups – such as migrant workers sending remittances home – shoulder a disproportionate share of these costs. In many regions, sending money internationally remains prohibitively expensive. For example, the average costs of remittances to sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia stand at 7.7% and 6.2% respectively.^[5] As it stands, the global Sustainable Development Goal target of lowering remittance costs to 3% remains a distant goal. The impact that reducing these fees would have on financial inclusion and well-being cannot be overstated.

Third, inefficiencies in cross-border payments have created a gap that alternative players, particularly in the crypto-asset space, are eager to fill. However, many of these solutions come with significant risks. Unbacked crypto-assets, for instance, are highly volatile and speculative in nature, creating risks for unsuspecting households and businesses and lending themselves to illicit activities.^[6]

Furthermore, stablecoins come with their own set of challenges, which the BIS described in detail in a special chapter of its Annual Economic Report published this week.^[7] Stablecoins carry credit risk, making them susceptible to runs, and pose fragmentation risks due to the multitude of stablecoins being issued. Some of these could end up trading at a discount, undermining the singleness of money.^[8] Moreover, because a small number of issuers currently dominate the market, this could also give rise to concentration risks. Lastly, a key concern is the prevalence of US dollar stablecoins, which currently account for 99% of the global stablecoin market.^[9] These stablecoins provide an easy way to store value in dollars, considerably increasing the risk of currency substitution in the form of “digital dollarisation”.^[10] This phenomenon could have destabilising effects, particularly on emerging markets and less developed economies by impairing the effectiveness of domestic monetary policy. It may also increase the risk of capital flight in response to adverse economic shocks.

Enhancing cross-border retail payments at the regional and global level

To address inefficiencies in cross-border payments, we must offer an alternative that connects various parts of the global payments system and delivers tangible benefits in terms of speed and cost. At the same time, this solution must respect the integrity, sovereignty and stability of all countries involved.

At the ECB, we are pursuing this on two levels – regional and global.

Regional cross-border payments: the European experience

At the regional level, Europe serves as a compelling example of what an interconnected payments landscape might look like.

Of course, this has been facilitated by the creation of a single European market and the establishment of a monetary union. One of the key reasons for creating the euro was to support trade and investment by facilitating cross-border transactions. And the launch of our single currency offered a first solution to pay throughout the euro area – in the form of euro cash.

The logical next step was to develop European instruments for electronic euro payments. The Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) emerged from close cooperation between the public and private sector to harmonise electronic euro transactions. As a result, individuals and businesses can make payments across the euro area at very low costs using credit transfers or direct debit.

The success of SEPA led to its expansion beyond the euro area and even beyond the European Union. Today, customers in 41 European countries can make euro payments quickly, safely and efficiently via credit transfer and direct debit, just as they would for domestic transactions.

We have also developed the TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) service, which enables the settlement of instant payments across the euro area. Instant payments are further supported by a payment scheme – the SEPA Instant Credit Transfer scheme – that provides harmonised rules, standards and protocols. Moreover, EU legislation has made it mandatory for banks to allow their customers to send and receive instant payment at low cost.

A key feature of TIPS is that it’s a multi-currency platform. Taking advantage of this, Sweden and Denmark are using TIPS to facilitate fast payments in their respective currencies.^[11] Norway will do the same as of 2028.^[12] Furthermore, we are implementing a cross-currency settlement service that will allow instant payments initiated in one TIPS currency to be settled in another. Initially, this service will support cross-currency payments between the euro area, Sweden and Denmark.^[13]

Within Europe, we are also supporting the Western Balkans in developing a regional fast payment system.^[14] As a service provider for TIPS, the Banca d’Italia is collaborating with the central banks of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro to develop an instant, multi-currency payment system based on TIPS software. North Macedonia may join the initiative at a later stage.^[15] The new platform will facilitate instant payments both within each participating country and across borders.

Going global: interlinking fast payment systems

This shows the potential for strengthening regional integration in payments. However, let me be clear: regional integration must not come at the expense of global connectivity. It should not be used as a means to sever ties with global payment networks.

Our approach is that regional and global integration can go hand in hand through the interlinking of fast payment systems across regions and countries. Today, over 100 jurisdictions worldwide have implemented their own fast payment systems.^[16] Interlinking these systems has the potential to address inefficiencies and build lasting connections that are rooted in trade openness and balanced relationships between partners.

This approach offers several advantages. It would reduce costs, increase the speed and transparency of cross-border payments and shorten transaction chains. It would also enable payment service providers to conduct transactions without having to use multiple payment systems or a long chain of correspondent banks. Moreover, it would ensure that the platform for connecting and converting currencies is managed as a public good, thus avoiding closed loops and discriminatory pricing. Accordingly, the G20 Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-border Payments has identified interlinking as a key strategy for enhancing cross-border payments.^[17] In this respect, the excellent work the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) is carrying out on payee verification could make a significant difference.

Last October, the ECB’s Governing Council decided to take concrete steps towards interlinking TIPS with other fast payment systems to improve cross-border payments globally.^[18]

We will implement a cross-currency settlement service for the exchange of cross-border payments between TIPS and other fast payment systems worldwide.^[19] This will allow us to explore interlinking TIPS with fast payment systems that have a compatible scheme, are interested in being involved and fully comply with the standards set by the Financial Action Task Force for combating money laundering and terrorist financing.

In addition, we are exploring the possibility of creating bilateral and multilateral links with other fast payment systems.

One possibility under consideration is connecting TIPS to a multilateral network of instant payment systems through Project Nexus, led by the BIS.^[20] By joining Nexus, TIPS could serve as a hub for processing instant cross-border payments to and from the euro area and other countries that use TIPS.^[21]

We are also currently assessing the feasibility of creating a bilateral link between TIPS and India’s Unified Payments Interface^[22], which handles the highest volume of instant payment transactions in the world^[23].

Interlinking fast payment systems has the potential to solve the shortcomings related to the messaging leg of cross-border transactions, by facilitating the message that the payer’s bank in country A sends to the payee’s bank in country B about the incoming transfer of funds. This would already go a long way towards improving the efficiency of cross-border payments.

However, what interlinking does not fully resolve is the settlement leg, through which money moves from the payer’s to the payee’s account. This still requires a bank that has access to both payment systems that are interlinked, or a credit relationship between a bank in country A and a bank in country B. This is particularly challenging, given the increasing retrenchment of the correspondent banking model.

In this context, we need to collectively exercise our creativity. I do not envisage a solution that could cover all possible corridors and use cases: there may be scope for tokenised forms of money, as well as a revival of the correspondent banking model, especially if we can reduce the associated risks.

In the realm of sovereign money, jurisdictions could agree to use their respective central bank digital currencies as settlement assets. In this respect, the current draft legislation on the digital euro provides for an approach that respects the sovereignty of non-euro area countries and mitigates potential risks for them. It does so by opening the possibility for residents of a partner country to use the digital euro, subject to an agreement with that country, complemented by an arrangement between the ECB and the respective central bank.^[24]

Appropriate safeguards – such as individual holding limits for users – would ensure that the digital euro is used primarily as a means of payment and does not fuel currency substitution. Furthermore, the digital euro’s design would include multi-currency functionality, similar to that of TIPS. In practice, this means that non-euro area countries could use the digital euro infrastructure to offer their own digital currencies, thereby facilitating transactions across these currencies.

Conclusion

Let me conclude.

We find ourselves at a pivotal moment for cross-border payments. If we want to make decisive progress and increase their efficiency, we need to work together to develop new solutions. We must, however, be aware of the risks that some of the alternatives on offer may pose.

I would like to thank the BIS – and in particular the CPMI – for the active role they play in this area, not least by bringing us all together today, with representatives from A (Angola) to Z (Zambia). Each of us brings different needs and circumstances to the table. This raises two fundamental questions. What do we have in common? And what principles can guide our collective efforts?

First, we must harness responsible innovation to solve persistent challenges while mitigating the risks I have noted today. Central banks – by ensuring the safety and integrity of payment systems – play an important role in this regard. And by interlinking fast payment systems and exploring the use of central bank digital currencies, we can address settlement inefficiencies while safeguarding monetary sovereignty and financial stability.

Second, regional solutions can serve as a foundation for global progress. I have argued that regional payment integration can be an important part of the solution – provided it remains open to, and actively facilitates, interlinking at a global level. We firmly believe that this open, multi-currency interlinking approach can lay the groundwork for cheaper, faster and more transparent cross-border payments – without compromising the integrity, stability or sovereignty of the countries involved. By designing payment systems that are open, interoperable and multi-currency ready, we can ensure that regional initiatives contribute to global integration rather than fragmentation.

Finally, collaboration is central to our collective success. Forums such as the CPMI community of practice, as well as today’s workshop, provide valuable opportunities for sharing knowledge and experiences. We will continue to find ways to work together to build resilient, inclusive and interconnected payment infrastructures that meet the needs of our people and economies. And we at the ECB remain committed to sharing our expertise and collaborating wherever we can add value.

Thank you for your attention.

MIL OSI Europe News –

June 28, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: Central African Republic at ‘Delicate Juncture’ ahead of Election Cycle, Peacekeeping Chief Tells Security Council, Urging International Support to Strengthen Democracy

Source: United Nations General Assembly and Security Council

As it prepares to hold elections, the Central African Republic stands at a delicate juncture, and international support is key to consolidate its unique opportunity to strengthen democracy and national reconciliation, the Security Council heard today from the top UN peacekeeping official, as well as the country’s representative.

“This year is of particular significance for the Central African Republic as the country is preparing to organize local, presidential and legislative elections,” Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations said. He highlighted the efforts of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) to assist the Government’s electoral preparations.

Elections are a key component of the 2019 Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation, he pointed out. However — and despite significant political will — local elections were postponed on several occasions due to financial, technical and logistical challenges. “The electoral process is at a turning point and there’s a critical need to safeguard and preserve the progress that has been achieved.” The international community must mobilize resources to prevent any backsliding.

Mistrust, Tensions Remain Despite Efforts to Implement 19 April Peace Agreement

“The political situation remains punctuated by mistrust and tensions” between the majority in power and the opposition, he said, while noting efforts to implement the peace agreement reached on 19 April between the Government, and the Unité pour la paix en Centrafrique, or UPC and Retour, Réclamation, Réhabilitation, or 3R. Despite progress in expanding the authority of the State, violence by armed groups and militias continues to compromise stability. The Government is collaborating with MINUSCA to improve border security, he said, noting the spillover of the Sudanese conflict in the north-east. He also noted an attack on 28 March near Tabane, Haut-Mbomou Prefecture, which took the life of a Kenyan military observer.

On the humanitarian front, “urgent needs continue to outpace available resources”, he said, noting the suspension of critical services of some of the most vulnerable populations. Also noting persistent conflict-related sexual violence and violations of children’s rights, he said the Government, supported by the Mission, is making efforts to advance transitional justice mechanisms. Further, the Special Criminal Court is playing a significant role in the fight against impunity and transitional justice, and requires financial and human resources to sustain its activities.

Calling on the Council to help consolidate the gains made by the country, he said: “If these efforts are sustained in the spirit of partnership and shared responsibility, the Central African Republic has the potential to become a true success story, not only for Central Africans, but also for peacekeeping and for this Security Council.”

He also recalled the tragic fire that occurred on Wednesday at Barthelemy Boganda High School in Bangui and expressed condolences to all the affected families. Further, six days ago a MINUSCA patrol was attacked during an operation in response to signaling of attacks by armed Sudanese elements, resulting in the tragic loss of a Zambian blue helmet, he said, condemning that attack.

Delegates Urge Investigation into Deadly Attack on MINUSCA Patrol

In the ensuing discussion, speakers expressed their condolences for both events, and several called for an investigation into the attack on the MINUSCA patrol.

Central African Republic’s Representative Points to National Reconciliation Efforts, ‘Promise of Rebirth’

The representative of the Central African Republic called for a moment of silence in honor of the victims of these incidents. “Recent progress reflects steadfast political will to end the cycle of violence” in his country, he said. The inclusive political dialogue supported by the President and the 19 April ceasefire agreement providing for the dissolution of certain armed groups are examples of this. Also detailing Government efforts to re-establish authority throughout the country, he said that the “triptych” of State authority, security and justice “represents our vision for national reconstruction”. Further, he said, the lifting of the arms embargo in July 2024 was a “turning point”, which allowed national forces to be equipped through a legal, transparent framework.

“However, force alone is not enough,” he observed, detailing additional Government efforts to establish peace, hold elections, uphold the rule of law and assist victims of sexual violence. Nevertheless, the Sudanese conflict is a “genuine” threat, he said, reporting that a joint force established by his country and Chad in March aims to address its spillover. “This mechanism,” he stated, “is part of a new generation of bilateral African cooperation in the service of collective security.” For its part, he called on the Council to provide political, institutional, security and financial support. He added that his country is not an “emergency situation”; rather, “it is a promise of rebirth”.

Council members welcomed these positive developments, with the representative of Guyana, Council President for June, speaking in her national capacity and also for Somalia, Algeria and Sierra Leone, hailing the ongoing implementation of the 2019 Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation, the integration of 9 of 14 armed groups and the continued expansion of State authority across the country. Also underscoring “the importance of the upcoming local and national elections as a milestone for democratic consolidation”, she said the international community must help address the significant funding gap affecting the electoral process.

Unpaid Assessed Contributions for MINUSCA Raises Concern

However, she also expressed concern about the ineffective implementation of the arms embargo and the persistent insecurity in various regions. This is “exacerbated by armed groups competing over natural resources and trade routes”, she said, calling on non-signatory armed groups to join the peace process. Noting the spillover effects from the Sudan conflict, she condemned the incursions by the Rapid Support Forces into Central African Republic territory and their reported collaboration with local armed groups. MINUSCA’s resource constraints, including unpaid assessed contributions, stand at over $400 million, she said, stressing that adequate and timely financing is essential for the Mission to deliver on its mandate, especially during this critical electoral period.

Agreeing, the speaker for Slovenia, welcoming MINUSCA’s “proactive peacekeeping posture”, said it should be equipped with adequate support to ensure the safety of civilians and its own personnel. The representative of Pakistan said that his country is proud to have 1,400 troops serving in MINUSCA. “We will soon deploy a level-two field hospital in the Mission, which will provide medical facilities to uniformed personnel, civilian staff, Government officials and the local population,” he added. However, pointing out that MINUSCA’s operational capacity is “crippled” by unpaid contributions, he urged Member States to pay in full and on time.

Panama’s delegate added: “Experience has taught us that withdrawing from a peace mission too soon may end up being more costly than sustaining it.” Welcoming the Government’s efforts towards security sector reform, he urged finalization of the “military programming law”, which will “allow for clearer articulation of the needs of the defence sector”.

Focus on Fighting Arms Trafficking and Combatants

“The Central African Republic is on the path of returning to peace and security,” said France’s representative, as he asked the Council to continue assisting the Government in its fight against arms trafficking and combatants. He pledged that his country would work together with all Council members and the Central African Republic on the renewal of the coercive measures against the armed groups outlined in resolution 2745 (2024).

The representative of the United States said his delegation looks forward to engaging with Member States on renewing that sanctions regime. He also expressed concern that Government regulations on fuel imports restrict MINUSCA’s operations, emphasizing that forcing the Mission to rely solely on Government-designated importers results in inflated fuel prices. “This must stop,” he declared, urging the Government to uphold the status-of-forces agreement.

International Support Must Respect Central African Republic’s Sovereignty

“There is no room here for the obsolete, discredited colonialist practices, nor for their contemporary manifestations thereof,” warned the representative of the Russian Federation. She voiced confidence in Bangui’s ability to translate security gains into socioeconomic progress, emphasizing that normalization — supported by the UN and international financial institutions — can become “irreversible” if grounded in respect for sovereignty and non-interference. The Government now controls nearly the entire national territory and the capabilities of the national armed forces are growing. Armed groups must seize this opportunity to engage constructively with the authorities. “The abandonment of armed struggle is the only path,” she said, warning: “The alternative to this is well known — that is a one-way ticket.”

Elections Must Be Timely, Orderly, Inclusive

“The Central African Republic stands at a pivotal point in its transition from post-conflict recovery to sustainable development,” said the representative of the Republic of Korea, urging the Government to uphold its commitment to ensure timely, orderly and inclusive local, legislative and presidential elections, a call taken up by several speakers today.

The representative of Denmark commended the work of the Government, National Elections Authority, MINUSCA and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in advancing preparations for elections. She added: “It is essential that all groups in society — especially women, young voters and internally displaced persons — can participate fully and freely.” The representative of the United Kingdom, called on the Government — with MINUSCA’s support — to ensure a safe environment during all stages of the electoral cycle. Greece’s delegate pointed out that “an expanding political and civic space is the most trustworthy pathway towards a demonstrated commitment by all stakeholders for further implementation of the Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation.”

While the Central African Republic is entering a critical phase of economic recovery, China’s delegate said, it continues to face significant challenges, including a widening fiscal deficit, high inflation and power shortages. The international community should prioritize helping countries, like this, achieve sustainable development by providing support in key areas, such as infrastructure, education and employment — aligned with the priorities outlined in the country’s National Development Action Plan. “This,” he emphasized, “will in turn help consolidate the foundation for peace”. At the recent Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, Beijing announced zero tariffs on 100 per cent of products from 53 African countries with diplomatic ties to China, he added.

MIL OSI United Nations News –

June 28, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: Central African Republic at ‘Delicate Juncture’ ahead of Election Cycle, Peacekeeping Chief Tells Security Council, Urging International Support to Strengthen Democracy

Source: United Nations General Assembly and Security Council

As it prepares to hold elections, the Central African Republic stands at a delicate juncture, and international support is key to consolidate its unique opportunity to strengthen democracy and national reconciliation, the Security Council heard today from the top UN peacekeeping official, as well as the country’s representative.

“This year is of particular significance for the Central African Republic as the country is preparing to organize local, presidential and legislative elections,” Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations said. He highlighted the efforts of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) to assist the Government’s electoral preparations.

Elections are a key component of the 2019 Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation, he pointed out. However — and despite significant political will — local elections were postponed on several occasions due to financial, technical and logistical challenges. “The electoral process is at a turning point and there’s a critical need to safeguard and preserve the progress that has been achieved.” The international community must mobilize resources to prevent any backsliding.

Mistrust, Tensions Remain Despite Efforts to Implement 19 April Peace Agreement

“The political situation remains punctuated by mistrust and tensions” between the majority in power and the opposition, he said, while noting efforts to implement the peace agreement reached on 19 April between the Government, and the Unité pour la paix en Centrafrique, or UPC and Retour, Réclamation, Réhabilitation, or 3R. Despite progress in expanding the authority of the State, violence by armed groups and militias continues to compromise stability. The Government is collaborating with MINUSCA to improve border security, he said, noting the spillover of the Sudanese conflict in the north-east. He also noted an attack on 28 March near Tabane, Haut-Mbomou Prefecture, which took the life of a Kenyan military observer.

On the humanitarian front, “urgent needs continue to outpace available resources”, he said, noting the suspension of critical services of some of the most vulnerable populations. Also noting persistent conflict-related sexual violence and violations of children’s rights, he said the Government, supported by the Mission, is making efforts to advance transitional justice mechanisms. Further, the Special Criminal Court is playing a significant role in the fight against impunity and transitional justice, and requires financial and human resources to sustain its activities.

Calling on the Council to help consolidate the gains made by the country, he said: “If these efforts are sustained in the spirit of partnership and shared responsibility, the Central African Republic has the potential to become a true success story, not only for Central Africans, but also for peacekeeping and for this Security Council.”

He also recalled the tragic fire that occurred on Wednesday at Barthelemy Boganda High School in Bangui and expressed condolences to all the affected families. Further, six days ago a MINUSCA patrol was attacked during an operation in response to signaling of attacks by armed Sudanese elements, resulting in the tragic loss of a Zambian blue helmet, he said, condemning that attack.

Delegates Urge Investigation into Deadly Attack on MINUSCA Patrol

In the ensuing discussion, speakers expressed their condolences for both events, and several called for an investigation into the attack on the MINUSCA patrol.

Central African Republic’s Representative Points to National Reconciliation Efforts, ‘Promise of Rebirth’

The representative of the Central African Republic called for a moment of silence in honor of the victims of these incidents. “Recent progress reflects steadfast political will to end the cycle of violence” in his country, he said. The inclusive political dialogue supported by the President and the 19 April ceasefire agreement providing for the dissolution of certain armed groups are examples of this. Also detailing Government efforts to re-establish authority throughout the country, he said that the “triptych” of State authority, security and justice “represents our vision for national reconstruction”. Further, he said, the lifting of the arms embargo in July 2024 was a “turning point”, which allowed national forces to be equipped through a legal, transparent framework.

“However, force alone is not enough,” he observed, detailing additional Government efforts to establish peace, hold elections, uphold the rule of law and assist victims of sexual violence. Nevertheless, the Sudanese conflict is a “genuine” threat, he said, reporting that a joint force established by his country and Chad in March aims to address its spillover. “This mechanism,” he stated, “is part of a new generation of bilateral African cooperation in the service of collective security.” For its part, he called on the Council to provide political, institutional, security and financial support. He added that his country is not an “emergency situation”; rather, “it is a promise of rebirth”.

Council members welcomed these positive developments, with the representative of Guyana, Council President for June, speaking in her national capacity and also for Somalia, Algeria and Sierra Leone, hailing the ongoing implementation of the 2019 Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation, the integration of 9 of 14 armed groups and the continued expansion of State authority across the country. Also underscoring “the importance of the upcoming local and national elections as a milestone for democratic consolidation”, she said the international community must help address the significant funding gap affecting the electoral process.

Unpaid Assessed Contributions for MINUSCA Raises Concern

However, she also expressed concern about the ineffective implementation of the arms embargo and the persistent insecurity in various regions. This is “exacerbated by armed groups competing over natural resources and trade routes”, she said, calling on non-signatory armed groups to join the peace process. Noting the spillover effects from the Sudan conflict, she condemned the incursions by the Rapid Support Forces into Central African Republic territory and their reported collaboration with local armed groups. MINUSCA’s resource constraints, including unpaid assessed contributions, stand at over $400 million, she said, stressing that adequate and timely financing is essential for the Mission to deliver on its mandate, especially during this critical electoral period.

Agreeing, the speaker for Slovenia, welcoming MINUSCA’s “proactive peacekeeping posture”, said it should be equipped with adequate support to ensure the safety of civilians and its own personnel. The representative of Pakistan said that his country is proud to have 1,400 troops serving in MINUSCA. “We will soon deploy a level-two field hospital in the Mission, which will provide medical facilities to uniformed personnel, civilian staff, Government officials and the local population,” he added. However, pointing out that MINUSCA’s operational capacity is “crippled” by unpaid contributions, he urged Member States to pay in full and on time.

Panama’s delegate added: “Experience has taught us that withdrawing from a peace mission too soon may end up being more costly than sustaining it.” Welcoming the Government’s efforts towards security sector reform, he urged finalization of the “military programming law”, which will “allow for clearer articulation of the needs of the defence sector”.

Focus on Fighting Arms Trafficking and Combatants

“The Central African Republic is on the path of returning to peace and security,” said France’s representative, as he asked the Council to continue assisting the Government in its fight against arms trafficking and combatants. He pledged that his country would work together with all Council members and the Central African Republic on the renewal of the coercive measures against the armed groups outlined in resolution 2745 (2024).

The representative of the United States said his delegation looks forward to engaging with Member States on renewing that sanctions regime. He also expressed concern that Government regulations on fuel imports restrict MINUSCA’s operations, emphasizing that forcing the Mission to rely solely on Government-designated importers results in inflated fuel prices. “This must stop,” he declared, urging the Government to uphold the status-of-forces agreement.

International Support Must Respect Central African Republic’s Sovereignty

“There is no room here for the obsolete, discredited colonialist practices, nor for their contemporary manifestations thereof,” warned the representative of the Russian Federation. She voiced confidence in Bangui’s ability to translate security gains into socioeconomic progress, emphasizing that normalization — supported by the UN and international financial institutions — can become “irreversible” if grounded in respect for sovereignty and non-interference. The Government now controls nearly the entire national territory and the capabilities of the national armed forces are growing. Armed groups must seize this opportunity to engage constructively with the authorities. “The abandonment of armed struggle is the only path,” she said, warning: “The alternative to this is well known — that is a one-way ticket.”

Elections Must Be Timely, Orderly, Inclusive

“The Central African Republic stands at a pivotal point in its transition from post-conflict recovery to sustainable development,” said the representative of the Republic of Korea, urging the Government to uphold its commitment to ensure timely, orderly and inclusive local, legislative and presidential elections, a call taken up by several speakers today.

The representative of Denmark commended the work of the Government, National Elections Authority, MINUSCA and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in advancing preparations for elections. She added: “It is essential that all groups in society — especially women, young voters and internally displaced persons — can participate fully and freely.” The representative of the United Kingdom, called on the Government — with MINUSCA’s support — to ensure a safe environment during all stages of the electoral cycle. Greece’s delegate pointed out that “an expanding political and civic space is the most trustworthy pathway towards a demonstrated commitment by all stakeholders for further implementation of the Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation.”

While the Central African Republic is entering a critical phase of economic recovery, China’s delegate said, it continues to face significant challenges, including a widening fiscal deficit, high inflation and power shortages. The international community should prioritize helping countries, like this, achieve sustainable development by providing support in key areas, such as infrastructure, education and employment — aligned with the priorities outlined in the country’s National Development Action Plan. “This,” he emphasized, “will in turn help consolidate the foundation for peace”. At the recent Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, Beijing announced zero tariffs on 100 per cent of products from 53 African countries with diplomatic ties to China, he added.

MIL OSI United Nations News –

June 28, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: With Child Rights Violations at Record High, Speakers Urge Course Correction in Day-Long Security Council Debate

Source: United Nations MIL OSI

In the wake of unprecedented violence against children in 2024, the Security Council heard today that the world is failing to protect them from the horrors of war — and that urgent action is needed to correct this course — during a day-long debate on children and armed conflict.

“The year 2024 marked a devastating new record,” reported Virginia Gamba, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, as the UN verified 41,370 grave violations against children — a “staggering” 25 per cent increase from 2023. “Behind these numbers are the shattered stories, dreams and futures of 22,495 children, each of them profoundly affected by war, displacement and the collapse of protection systems that should have served as their shield,” she stressed. Spotlighting the “sharp” rise in the number of children subjected to multiple grave violations — 3,137 in total — she said this is a “stark reminder of the compounded vulnerabilities children face in conflict settings”.

Nearly 12,000 Children Killed or Maimed in 2024

Detailing “the six grave violations the Security Council entrusted to my office”, she said that, in 2024, 11,967 children were killed or maimed — the highest number “since this mandate was established over two decades ago”. Further, there were 7,402 cases of recruitment and use; 1,982 cases of sexual violence; 2,374 cases of attacks on schools and hospitals; thousands of children were forcibly abducted; and denied humanitarian access is now one of the greatest obstacles to protecting children in conflict zones. “These atrocities against children span the globe,” she underscored, which demonstrates the universal, indiscriminate nature of these grave violations.

Also noting that Government forces “remained the principal perpetrators” of the killing and maiming of children, attacks on schools and hospitals, and the denial of humanitarian access, she stressed: “We cannot continue to stand by and watch with no action what is happening to the children globally — and especially in Gaza.” She therefore urged the international community, inter alia, to call on all parties to conflict to engage with the UN to develop, sign and fully implement action plans that end and prevent these violations. Adding that the children and armed conflict mandate has proven its value, she urged: “Let us prove that it matters — that they, our children, matter.”

Explosives Leading Cause of Child Casualties

Also briefing the Council was Sheema Sen Gupta, Director of Child Protection and Migration of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), who stated that today’s report “once again confirms what too many children already know — that the world is failing to protect them from the horrors of war”. She highlighted two “deeply disturbing” trends. First, the increased use of explosive weapons in populated areas is now the leading cause of child casualties in many of the world’s conflicts, accounting for over 70 per cent of all incidents of killing and maiming. Second is the surge in sexual violence, and she reported that verified cases of such violence against children increased by 35 per cent in 2024.

On that, she noted that nearly 10,000 cases of sexual violence were reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the first two months of 2025, with children constituting over 40 per cent of those affected. Nevertheless, this agenda “remains a source of hope”, with over 16,000 children receiving protection and reintegration support in 2024. Calling on all parties to conflict to stop the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, she also underlined the need to protect and expand humanitarian space. “Fund this agenda,” she added, stressing: “Children are not collateral damage.”

Growing Up in War

Next, Sila — a 17-year-old girl from Idlib, Syria — said that she is part of a generation of thousands of children that has lived through war and knows nothing of safety. “Rather, I know nothing but smoke, shelling, displacement and fear,” she said. Stating that she came to the Council to talk about the pain that remains after war, she described a childhood in which her home was a suitcase as bombings forced her family to constantly move. “My childhood was full of fear and anxiety, and I was deprived of people I loved,” she said. She added: “Imagine that you go to school, and you hear the sound of the plane over your head, and you don’t know if the projectile will hit your school or your home.”

War does not end when the bombing stops, she added. “The real danger remains after the war — the landmines, the unexploded shells and the life that turns into death traps,” she said, pointing out that “many people lost their limbs — or even their lives — without participating in any battle”. Now, she works with a humanitarian organization to raise awareness about the dangers posed by remnants of war. “It’s our turn to speak and raise our voices, and to educate others,” she said. She stressed: “Today, I did not come as a victim — I came as a witness.” As such, she asked for the international community’s support so that children can achieve their dreams and opportunities.

“It is my fervent hope that today’s debate will be an opportunity not just to express outrage, but to follow through with tangible action,” stressed Vindhya Vasini Persaud, Minister for Human Services and Social Security of Guyana and Council President for June, speaking in her national capacity as the floor opened. Similarly, Greece’s representative, Chair of the Working Group on this agenda item, welcomed today’s report as a call “not just for reflection on one of the gravest affronts to international law, but also for action”. He asked those present: “Do we live up to our promises to children?”

Mandate Holder’s Response Muted

Most statements suggested otherwise. Algeria’s representative posed his own question: “How can we ignore the 7,188 verified grave violations attributed to Israeli forces?” Stressing that the response of the Special Representative’s office to this matter has been “strikingly insufficient”, he said that its statements “fall critically short of the decisive and sustained condemnation warranted by the immense scale of the crisis”. He concluded: “The protection of children in conflict demands a more vigorous — a more vocal — response to the unparalleled crisis in Gaza.”

The representative of the United Kingdom, for his part, pointed to the Palestinians killed trying to reach “the few aid sites permitted by Israel”. “This is unacceptable,” he stated, calling on Israel to abide by its obligations to protect children and to enable aid to enter Gaza at scale. China’s representative also called on Israel to lift its humanitarian blockade. The representative of Sierra Leone — expressing similar concern over the “appalling humanitarian situation confronting children in Gaza” — emphasized that it is States — especially those exercising territorial control — that must ensure the protection of civilians.

The representative of the Russian Federation also emphasized States’ leading role in this context, emphasizing: “This is why this theme — more than any other theme — requires intergovernmental cooperation and must, under no circumstances, be politicized.” However, he said that the structures assisting the Council in this regard “have not demonstrated themselves to be paragons of impartiality”, as the report continues to include “unverified figures about children in Ukraine”. Further spotlighting a “continuous reduction in Russian child victims in the report”, he said that it does not include figures of the children killed or maimed by Ukraine’s armed forces.

Pakistan’s representative, meanwhile, pointed out that it took the killing of thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza for the situation to be included in the last year’s report. And while welcoming this year’s removal of references to his country as a situation of concern — “a long-overdue correction” — he expressed regret that the previously documented plight of children in “the Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir” was omitted without justification.

Report Offers ‘Sobering Snapshot’

Nevertheless, the representative of the United States said that the report is a “sobering snapshot”, which “serves as a poignant reminder of the urgency and necessity of strengthening the international community’s child-protection capacity”. Observing that “alarm bells should be ringing everywhere”, Slovenia’s representative stressed: “We need to do better.” Panama’s representative said that there is an “urgent need to broaden social-integration programmes with a focus on young people to rebuild their futures”. The representative of France called for capacity-building to protect children in peacekeeping operations.

Offering another proposal, the representative of the Republic of Korea said that “listening to and empowering survivors must be the starting point of any survivor-centred response”, for which he expressed support. To that end, Seoul has contributed $8.6 million to prevent gender-based violence and assist survivors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In that vein, Denmark’s representative urged that all monitoring, prevention and response efforts account for the gendered impact of grave violations, as they have “distinct and profound effects on girls and boys”.

Somalia’s representative, however, concluded: “It is only by striving to end wars — and by investing earnestly in the prevention of new ones — that we can hope to guarantee a world where no child is left to bear the wounds of war.” Similarly, Ukraine’s representative said that “one simple thing” is needed to stop the Russian Federation from killing and maiming children in Ukraine — “a full, unconditional ceasefire for at least 30 days as a first step towards just and lasting peace”. The representative of Lebanon, too, said that children have suffered from the ravages of numerous wars that have broken out on Lebanese territory: “They pay a hefty toll for the mistakes of adults.”

He, along with other Member States, also drew attention to the high number of violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. “What is happening in Gaza now is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and humanitarian values,” said Saudi Arabia’s representative. However, Israel’s representative — pointing to “one of the most outrageous statements I have ever seen in official UN documents” — noted that the Secretary-General has called on Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to develop action plans with the UN, and on Israel to sign a matching one. Adding that the report “switches the roles of victim and aggressor”, he rejected the “grotesque false equivalence between a sovereign democracy and a terror regime”.

Success Stories

Yet, there were positive notes. The observer for the African Union reported that the bloc has adopted a comprehensive legal and policy framework for protecting children, particularly in conflict situations. El Salvador’s representative pointed to her country’s “drastically” reduced homicide rates and provision of psychosocial care, education and reintegration programmes to victims of violence. The representative of the Philippines, for her part, welcomed the removal of her country as a situation of concern in the next report, which is a testament to its whole-of-Government approach and sustained, strategic collaboration with the UN. She stated: “We hope that the Philippines’ story will serve as an inspiration of what we, as a global community, can do for children everywhere — to let children be children.”

MIL OSI United Nations News –

June 28, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: With Child Rights Violations at Record High, Speakers Urge Course Correction in Day-Long Security Council Debate

Source: United Nations MIL OSI

In the wake of unprecedented violence against children in 2024, the Security Council heard today that the world is failing to protect them from the horrors of war — and that urgent action is needed to correct this course — during a day-long debate on children and armed conflict.

“The year 2024 marked a devastating new record,” reported Virginia Gamba, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, as the UN verified 41,370 grave violations against children — a “staggering” 25 per cent increase from 2023. “Behind these numbers are the shattered stories, dreams and futures of 22,495 children, each of them profoundly affected by war, displacement and the collapse of protection systems that should have served as their shield,” she stressed. Spotlighting the “sharp” rise in the number of children subjected to multiple grave violations — 3,137 in total — she said this is a “stark reminder of the compounded vulnerabilities children face in conflict settings”.

Nearly 12,000 Children Killed or Maimed in 2024

Detailing “the six grave violations the Security Council entrusted to my office”, she said that, in 2024, 11,967 children were killed or maimed — the highest number “since this mandate was established over two decades ago”. Further, there were 7,402 cases of recruitment and use; 1,982 cases of sexual violence; 2,374 cases of attacks on schools and hospitals; thousands of children were forcibly abducted; and denied humanitarian access is now one of the greatest obstacles to protecting children in conflict zones. “These atrocities against children span the globe,” she underscored, which demonstrates the universal, indiscriminate nature of these grave violations.

Also noting that Government forces “remained the principal perpetrators” of the killing and maiming of children, attacks on schools and hospitals, and the denial of humanitarian access, she stressed: “We cannot continue to stand by and watch with no action what is happening to the children globally — and especially in Gaza.” She therefore urged the international community, inter alia, to call on all parties to conflict to engage with the UN to develop, sign and fully implement action plans that end and prevent these violations. Adding that the children and armed conflict mandate has proven its value, she urged: “Let us prove that it matters — that they, our children, matter.”

Explosives Leading Cause of Child Casualties

Also briefing the Council was Sheema Sen Gupta, Director of Child Protection and Migration of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), who stated that today’s report “once again confirms what too many children already know — that the world is failing to protect them from the horrors of war”. She highlighted two “deeply disturbing” trends. First, the increased use of explosive weapons in populated areas is now the leading cause of child casualties in many of the world’s conflicts, accounting for over 70 per cent of all incidents of killing and maiming. Second is the surge in sexual violence, and she reported that verified cases of such violence against children increased by 35 per cent in 2024.

On that, she noted that nearly 10,000 cases of sexual violence were reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the first two months of 2025, with children constituting over 40 per cent of those affected. Nevertheless, this agenda “remains a source of hope”, with over 16,000 children receiving protection and reintegration support in 2024. Calling on all parties to conflict to stop the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, she also underlined the need to protect and expand humanitarian space. “Fund this agenda,” she added, stressing: “Children are not collateral damage.”

Growing Up in War

Next, Sila — a 17-year-old girl from Idlib, Syria — said that she is part of a generation of thousands of children that has lived through war and knows nothing of safety. “Rather, I know nothing but smoke, shelling, displacement and fear,” she said. Stating that she came to the Council to talk about the pain that remains after war, she described a childhood in which her home was a suitcase as bombings forced her family to constantly move. “My childhood was full of fear and anxiety, and I was deprived of people I loved,” she said. She added: “Imagine that you go to school, and you hear the sound of the plane over your head, and you don’t know if the projectile will hit your school or your home.”

War does not end when the bombing stops, she added. “The real danger remains after the war — the landmines, the unexploded shells and the life that turns into death traps,” she said, pointing out that “many people lost their limbs — or even their lives — without participating in any battle”. Now, she works with a humanitarian organization to raise awareness about the dangers posed by remnants of war. “It’s our turn to speak and raise our voices, and to educate others,” she said. She stressed: “Today, I did not come as a victim — I came as a witness.” As such, she asked for the international community’s support so that children can achieve their dreams and opportunities.

“It is my fervent hope that today’s debate will be an opportunity not just to express outrage, but to follow through with tangible action,” stressed Vindhya Vasini Persaud, Minister for Human Services and Social Security of Guyana and Council President for June, speaking in her national capacity as the floor opened. Similarly, Greece’s representative, Chair of the Working Group on this agenda item, welcomed today’s report as a call “not just for reflection on one of the gravest affronts to international law, but also for action”. He asked those present: “Do we live up to our promises to children?”

Mandate Holder’s Response Muted

Most statements suggested otherwise. Algeria’s representative posed his own question: “How can we ignore the 7,188 verified grave violations attributed to Israeli forces?” Stressing that the response of the Special Representative’s office to this matter has been “strikingly insufficient”, he said that its statements “fall critically short of the decisive and sustained condemnation warranted by the immense scale of the crisis”. He concluded: “The protection of children in conflict demands a more vigorous — a more vocal — response to the unparalleled crisis in Gaza.”

The representative of the United Kingdom, for his part, pointed to the Palestinians killed trying to reach “the few aid sites permitted by Israel”. “This is unacceptable,” he stated, calling on Israel to abide by its obligations to protect children and to enable aid to enter Gaza at scale. China’s representative also called on Israel to lift its humanitarian blockade. The representative of Sierra Leone — expressing similar concern over the “appalling humanitarian situation confronting children in Gaza” — emphasized that it is States — especially those exercising territorial control — that must ensure the protection of civilians.

The representative of the Russian Federation also emphasized States’ leading role in this context, emphasizing: “This is why this theme — more than any other theme — requires intergovernmental cooperation and must, under no circumstances, be politicized.” However, he said that the structures assisting the Council in this regard “have not demonstrated themselves to be paragons of impartiality”, as the report continues to include “unverified figures about children in Ukraine”. Further spotlighting a “continuous reduction in Russian child victims in the report”, he said that it does not include figures of the children killed or maimed by Ukraine’s armed forces.

Pakistan’s representative, meanwhile, pointed out that it took the killing of thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza for the situation to be included in the last year’s report. And while welcoming this year’s removal of references to his country as a situation of concern — “a long-overdue correction” — he expressed regret that the previously documented plight of children in “the Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir” was omitted without justification.

Report Offers ‘Sobering Snapshot’

Nevertheless, the representative of the United States said that the report is a “sobering snapshot”, which “serves as a poignant reminder of the urgency and necessity of strengthening the international community’s child-protection capacity”. Observing that “alarm bells should be ringing everywhere”, Slovenia’s representative stressed: “We need to do better.” Panama’s representative said that there is an “urgent need to broaden social-integration programmes with a focus on young people to rebuild their futures”. The representative of France called for capacity-building to protect children in peacekeeping operations.

Offering another proposal, the representative of the Republic of Korea said that “listening to and empowering survivors must be the starting point of any survivor-centred response”, for which he expressed support. To that end, Seoul has contributed $8.6 million to prevent gender-based violence and assist survivors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In that vein, Denmark’s representative urged that all monitoring, prevention and response efforts account for the gendered impact of grave violations, as they have “distinct and profound effects on girls and boys”.

Somalia’s representative, however, concluded: “It is only by striving to end wars — and by investing earnestly in the prevention of new ones — that we can hope to guarantee a world where no child is left to bear the wounds of war.” Similarly, Ukraine’s representative said that “one simple thing” is needed to stop the Russian Federation from killing and maiming children in Ukraine — “a full, unconditional ceasefire for at least 30 days as a first step towards just and lasting peace”. The representative of Lebanon, too, said that children have suffered from the ravages of numerous wars that have broken out on Lebanese territory: “They pay a hefty toll for the mistakes of adults.”

He, along with other Member States, also drew attention to the high number of violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. “What is happening in Gaza now is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and humanitarian values,” said Saudi Arabia’s representative. However, Israel’s representative — pointing to “one of the most outrageous statements I have ever seen in official UN documents” — noted that the Secretary-General has called on Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to develop action plans with the UN, and on Israel to sign a matching one. Adding that the report “switches the roles of victim and aggressor”, he rejected the “grotesque false equivalence between a sovereign democracy and a terror regime”.

Success Stories

Yet, there were positive notes. The observer for the African Union reported that the bloc has adopted a comprehensive legal and policy framework for protecting children, particularly in conflict situations. El Salvador’s representative pointed to her country’s “drastically” reduced homicide rates and provision of psychosocial care, education and reintegration programmes to victims of violence. The representative of the Philippines, for her part, welcomed the removal of her country as a situation of concern in the next report, which is a testament to its whole-of-Government approach and sustained, strategic collaboration with the UN. She stated: “We hope that the Philippines’ story will serve as an inspiration of what we, as a global community, can do for children everywhere — to let children be children.”

MIL OSI United Nations News –

June 28, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: ‘Responsibility to Protect More Than a Principle — It Is a Moral Imperative’, Secretary General Tells General Assembly

Source: United Nations MIL OSI

As the General Assembly marked the twentieth anniversary of the responsibility to protect, the UN Chief emphasized that the principle remains a moral imperative amid growing global turmoil, escalating identity-based violence, widespread breaches of international law and deepening impunity.

Opening the session, Philémon Yang (Cameroon), President of the General Assembly, recalled that, 20 years ago, at the 2005 World Summit, world leaders affirmed the responsibility of individual States to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. Born from the horrors of Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, that commitment represented a pledge that “never again would the international community stand silent as innocent lives were destroyed by the gravest crimes”.

Nevertheless, today, two decades later, “we must ask ourselves how we have allowed ourselves to fall short”, he said. From Gaza to Ukraine, from Sudan to Myanmar, there is blatant disregard for human rights, early warnings are ignored and the Security Council is failing to act.

Also acknowledging commendable gains, he noted the establishment of international mechanisms for atrocity prevention. Prevention and protection strategies have been implemented across peacekeeping operations. “We must find ways to deliver on the promise of ‘never again’,” he stressed.

Picking up that thread, UN Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized that the world is witnessing the highest number of armed conflicts since the end of the Second World War. Further, conflicts are becoming more protracted, complex and interconnected, while emerging threats such as the weaponization of new technologies and the proliferation of advanced weaponry require a constant adaptation to prevent the commission of atrocity crimes and to protect populations.

However, he continued, too often, early warnings go unheeded, and alleged evidence of crimes committed by States and non-State actors is met with denial, indifference, or repression. “Responses are often too little, too late, inconsistent or undermined by double standards,” he said, adding that “civilians are paying the highest price”.

“We must recognize that the responsibility to protect is more than a principle — it is a moral imperative, rooted in our shared humanity and the UN Charter,” he emphasized, spotlighting the seventeenth report of the Secretary-General on the responsibility to protect.

The report highlights efforts achieved through national prevention mechanisms or under regional leadership, demonstrating that early diplomacy, early warning and institutional innovation can be effective in preventing and responding to atrocity crimes. It also underscores the need to mainstream atrocity prevention across the United Nations system — from humanitarian action to peacekeeping to human rights. Additionally, it calls for integrating early warning, supporting national prevention mechanisms and embedding atrocity prevention in the broader agendas of sustaining peace, human rights and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

“No society is immune from the risk of atrocity crimes,” he asserted, emphasizing that “prevention must begin at home — with leadership that protects rights, embraces diversity and upholds the rule of law”. And it must be supported globally through multilateral cooperation, principled diplomacy, and early and decisive action to effectively protect populations. Two decades on, the responsibility to protect remains both an urgent necessity and an unfulfilled promise. “Let us keep the promise, deepen our commitment, strengthen our cooperation and ensure that atrocity-prevention and protecting populations becomes a permanent and universal practice,” he stated.

In the ensuing debate, numerous Member States emphasized that — amid growing violence against civilians and worsening humanitarian crises — the responsibility to protect must remain central to efforts aimed at promoting peace and security.

Speaking on behalf of the Group of Friends on the Responsibility to Protect, the representative of Morocco expressed concern that, despite unanimous support for ending atrocity crimes, serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law persist. “This growing gap between rhetoric and action is especially concerning given the international community’s improved understanding of risk factors and increased capacity to respond,” he pointed out. He also acknowledged the key role of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect in advancing this principle.

Expressing concern about the increased use of the veto in the Council, the representative of the European Union, speaking in its capacity as observer, said all Member States — especially those holding veto power — must support both the Code of Conduct regarding Security Council action against genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes, as well as the French-Mexican initiative on refraining from the use of veto in the case of mass atrocities.

“While some advances in military technology can bring increased precision and a reduction of civilian harm,” she said, the recent evolution of warfare, including the use of artificial intelligence (AI), may lead to diluted human control and increased brutality in conflict. Further, “when prevention fails, we need to make every effort to ensure that the perpetrators of atrocity crimes are held accountable,” she said, reaffirming support for the International Criminal Court.

Relatedly, Denmark’s delegate, also speaking for Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden, urged the Council “to renew and strengthen its focus on prevention” and acknowledged the efforts of the UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect, as well as civil society experts. Stressing the importance of the fight against sexual and gender-based violence, she added: “Independent and impartial international courts and tribunals, in particular the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court, are central to accountability for the most serious crimes.”

Slovenia’s delegate stressed that the veto power in the Council should not be used in situations where there is a clear threat of mass atrocity crimes, as it hinders effective decision–making and prevents action that would help to protect populations in a timely and effective manner. Her country was among the first to appoint a national Responsibility to Protect Focal Point, she said, highlighting the Ljubljana-Hague Convention on International Cooperation in the Investigation and Prosecution of Genocide, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes and Other International Crimes. “This is the first major international treaty in the field of international criminal law since the Rome Statute that enables States to cooperate effectively internationally in the investigation and prosecution of international crimes by filling legal gaps in the fields of international legal assistance and extradition,” she pointed out.

The representative of France, speaking also for Mexico, said that while civilians worldwide are victims of large-scale violations of international humanitarian law and human rights, “the Council is too often paralysed by the use of the veto”. He welcomed the mention in the Secretary-General’s report of the French-Mexican initiative on the voluntary regulation of the use of the veto in the Council in cases of mass atrocities. “The veto is not a privilege but a responsibility,” he said, noting that this proposal is already supported by over 100 States and inviting all other States to join this commitment, starting with the Council’s elected and permanent members. He also emphasized the crucial role of national human rights institutions, civil society and the Human Rights Council’s mechanisms as essential tools for early warning, prevention and accountability.

“Now, more than ever, we must continue to promote and defend our collective political commitment to [the] responsibility to protect and its implementation,” said Australia’s delegate, speaking also on behalf of Canada and New Zealand. The world is facing the highest level of conflict since the Second World War, with reported violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Myanmar, Sudan, Ukraine and Yemen. “We cannot allow impunity,” he asserted, calling for full accountability for atrocity crimes through appropriate national and international investigative and justice mechanisms, such as the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.

However, other delegates voiced concern that the responsibility to protect principle is increasingly being instrumentalized to justify interventions under a humanitarian pretext, or to undermine States’ sovereignty through the application of unilateral coercive measures.

Among them was the representative of Venezuela, speaking on behalf of the Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations, who cited the notion as “non-consensual and controversial”. Accordingly, he voiced concern over the principle “selective and politically motivated” application.

Paradoxically, at the same time, the world is witnessing a “resounding failure” to ensure the protection of civilians caught in the armed conflict in Gaza, where the Palestinian people are suffering an increasingly brutal Israeli occupation, which represents a systematic violation of international law and requires urgent action to protect and save civilian lives, in accordance with international humanitarian law.

Poland’s representative emphasized that invoking the responsibility to protect to justify military aggression — such as the Russian Federation’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine — constitutes a deliberate distortion of the principle. In March 2022, the International Court of Justice issued a preliminary ruling finding that Moscow did not have grounds to attack Ukraine based on claims of genocide, he noted. He also expressed support for the mandates of the Special Advisers on Genocide Prevention and on the Responsibility to Protect.

Other delegates highlighted their countries’ experiences with genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

“The crisis in Myanmar is the heartbreaking case in point,” said that country’s representative, adding that the military junta continues to commit widespread atrocities with impunity, violating the core principles of the responsibility to protect. Noting that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court applied in 2024 for an arrest warrant against Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing, he said a swift decision is vital. He also called for the issuance of the arrest warrant against Min Aung Hlaing “to save lives and protect the people of Myanmar from the military junta’s further heinous crimes”. The Security Council must act decisively, he asserted, noting that a follow-up to resolution 2669 (2022) should include monitoring and enforcement.

Noting that the application of the responsibility to protect principle “remains uneven”, Burundi’s delegate emphasized that it “cannot be selective on the basis of temporal or material considerations”. Drawing attention to the 1972 genocide committed against the Hutu ethnic group, he said that, during this “massacre of terrible proportions”, which occurred between April and July 1972, hundreds of thousands of Burundians of the Hutu ethnic group were hunted down, arrested, executed without trial and very often buried in mass graves.

“This has a name in international law: genocide,” he said. And while Burundi’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission officially described the events of 1972 as such, identifying over 4,000 potential mass graves and collecting thousands of witness testimonies, “no international body has recognized this crime as such”. Citing this silence as “a form of abandoning innocent victims whose souls need to be put to rest”, he underscored that “the responsibility to protect is not a slogan”, but a “legal, moral and political commitment”.

MIL OSI United Nations News –

June 28, 2025
MIL-OSI United Nations: ‘Responsibility to Protect More Than a Principle — It Is a Moral Imperative’, Secretary General Tells General Assembly

Source: United Nations MIL OSI

As the General Assembly marked the twentieth anniversary of the responsibility to protect, the UN Chief emphasized that the principle remains a moral imperative amid growing global turmoil, escalating identity-based violence, widespread breaches of international law and deepening impunity.

Opening the session, Philémon Yang (Cameroon), President of the General Assembly, recalled that, 20 years ago, at the 2005 World Summit, world leaders affirmed the responsibility of individual States to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. Born from the horrors of Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, that commitment represented a pledge that “never again would the international community stand silent as innocent lives were destroyed by the gravest crimes”.

Nevertheless, today, two decades later, “we must ask ourselves how we have allowed ourselves to fall short”, he said. From Gaza to Ukraine, from Sudan to Myanmar, there is blatant disregard for human rights, early warnings are ignored and the Security Council is failing to act.

Also acknowledging commendable gains, he noted the establishment of international mechanisms for atrocity prevention. Prevention and protection strategies have been implemented across peacekeeping operations. “We must find ways to deliver on the promise of ‘never again’,” he stressed.

Picking up that thread, UN Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized that the world is witnessing the highest number of armed conflicts since the end of the Second World War. Further, conflicts are becoming more protracted, complex and interconnected, while emerging threats such as the weaponization of new technologies and the proliferation of advanced weaponry require a constant adaptation to prevent the commission of atrocity crimes and to protect populations.

However, he continued, too often, early warnings go unheeded, and alleged evidence of crimes committed by States and non-State actors is met with denial, indifference, or repression. “Responses are often too little, too late, inconsistent or undermined by double standards,” he said, adding that “civilians are paying the highest price”.

“We must recognize that the responsibility to protect is more than a principle — it is a moral imperative, rooted in our shared humanity and the UN Charter,” he emphasized, spotlighting the seventeenth report of the Secretary-General on the responsibility to protect.

The report highlights efforts achieved through national prevention mechanisms or under regional leadership, demonstrating that early diplomacy, early warning and institutional innovation can be effective in preventing and responding to atrocity crimes. It also underscores the need to mainstream atrocity prevention across the United Nations system — from humanitarian action to peacekeeping to human rights. Additionally, it calls for integrating early warning, supporting national prevention mechanisms and embedding atrocity prevention in the broader agendas of sustaining peace, human rights and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

“No society is immune from the risk of atrocity crimes,” he asserted, emphasizing that “prevention must begin at home — with leadership that protects rights, embraces diversity and upholds the rule of law”. And it must be supported globally through multilateral cooperation, principled diplomacy, and early and decisive action to effectively protect populations. Two decades on, the responsibility to protect remains both an urgent necessity and an unfulfilled promise. “Let us keep the promise, deepen our commitment, strengthen our cooperation and ensure that atrocity-prevention and protecting populations becomes a permanent and universal practice,” he stated.

In the ensuing debate, numerous Member States emphasized that — amid growing violence against civilians and worsening humanitarian crises — the responsibility to protect must remain central to efforts aimed at promoting peace and security.

Speaking on behalf of the Group of Friends on the Responsibility to Protect, the representative of Morocco expressed concern that, despite unanimous support for ending atrocity crimes, serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law persist. “This growing gap between rhetoric and action is especially concerning given the international community’s improved understanding of risk factors and increased capacity to respond,” he pointed out. He also acknowledged the key role of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect in advancing this principle.

Expressing concern about the increased use of the veto in the Council, the representative of the European Union, speaking in its capacity as observer, said all Member States — especially those holding veto power — must support both the Code of Conduct regarding Security Council action against genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes, as well as the French-Mexican initiative on refraining from the use of veto in the case of mass atrocities.

“While some advances in military technology can bring increased precision and a reduction of civilian harm,” she said, the recent evolution of warfare, including the use of artificial intelligence (AI), may lead to diluted human control and increased brutality in conflict. Further, “when prevention fails, we need to make every effort to ensure that the perpetrators of atrocity crimes are held accountable,” she said, reaffirming support for the International Criminal Court.

Relatedly, Denmark’s delegate, also speaking for Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden, urged the Council “to renew and strengthen its focus on prevention” and acknowledged the efforts of the UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect, as well as civil society experts. Stressing the importance of the fight against sexual and gender-based violence, she added: “Independent and impartial international courts and tribunals, in particular the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court, are central to accountability for the most serious crimes.”

Slovenia’s delegate stressed that the veto power in the Council should not be used in situations where there is a clear threat of mass atrocity crimes, as it hinders effective decision–making and prevents action that would help to protect populations in a timely and effective manner. Her country was among the first to appoint a national Responsibility to Protect Focal Point, she said, highlighting the Ljubljana-Hague Convention on International Cooperation in the Investigation and Prosecution of Genocide, Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes and Other International Crimes. “This is the first major international treaty in the field of international criminal law since the Rome Statute that enables States to cooperate effectively internationally in the investigation and prosecution of international crimes by filling legal gaps in the fields of international legal assistance and extradition,” she pointed out.

The representative of France, speaking also for Mexico, said that while civilians worldwide are victims of large-scale violations of international humanitarian law and human rights, “the Council is too often paralysed by the use of the veto”. He welcomed the mention in the Secretary-General’s report of the French-Mexican initiative on the voluntary regulation of the use of the veto in the Council in cases of mass atrocities. “The veto is not a privilege but a responsibility,” he said, noting that this proposal is already supported by over 100 States and inviting all other States to join this commitment, starting with the Council’s elected and permanent members. He also emphasized the crucial role of national human rights institutions, civil society and the Human Rights Council’s mechanisms as essential tools for early warning, prevention and accountability.

“Now, more than ever, we must continue to promote and defend our collective political commitment to [the] responsibility to protect and its implementation,” said Australia’s delegate, speaking also on behalf of Canada and New Zealand. The world is facing the highest level of conflict since the Second World War, with reported violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Myanmar, Sudan, Ukraine and Yemen. “We cannot allow impunity,” he asserted, calling for full accountability for atrocity crimes through appropriate national and international investigative and justice mechanisms, such as the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.

However, other delegates voiced concern that the responsibility to protect principle is increasingly being instrumentalized to justify interventions under a humanitarian pretext, or to undermine States’ sovereignty through the application of unilateral coercive measures.

Among them was the representative of Venezuela, speaking on behalf of the Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations, who cited the notion as “non-consensual and controversial”. Accordingly, he voiced concern over the principle “selective and politically motivated” application.

Paradoxically, at the same time, the world is witnessing a “resounding failure” to ensure the protection of civilians caught in the armed conflict in Gaza, where the Palestinian people are suffering an increasingly brutal Israeli occupation, which represents a systematic violation of international law and requires urgent action to protect and save civilian lives, in accordance with international humanitarian law.

Poland’s representative emphasized that invoking the responsibility to protect to justify military aggression — such as the Russian Federation’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine — constitutes a deliberate distortion of the principle. In March 2022, the International Court of Justice issued a preliminary ruling finding that Moscow did not have grounds to attack Ukraine based on claims of genocide, he noted. He also expressed support for the mandates of the Special Advisers on Genocide Prevention and on the Responsibility to Protect.

Other delegates highlighted their countries’ experiences with genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

“The crisis in Myanmar is the heartbreaking case in point,” said that country’s representative, adding that the military junta continues to commit widespread atrocities with impunity, violating the core principles of the responsibility to protect. Noting that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court applied in 2024 for an arrest warrant against Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing, he said a swift decision is vital. He also called for the issuance of the arrest warrant against Min Aung Hlaing “to save lives and protect the people of Myanmar from the military junta’s further heinous crimes”. The Security Council must act decisively, he asserted, noting that a follow-up to resolution 2669 (2022) should include monitoring and enforcement.

Noting that the application of the responsibility to protect principle “remains uneven”, Burundi’s delegate emphasized that it “cannot be selective on the basis of temporal or material considerations”. Drawing attention to the 1972 genocide committed against the Hutu ethnic group, he said that, during this “massacre of terrible proportions”, which occurred between April and July 1972, hundreds of thousands of Burundians of the Hutu ethnic group were hunted down, arrested, executed without trial and very often buried in mass graves.

“This has a name in international law: genocide,” he said. And while Burundi’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission officially described the events of 1972 as such, identifying over 4,000 potential mass graves and collecting thousands of witness testimonies, “no international body has recognized this crime as such”. Citing this silence as “a form of abandoning innocent victims whose souls need to be put to rest”, he underscored that “the responsibility to protect is not a slogan”, but a “legal, moral and political commitment”.

MIL OSI United Nations News –

June 28, 2025
MIL-OSI United Kingdom: WTO General Council February 2025: UK Statements

Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

Speech

WTO General Council February 2025: UK Statements

Statements delivered by Simon Manley, the UK’s Permanent Representative to the WTO and UN, 18 – 19 February 2025 at the World Trade Organization in Geneva.

Item 2: Practical Steps to Enhance the Process for the Appointment of Officers to Certain WTO Bodies. Communication from Canada, Chile, Jamaica, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Singapore and Switzerland

Thank you, Chair. The UK adds our congratulations to the new Chairs, and also extends our thanks to you, Chair, in particular, for your work in the General Council. Your leadership and tireless drive, which we can already see this morning, to take forward our work with both good humour and astute steering of the meetings has been hugely appreciated. On this item, the UK does support pragmatic initiatives that can help improve processes for all of us here at the WTO, so we are grateful to the countries who have put this forward. We do support reform by doing, and as this document says, this is reform by doing. It solves issues around the appointment of Chairs, which when they are delayed leads to gaps that effect all of us and the efficiency of the organization. It is practical steps that we should all be able to agree to and the UK supports it.

Item 4: Incorporation of the Agreement on Electronic Commerce into Annex 4 of the WTO Agreement

Thank you, Chair. The UK is disappointed with the objections this morning to the incorporation of the E-commerce agreement as an annex 4 plurilateral. It is even more disappointing to see the failure to reach agreement on an investment facilitation and development on the previous item and I would just like to acknowledge the large number of very eloquent and well-reasoned interventions, especially from developing countries, on how they, like all WTO numbers, stand to benefit from the Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement (IFDA). Both the IFDA and E-commerce agreements are in the category of things the WTO can and should do now, and in good time, before MC14. Speakers this morning, especially from developing countries, have clearly set out the benefits which the E-commerce agreement offers. I’m just going to briefly recap a few. First, that this is the first set of global digital trade rules, in a sector which already by 2020 represented 25% of global trade worth almost 5 trillion USD; it has a key role in global economic growth. It is an agreement which not just increases digital trade and lowers trade barriers, it also enhances trust in an open digital environment. In all these ways it can unlock opportunities for businesses, jobs and their consumers all around the world. It is also an agreement that has been inclusive in its preparation. The vast majority of the 91 countries originally involved in the negotiation are developing countries. It is inclusive in its benefits as so many developing countries have set out. It is not just the delegations in this room who say all of these things, just in the last few weeks. For example, we heard directly from businesses at the World Economic Forum about the benefits of unleashing digital trade for MSMEs, in particular. Then, very importantly, my last point to support the implementation of the agreement includes a multi-avenue support package comprising implementation periods, technical assistance and capacity building.

The UK is committed to continuing our support for various technical assistance and capacity-building initiatives, such as a Digital Access Programme. We are ready to work with all members on the E-commerce agreement to make progress and reach agreement swiftly, hopefully well in advance of MC14.

Item 5: Report by the Chairperson of the Trade Negotiations Committee and Report by the Director General

Thank you for your Report, in particular for reminding us of the measurable benefits traders have brought to economic growth and development and for your commitments driving forward all our work. The UK is ready to cooperate with all members to ensure meaningful progress across all the areas you mentioned in the run up to MC14, including things we can and should agree before MC14. We recognise that, as you said Director General, it is a challenging time for global trade. We are grateful for your efforts. As our Minister for Trade Policy and Economic Security said in the UK parliament last week, the UK stands behind your exemplary leadership. We agreed that the WTO is a forum to listen and to discuss differences on trade with a review to resolving them; for calm responses and constructive dialogue as we look ahead to MC14.

As we look ahead to MC14, we support the particular priority to deliver for development. For the UK this includes the things we can and should do before MC14. On the development benefits of IFDA and E-commerce, I refer to the points I and others, including so many developing countries, made this morning. On the fisheries subsidies agreements and, through them, realising SDG target 14.6, we hope both enter into force, and Fish One and adoption of Fish Two could be secured before the UN Ocean Summit in France in June. That these agreements are so close is actually a tribute to the hard work and readiness to listen with compromises by so many in this room. Completing that work will also help us form a clear pathway to MC14, including space to work on agriculture and other important areas already under discussion. On agriculture, our thanks also to outgoing Chair, Ambassador Alparslan Acarsoy of Türkiye, for his work. Achieving a breakthrough on agriculture is more essential than ever. We cannot lose time, including to agree a new Chair, and then to work for successive MC14. Director General, thank you again for your leadership. We of course recognise the challenges. Trade is not always straightforward. The UK continues to support the WTO in the multilateral trading system; the benefits for trade for all of us, for growth, for development, are real. We are committed to working with you, with Members, to realise them. Thank you.

Item 9: Follow-up to the WTO Off-Site Retreat on Trade as a Tool for Development and Way Forward. Request from Barbados and South Africa

Thank you, Chair and the Secretariat for giving us a quick readout of the discussions. Already today we have heard several times about the importance of high ambition on development for MC14, and more widely, and the UK fully agrees. We would particularly like to thank South Africa and Barbados for bring in this discussion and helping to set out a path forward and welcome your particular collaboration when we think about what can be achieved. Development is cross cutting in so much of our work, and that is why, for the UK, the best way to maintain short-term momentum is with the early agreement on outcomes that are already in reach. That is why in earlier interventions today we have stressed the development benefits from early conclusion on investment facilitation for development, fisheries and E-commerce. We add to this, the development opportunities around LDC graduation and indeed the opportunities through new accessions to the WTO, that we will hear about tomorrow. Equally, to make a success of this we want to hear ideas, and we urge developing country members in particular to deliver their priority proposals as soon as possible, so that we really can work together to achieve progress in the timeframe of MC14.

Finally, the UK is committed to wider initiatives supporting developing countries, working in partnerships, listening to needs, and with this in mind we note that as the only fund dedicated to LDC trade, the UK wants to ensure that the enhanced integrated framework continues to deliver impact for LDCs. We have just made available this year an additional £100,000 into the interim facility, which brings our total contribution to £1,000,000 and we hope this will help ensure continuity while the future of the fund is discussed. As Members are aware, we hope the EIF taskforce will make its recommendations very soon as a basis for further improvement, meeting the expectations of LDCs and donors. Thank you.

Item 11: WTO Accessions: 2024 Annual Report by the Director General

The UK is closely engaged in this work and supports prospective Members to secure the benefits of the global trading system by progressing their accessions. We particularly note the positive development impact of WTO accession and underline that we are keen to welcome more developing countries, particularly LDCs, to the WTO. We support the strategic focus for 2025 on the accession of Uzbekistan and Bosnia and Herzegovina who have made significant progress. The UK for example recently held constructive bilateral discussions with Uzbekistan to help advance the accession and we encourage all Members to work with Uzbekistan and Bosnia and Herzegovina to support their ambitions for early WTO accession. We also very much welcome Somalia’s first Working Party and Ethiopia’s renewed energy behind their accession as specific examples of LDC interest and with this in mind we would like to reconfirm the UK’s commitment to chairing the Working Party on the accession of Ethiopia, but are also grateful to the Deputy Director General for temporarily standing in the coming meeting. Finally, the UK is a provider of technical support in this area, and we note that the Enhanced Integrated Fund is open to LDCs post accession, so we encourage Timor Leste and Comoros to use the facility where it is helpful.

Item 13: Stocktaking of Work on the Operationalization of paragraph 21 of the MC13 Abu Dhabi Ministerial Declaration. Communication from Pakistan

Thank you, Chair. We will be brief, but we just wanted to add thanks to Pakistan for bringing this important issue back to the General Council’s attention. Unfortunately, if anything, it is becoming increasingly relevant and urgent, and the UK does see the role of trade in this area. We will publish a full statement but just to acknowledge, in particular, Pakistan’s proactivity and thinking of areas like services, financial services and trade debt and finance work to identify where, as a Membership, we can take things forward and we look forward to continuing to contribute.

Item 14: WTO at 30. Statement by the Director General

Thank you. I want to be short. We set out yesterday commitment to the WTO in the multilateral trading system and the opportunities we have at work to benefit all Members. Of course, that includes WTO reform by doing, and we set out our confidence in your leadership, Director General. Like Australia, we encourage further work on this proposal. Thank you.

Updates to this page

Published 27 June 2025

MIL OSI United Kingdom –

June 28, 2025
MIL-OSI Analysis: Netflix drama ‘Secrets We Keep’ exposes the dangers of domestic migrant work

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Reena Kukreja, Associate Professor, Global Development Studies, Queen’s University, Ontario

In Secrets We Keep, the hidden world of domestic work and abuse is exposed. Here Excel Busano who plays Angel, Cecilia’s au pair and Ruby’s best friend in Denmark speaks with her community on the phone. Tine Harden/Netflix

Secrets We Keep (Reservatet), a Danish suspense series on Netflix created by Ingeborg Topsøe, delves into the disappearance of a Filipina au pair from an elite suburb of Copenhagen — and delivers a sharp social commentary on racial and class entitlements.

Moving fluidly between English, Danish and Tagalog, the six-part drama is a nuanced indictment of the lack of moral accountability among the rich. On display are the prejudices and complicity of white women in enabling a culture of toxic masculinity that treats Filipina migrant women as sexualized and disposable commodities.

The story starts with a tearful Ruby Tan — a Filipina au pair who works for the affluent Rasmus (Lars Ranthe) and Katarina (Danica Curcic) — asking for some help with her employers from her neighbour, Cecilie (Marie Bach Hansen).

Cecilie is a successful non-profit manager and mother of two married to a high-profile lawyer. She employs Angel (Excel Busano), a Filipina au pair. Cecilie tells Ruby (Donna Levkovski) she cannot get involved.

The next day, Ruby vanishes without a trace.

The series is propelled by Cecilie’s guilt in refusing to help Ruby. She is shocked at her neighbours’ apparent lack of concern for Ruby’s disappearance.

Cecilie begins to sleuth for clues regarding Ruby’s disappearance and she eventually decides to assist Aicha (Sara Fanta Traore), a racialized policewoman assigned to find the missing au pair. Cecilie discovers a pregnancy kit by a trash bin where she had last seen Ruby. And she soon suspects Ruby’s employer, Rasmus, of raping her.

While the series lacks true suspense due to its predictable story arc peppered with clues about Ruby’s disappearance, it is amply compensated by a sharp critique on the moral decay of modern society, systemic racism and the complicity of women in upholding white masculine privilege.

Warped racist view of the world

Secrets We Keep lays bare the warped world view of rich, white privilege, racism and the sexual fetishism of Asian women.

At a dinner party one night, Rasmus and Katarina do not seem concerned about their missing au pair. Katarina labels Filipina au pairs as whores working in brothels. When discussing Ruby, Katarina says, “she probably ran off to do porn.”

In one uncomfortable scene, Rasmus taunts Cecilia’s husband, Mike (Simon Sears), about his sexual preferences. Mike responds by saying: “I don’t have ‘yellow fever.’” Cecilia sits silently beside Mike.

Katarina also calls Aicha (Sara Fanta Traore), the policewoman, “the little brown one.”

At a formal dinner, Rasmus tells Cecilia: “We stick together. We are from the same world, and we are loyal to each other.”

High rates of violence against women

The reduction of Ruby into a sexual object in the show reflects the high rates of sexual violence against Filipina au pairs in Scandinavia.

It led the Philippines to ban the participation of Scandinavian countries in its “informal labour” arrangement in 1998. Though the ban was lifted in 2010, Au Pair Network, an advocacy group, reveals that the program is still riddled with abuse.

The Nordic Paradox is a term used to describe how Scandinavian countries, including Denmark, rank the highest in the Gender Equality Index yet suffer from very high rates of violence against women and intimate partner violence in Europe.

At a recent gender studies conference in Stockholm, Ardis Ingvars, a sociologist at the University of Iceland who worked as an au pair for a year in the United States just after she turned 18, recalls her anxiety and apprehension as she moved to Boston.

She said:

“Au pairs hope to be lucky with the family turning out OK. What is difficult to take is the attitude of ‘ownership’ that the children and families display over the au pairs as an unquestioned entitlement.”

Ingvars said asymmetrical power relations embedded within the au pair system reinforce racial and class hierarchies.

This is reflected in Secrets We Keep. Midway during Aicha’s investigation, as she hits roadblock after roadblock, she cries out in frustration: “She’s a fucking nobody in their world.”

Aicha Petersen (Sara Fanta Traore) is the police investigator charged with finding Ruby in ‘Secrets We Keep’.
Netflix

Feminized labour exploitation

Economic globalization, neoliberal policies and an increased dependence on the remittance economy fuses with the care gap in the Global North to fuel the feminized care migration from the Global South, many of them Filipino women.

Au pairs are placed with host families who provide free board and meals in return for up to 30 hours a week of housework and child care as they learn the host language and customs. The au pairs are paid “pocket money” of Danish Kroner 5,000 per month (approx $1,000 Canadian) out of which they also pay local taxes.

One scene shows one of Cecilie’s work meetings. A junior staff member expresses surprise that Cecilie has an au pair, labelling it a relic of colonial era racial hierarchies.

Cecilie defends herself, and says the system survives because of the failure of men to keep up their domestic bargain and thus the need for women like her “to outsource care.”

She argues the Filipina au pairs “are dependable” and she is “a much better mother” because of Angel. But Cecilie doesn’t acknowledge her privilege — that to be with her children and have a career is predicated on the exploitative extraction of care from Global South women.

The female au pairs in Denmark must be between 18-29 years of age, childless, never married and at the end of two years, return home. Almost 50 to 75 per cent of au pairs in Denmark are Filipino women

Cecilie’s shock at finding out that Angel has a son whom she left behind in the Philippines is part of her denial. In the end, Cecilie is unable to confront her own complicity and decides to release Angel from their au pair arrangement.

“You know nothing about my world…You are very lucky,” cries Angel in anguish as Cecilie hands her the return ticket and an extra three months’ pay to demonstrate her magnanimity.

Secrets We Keep reveals the brutal reality for Global South au pairs as well as upper-class white women and their entitlements. It indicates that even though these white wealthy women may see mistreatment, they maintain their silence and participate in wilful gendered violence to hold onto that privilege, while maintaining a façade of compassion towards the disposable racial migrant other.

Reena Kukreja receives funding from SSHRC.

– ref. Netflix drama ‘Secrets We Keep’ exposes the dangers of domestic migrant work – https://theconversation.com/netflix-drama-secrets-we-keep-exposes-the-dangers-of-domestic-migrant-work-258556

MIL OSI Analysis –

June 28, 2025
MIL-OSI Analysis: Netflix drama ‘Secrets We Keep’ exposes the dangers of domestic migrant work

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Reena Kukreja, Associate Professor, Global Development Studies, Queen’s University, Ontario

In Secrets We Keep, the hidden world of domestic work and abuse is exposed. Here Excel Busano who plays Angel, Cecilia’s au pair and Ruby’s best friend in Denmark speaks with her community on the phone. Tine Harden/Netflix

Secrets We Keep (Reservatet), a Danish suspense series on Netflix created by Ingeborg Topsøe, delves into the disappearance of a Filipina au pair from an elite suburb of Copenhagen — and delivers a sharp social commentary on racial and class entitlements.

Moving fluidly between English, Danish and Tagalog, the six-part drama is a nuanced indictment of the lack of moral accountability among the rich. On display are the prejudices and complicity of white women in enabling a culture of toxic masculinity that treats Filipina migrant women as sexualized and disposable commodities.

The story starts with a tearful Ruby Tan — a Filipina au pair who works for the affluent Rasmus (Lars Ranthe) and Katarina (Danica Curcic) — asking for some help with her employers from her neighbour, Cecilie (Marie Bach Hansen).

Cecilie is a successful non-profit manager and mother of two married to a high-profile lawyer. She employs Angel (Excel Busano), a Filipina au pair. Cecilie tells Ruby (Donna Levkovski) she cannot get involved.

The next day, Ruby vanishes without a trace.

The series is propelled by Cecilie’s guilt in refusing to help Ruby. She is shocked at her neighbours’ apparent lack of concern for Ruby’s disappearance.

Cecilie begins to sleuth for clues regarding Ruby’s disappearance and she eventually decides to assist Aicha (Sara Fanta Traore), a racialized policewoman assigned to find the missing au pair. Cecilie discovers a pregnancy kit by a trash bin where she had last seen Ruby. And she soon suspects Ruby’s employer, Rasmus, of raping her.

While the series lacks true suspense due to its predictable story arc peppered with clues about Ruby’s disappearance, it is amply compensated by a sharp critique on the moral decay of modern society, systemic racism and the complicity of women in upholding white masculine privilege.

Warped racist view of the world

Secrets We Keep lays bare the warped world view of rich, white privilege, racism and the sexual fetishism of Asian women.

At a dinner party one night, Rasmus and Katarina do not seem concerned about their missing au pair. Katarina labels Filipina au pairs as whores working in brothels. When discussing Ruby, Katarina says, “she probably ran off to do porn.”

In one uncomfortable scene, Rasmus taunts Cecilia’s husband, Mike (Simon Sears), about his sexual preferences. Mike responds by saying: “I don’t have ‘yellow fever.’” Cecilia sits silently beside Mike.

Katarina also calls Aicha (Sara Fanta Traore), the policewoman, “the little brown one.”

At a formal dinner, Rasmus tells Cecilia: “We stick together. We are from the same world, and we are loyal to each other.”

High rates of violence against women

The reduction of Ruby into a sexual object in the show reflects the high rates of sexual violence against Filipina au pairs in Scandinavia.

It led the Philippines to ban the participation of Scandinavian countries in its “informal labour” arrangement in 1998. Though the ban was lifted in 2010, Au Pair Network, an advocacy group, reveals that the program is still riddled with abuse.

The Nordic Paradox is a term used to describe how Scandinavian countries, including Denmark, rank the highest in the Gender Equality Index yet suffer from very high rates of violence against women and intimate partner violence in Europe.

At a recent gender studies conference in Stockholm, Ardis Ingvars, a sociologist at the University of Iceland who worked as an au pair for a year in the United States just after she turned 18, recalls her anxiety and apprehension as she moved to Boston.

She said:

“Au pairs hope to be lucky with the family turning out OK. What is difficult to take is the attitude of ‘ownership’ that the children and families display over the au pairs as an unquestioned entitlement.”

Ingvars said asymmetrical power relations embedded within the au pair system reinforce racial and class hierarchies.

This is reflected in Secrets We Keep. Midway during Aicha’s investigation, as she hits roadblock after roadblock, she cries out in frustration: “She’s a fucking nobody in their world.”

Aicha Petersen (Sara Fanta Traore) is the police investigator charged with finding Ruby in ‘Secrets We Keep’.
Netflix

Feminized labour exploitation

Economic globalization, neoliberal policies and an increased dependence on the remittance economy fuses with the care gap in the Global North to fuel the feminized care migration from the Global South, many of them Filipino women.

Au pairs are placed with host families who provide free board and meals in return for up to 30 hours a week of housework and child care as they learn the host language and customs. The au pairs are paid “pocket money” of Danish Kroner 5,000 per month (approx $1,000 Canadian) out of which they also pay local taxes.

One scene shows one of Cecilie’s work meetings. A junior staff member expresses surprise that Cecilie has an au pair, labelling it a relic of colonial era racial hierarchies.

Cecilie defends herself, and says the system survives because of the failure of men to keep up their domestic bargain and thus the need for women like her “to outsource care.”

She argues the Filipina au pairs “are dependable” and she is “a much better mother” because of Angel. But Cecilie doesn’t acknowledge her privilege — that to be with her children and have a career is predicated on the exploitative extraction of care from Global South women.

The female au pairs in Denmark must be between 18-29 years of age, childless, never married and at the end of two years, return home. Almost 50 to 75 per cent of au pairs in Denmark are Filipino women

Cecilie’s shock at finding out that Angel has a son whom she left behind in the Philippines is part of her denial. In the end, Cecilie is unable to confront her own complicity and decides to release Angel from their au pair arrangement.

“You know nothing about my world…You are very lucky,” cries Angel in anguish as Cecilie hands her the return ticket and an extra three months’ pay to demonstrate her magnanimity.

Secrets We Keep reveals the brutal reality for Global South au pairs as well as upper-class white women and their entitlements. It indicates that even though these white wealthy women may see mistreatment, they maintain their silence and participate in wilful gendered violence to hold onto that privilege, while maintaining a façade of compassion towards the disposable racial migrant other.

Reena Kukreja receives funding from SSHRC.

– ref. Netflix drama ‘Secrets We Keep’ exposes the dangers of domestic migrant work – https://theconversation.com/netflix-drama-secrets-we-keep-exposes-the-dangers-of-domestic-migrant-work-258556

MIL OSI Analysis –

June 28, 2025
MIL-OSI Analysis: Netflix drama ‘Secrets We Keep’ exposes the dangers of domestic migrant work

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Reena Kukreja, Associate Professor, Global Development Studies, Queen’s University, Ontario

In Secrets We Keep, the hidden world of domestic work and abuse is exposed. Here Excel Busano who plays Angel, Cecilia’s au pair and Ruby’s best friend in Denmark speaks with her community on the phone. Tine Harden/Netflix

Secrets We Keep (Reservatet), a Danish suspense series on Netflix created by Ingeborg Topsøe, delves into the disappearance of a Filipina au pair from an elite suburb of Copenhagen — and delivers a sharp social commentary on racial and class entitlements.

Moving fluidly between English, Danish and Tagalog, the six-part drama is a nuanced indictment of the lack of moral accountability among the rich. On display are the prejudices and complicity of white women in enabling a culture of toxic masculinity that treats Filipina migrant women as sexualized and disposable commodities.

The story starts with a tearful Ruby Tan — a Filipina au pair who works for the affluent Rasmus (Lars Ranthe) and Katarina (Danica Curcic) — asking for some help with her employers from her neighbour, Cecilie (Marie Bach Hansen).

Cecilie is a successful non-profit manager and mother of two married to a high-profile lawyer. She employs Angel (Excel Busano), a Filipina au pair. Cecilie tells Ruby (Donna Levkovski) she cannot get involved.

The next day, Ruby vanishes without a trace.

The series is propelled by Cecilie’s guilt in refusing to help Ruby. She is shocked at her neighbours’ apparent lack of concern for Ruby’s disappearance.

Cecilie begins to sleuth for clues regarding Ruby’s disappearance and she eventually decides to assist Aicha (Sara Fanta Traore), a racialized policewoman assigned to find the missing au pair. Cecilie discovers a pregnancy kit by a trash bin where she had last seen Ruby. And she soon suspects Ruby’s employer, Rasmus, of raping her.

While the series lacks true suspense due to its predictable story arc peppered with clues about Ruby’s disappearance, it is amply compensated by a sharp critique on the moral decay of modern society, systemic racism and the complicity of women in upholding white masculine privilege.

Warped racist view of the world

Secrets We Keep lays bare the warped world view of rich, white privilege, racism and the sexual fetishism of Asian women.

At a dinner party one night, Rasmus and Katarina do not seem concerned about their missing au pair. Katarina labels Filipina au pairs as whores working in brothels. When discussing Ruby, Katarina says, “she probably ran off to do porn.”

In one uncomfortable scene, Rasmus taunts Cecilia’s husband, Mike (Simon Sears), about his sexual preferences. Mike responds by saying: “I don’t have ‘yellow fever.’” Cecilia sits silently beside Mike.

Katarina also calls Aicha (Sara Fanta Traore), the policewoman, “the little brown one.”

At a formal dinner, Rasmus tells Cecilia: “We stick together. We are from the same world, and we are loyal to each other.”

High rates of violence against women

The reduction of Ruby into a sexual object in the show reflects the high rates of sexual violence against Filipina au pairs in Scandinavia.

It led the Philippines to ban the participation of Scandinavian countries in its “informal labour” arrangement in 1998. Though the ban was lifted in 2010, Au Pair Network, an advocacy group, reveals that the program is still riddled with abuse.

The Nordic Paradox is a term used to describe how Scandinavian countries, including Denmark, rank the highest in the Gender Equality Index yet suffer from very high rates of violence against women and intimate partner violence in Europe.

At a recent gender studies conference in Stockholm, Ardis Ingvars, a sociologist at the University of Iceland who worked as an au pair for a year in the United States just after she turned 18, recalls her anxiety and apprehension as she moved to Boston.

She said:

“Au pairs hope to be lucky with the family turning out OK. What is difficult to take is the attitude of ‘ownership’ that the children and families display over the au pairs as an unquestioned entitlement.”

Ingvars said asymmetrical power relations embedded within the au pair system reinforce racial and class hierarchies.

This is reflected in Secrets We Keep. Midway during Aicha’s investigation, as she hits roadblock after roadblock, she cries out in frustration: “She’s a fucking nobody in their world.”

Aicha Petersen (Sara Fanta Traore) is the police investigator charged with finding Ruby in ‘Secrets We Keep’.
Netflix

Feminized labour exploitation

Economic globalization, neoliberal policies and an increased dependence on the remittance economy fuses with the care gap in the Global North to fuel the feminized care migration from the Global South, many of them Filipino women.

Au pairs are placed with host families who provide free board and meals in return for up to 30 hours a week of housework and child care as they learn the host language and customs. The au pairs are paid “pocket money” of Danish Kroner 5,000 per month (approx $1,000 Canadian) out of which they also pay local taxes.

One scene shows one of Cecilie’s work meetings. A junior staff member expresses surprise that Cecilie has an au pair, labelling it a relic of colonial era racial hierarchies.

Cecilie defends herself, and says the system survives because of the failure of men to keep up their domestic bargain and thus the need for women like her “to outsource care.”

She argues the Filipina au pairs “are dependable” and she is “a much better mother” because of Angel. But Cecilie doesn’t acknowledge her privilege — that to be with her children and have a career is predicated on the exploitative extraction of care from Global South women.

The female au pairs in Denmark must be between 18-29 years of age, childless, never married and at the end of two years, return home. Almost 50 to 75 per cent of au pairs in Denmark are Filipino women

Cecilie’s shock at finding out that Angel has a son whom she left behind in the Philippines is part of her denial. In the end, Cecilie is unable to confront her own complicity and decides to release Angel from their au pair arrangement.

“You know nothing about my world…You are very lucky,” cries Angel in anguish as Cecilie hands her the return ticket and an extra three months’ pay to demonstrate her magnanimity.

Secrets We Keep reveals the brutal reality for Global South au pairs as well as upper-class white women and their entitlements. It indicates that even though these white wealthy women may see mistreatment, they maintain their silence and participate in wilful gendered violence to hold onto that privilege, while maintaining a façade of compassion towards the disposable racial migrant other.

Reena Kukreja receives funding from SSHRC.

– ref. Netflix drama ‘Secrets We Keep’ exposes the dangers of domestic migrant work – https://theconversation.com/netflix-drama-secrets-we-keep-exposes-the-dangers-of-domestic-migrant-work-258556

MIL OSI Analysis –

June 28, 2025
MIL-OSI Global: What Danish climate migration drama, Families Like Ours, gets wrong about rising sea levels

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Florian Steig, DPhil Student, Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford

In the Danish TV drama Families Like Ours, one melancholic line from high-school student Laura captures the emotional toll of climate displacement: “Soon we will vanish like bubbles in a creek.” This seven-part series imagines a near future in which Denmark is being evacuated due to rising sea levels – a government-mandated relocation of an entire population.

The series challenges the fantasy that wealthy western countries are immune to the far-reaching effects of climate change. Rather than focusing on catastrophic storylines, Families Like Ours portrays the mundane, bureaucratic and affective aspects of relocating a population in anticipation of a creeping crisis: the scramble for visas, the fractures that appear between families, and the inequalities in social and economic capital that shape people’s chances for a new life.

Yet, the idea that Denmark could soon get submerged is not grounded in science. More worryingly, the narrative of the unavoidable uninhabitability of entire nations and millions of international migrants flooding Europe is misleading, dangerous, and sidelines deeply political questions about adaptation to sea level rise that should be dealt with now.

The trailer for Families Like Ours.

Sea levels are rising by a few millimetres a year. That pace is accelerating. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that, by 2100, sea levels could rise by up to one metre on average. Beyond 2100, sea levels could rise by several metres, although these long-term scenarios are highly uncertain.

Even in extreme scenarios, these developments would unfold over several decades and centuries. It’s unlikely that permanent submergence of large areas of land will make Denmark uninhabitable.

Still, sea level rise poses a serious risk to the livelihoods of millions of people living in coastal zones. In the UK, many homes in Norfolk and Fairbourne, Wales, are already at risk from coastal erosion, for instance.

These changes are subtle. They do not warrant the evacuation of an entire nation, but degrade coastal livelihoods over time. Houses in high-risk areas like these may become uninsurable, devalued or too risky to live in. This will force people to move.

In addition, sea level rise makes coastal flooding more likely. In European high-income countries, including Denmark, rising waters already threaten coastal communities. Without adaptation, hundreds of thousands of homes in cities such as Copenhagen could be at risk.

The danger of mass migration narratives

However, depicting climate change as a driver of uncontrolled mass migration is misleading. Sea level rise will contribute to coastal migration, and state-led relocation is already a reality especially in Africa and Asia. But climate migration predominantly occurs within countries or regions. International migration from climate change impacts is the exception, not the norm.

To capture these complexities, some researchers prefer the term “climate mobility”. Mobility can be forced or voluntary, permanent or temporary, even seasonal. Some communities and people resist relocation plans and stay put.

Families Like Ours reinforces longstanding narratives that frame certain parts of the world as destined to become uninhabitable. Even UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned of a “mass exodus of entire populations on a biblical scale” due to sea level rise.

As a researcher working on climate adaptation, I notice that sea level rise and climate migration are increasingly discussed at the global level. Discussions focus, for example, on the protection of affected populations and continued statehood of nations after their potential submergence. A new global alliance of cities and regions tackling sea level rise called the Ocean Rise & Coastal Resilience Coalition considers a “managed retreat” not only as inevitable but as a rational and desirable adaptation pathway for many cities and regions.

Scientists have warned that creative storylines highlighting the “uninhabitability” of low-lying countries and regions, such as the Pacific, are not helpful. The mass migration narrative can be used by governments to justify extreme protectionist action and sideline urgent adaptation debates.

States are not helpless in the face of sea level rise and submergence is not inevitable. As geographer Carol Farbotko and colleagues suggest, “habitability is mediated by human actions and is not a direct consequence of environmental change”. People often develop their own ways of living with rising waters, resisting narratives of submergence. State-led adaptation is possible, but depends on finance, which is unequally distributed.

People’s migration decisions can seldomly be attributed to just climate impact. A community’s capacity to respond hinges on social, political, economic and demographic factors. Adaptation measures are costly. This raises deeply political questions over who gets to be protected, who is left behind, and how managed retreat can benefit the most affected people and places in a fair way. We need to overcome mass migration myths and start a serious and justice-focused debate about the future of our shorelines.

Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?

Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 45,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

Florian Steig receives funding from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes).

– ref. What Danish climate migration drama, Families Like Ours, gets wrong about rising sea levels – https://theconversation.com/what-danish-climate-migration-drama-families-like-ours-gets-wrong-about-rising-sea-levels-259234

MIL OSI – Global Reports –

June 28, 2025
MIL-OSI Analysis: Thimerosal discouraged in US flu vaccines, breaking with WHO guidance

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Edward Beamer, Lecturer, Pharmacology, Sheffield Hallam University

A federal vaccine panel, recently reshaped by US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has voted to discourage the use of flu vaccines containing thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative. The decision marks a dramatic shift in vaccine policy, as thimerosal has long been considered safe by health agencies worldwide, with its use already limited to a few multi-dose flu shots.

RFK Jr. has long linked thimerosal to autism – a connection that extensive scientific research has thoroughly debunked.

Thimerosal is an organic chemical containing mercury, used as a preservative in vaccines since the 1930s. Its effect comes from the mercury that disrupts the function of enzymes in microbes, such as bacteria and fungi. This prevents contamination of vaccines while they are stored in vials. Mercury, however, is also well-known as a potent toxin acting on cells the brain.

Much of mercury’s toxicity to brain cells stems from the same attributes that make thimerosal such a useful preservative. It disrupts the basic biological function of cells by changing the structure of proteins and enzymes.

In the brain, this can lead neurons to become excessively active, can impair the way they use energy, it can increase inflammation and lead to the death of neurons. While mercury poisoning can damage brain function in adults, babies are even more vulnerable.

People have long understood that mercury is toxic. But in the latter half of the 20th century, scientists discovered that industrial mercury entered rivers and seas, accumulating in the tissues of fish and shellfish. The neurological consequences of consuming too much contaminated seafood could be severe. This led environmental scientists to determine safe levels of mercury exposure.

Anxiety about mercury in vaccines intensified when it was noticed that some children receiving multiple vaccines could exceed established safety limits for mercury exposure. These limits were based on environmental toxicity studies. How mercury affects the brain, though, depends very much on the chemical form in which it is ingested.

In the 20th century, scientists discovered that mercury accumulates in the fish that we eat.
J nel/Shutterstock.com

Methylmercury v ethylmercury

The form of mercury that contaminates the environment as a consequence of industrial processes is methylmercury. The form that is part of thimerosal is ethylmercury.

The structure of these molecules differs in subtle but important ways. Methylmercury has one more carbon atom and two more hydrogen atoms than ethylmercury. These small differences significantly affect how each compound behaves in the body, particularly, in how easily they dissolve in fats.

Fat solubility is a key consideration in pharmacokinetics – the science of how drugs and other molecules travel through the body. Briefly, because cell membranes are made of fatty substances, a molecule’s ability to dissolve in fats strongly influences how it crosses these membranes and moves through the body.

It affects how a molecule is absorbed into the blood, how it is distributed to different tissues, how it is broken down by the body into other chemicals and how it is excreted.

Methylmercury from environmental contamination is more fat-soluble than ethylmercury from thimerosal. This means that it accumulates more easily in tissues, and is excreted from the body more slowly.

It also means that it can more easily cross into the brain and accumulate at greater concentrations for longer. For this reason, the safety guidelines that were established for methylmercury were unlikely to accurately predict the safety of ethylmercury.

Global policy shift amid public fear

Nevertheless, concerns about vaccine hesitancy, rising autism diagnoses and fears of a potential link to childhood vaccines led to thimerosal being almost entirely removed from childhood vaccines in the US by 2001 and in the UK between 2003 and 2005.

Beyond biological considerations, policymakers were also responding to concerns about how vaccine fears could undermine immunisation efforts and fuel the spread of infectious diseases.

Denmark, which removed thimerosal from childhood vaccines in 1992, provided an early opportunity to study the issue. Researchers compared the rates of autism before and after thimerosal’s removal as well as compared with similar countries still using it. Several large studies demonstrated conclusively that thimerosal was not causing autism or neurodevelopmental harm.

Despite the overwhelming evidence that thimerosal is safe, it is no longer widely used in childhood vaccines in high-income countries, replaced by preservative-free vaccines, which must be stored as a single dose per vial.

Storing multiple doses of a vaccine in the same vial, however, is still an extremely useful approach in resource-limited settings, in pandemics and where diseases require rapid, large-scale vaccination campaigns – common with influenza.

International health bodies, including the World Health Organization, continue to support thimerosal’s use. They emphasise that the benefits of immunisation far outweigh the theoretical risks from low-dose ethylmercury exposure.

Edward Beamer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Thimerosal discouraged in US flu vaccines, breaking with WHO guidance – https://theconversation.com/thimerosal-discouraged-in-us-flu-vaccines-breaking-with-who-guidance-259609

MIL OSI Analysis –

June 28, 2025
MIL-OSI Analysis: Scandinavia has its own dark history of assimilating Indigenous people, and churches played a role – but are apologizing

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Thomas A. DuBois, Professor of Scandinavian Studies, Folklore, and Religious Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison

A church in Kiruna, Sweden, designed by architect Gustaf Wickman to resemble a Sami hut. Apolline Guillerot-Malick/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

In May 2025, Tapio Luoma, archbishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, delivered an apology to the Sámi, the only recognized Indigenous people in the European Union.

Speaking on behalf of the church to which more than 6 in 10 of the Finnish populace belong, including most Sámi, Luoma acknowledged its role in past activities that stigmatized Sámi language and culture.

The church “has not respected the rights to self-determination of the Sámi people,” his address began. “Before God and all of you here assembled, we express our regret and ask forgiveness of the Sámi people.”

Luoma’s words were the latest in a series of apologies through which the former state churches in Scandinavia have sought to reset their relations with the Indigenous population of Sápmi, the natural and cultural area of Sámi people. Today, the region is divided between Finland, Norway, Sweden and Russia.

As a scholar of Sámi culture, and as a researcher of Nordic folklore and religion, I have studied the difficult, often painful, relations between Sámi and the various Nordic state churches.

Church’s power

For thousands of years, the Sámi population lived by hunting, fishing and reindeer husbandry along the northern edges of Scandinavia. The Sámi possessed their own languages and maintained distinctive spiritual traditions and healing practices, drawing on traditional ecological knowledge that they had accrued over countless generations. In times of crisis or uncertainty, for example, communities used ceremonial drums to communicate with the spirit world and divine the future.

Conflicts emerged by the 13th century, however, as Christian realms expanded north. Christian clerics condemned Sámi spiritual traditions as “heathen devilry.”

An 18th-century carving of a Sámi shaman with his drum.
Beskrivelse over Finnmarkens Lapper, deres Tungemaal, Levemaade og forrige Afgudsdyrkelse/O. H. von Lode/Wikimedia Commons

During the 16th-century Protestant Reformation, Scandinavian rulers shifted from Catholicism to Lutheranism. In addition to tending to the souls of their flocks, ministers were tasked with keeping track of the comings and goings of congregation members, collecting taxes, and administering justice for lesser crimes.

They aimed to stamp out the spiritual practices that many Sámi continued to practice alongside Christianity. Church authorities arrested, fined and sometimes even executed practitioners, while confiscating sacred drums to be destroyed or sent to distant museums.

The church’s ritual of confirmation, which marks the passage from adolescence into adulthood, also acquired legal status. Being confirmed required the ability to read and interpret the Bible and Martin Luther’s Catechism, a summary of the Lutheran Church’s beliefs. As the church became part of the state, people who had not received confirmation could not represent themselves in court, own land or even marry.

Lake Pielpajarvi Wilderness Church, the oldest Sami church still in use, in Inari Municipality, Lapland, Finland.
VW PICS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

And where Luther had called for religious instruction to occur in one’s native language, most Nordic clergy provided catechesis only in the majority language, considering Sámi language and traditions impediments to true conversion.

Assimilation efforts

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the new “nation states” of Finland, Norway and Sweden emerged on the world stage. In each country, political leaders conflated what the ancient Greeks called the “demos” – members of a political nation – with an “ethnos,” a cultural group. In order to belong to the Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish political nations, political and cultural leaders of these new states asserted that it was necessary to belong to the majority linguistic and cultural community.

Finland’s 1919 constitution made provision for Swedish, which is still used by about 5% of the population, as a national language alongside Finnish. However, the government accorded no such status to Sámi.

Both state-run residential boarding schools and schools run by churches included Lutheranism as a subject and strove relentlessly to assimilate Sámi into the majority culture, language and worldview, teaching children to see their culture as backward and shameful. Some church and school authorities cooperated with pseudoscientific racial researchers measuring students’ heads and excavating Sámi graves.

A ‘nomad school’ for Sami children in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden, 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle, in 1956.
John Firth/BIPs/Getty Images

As a result, many students ceased to identify as Sámi and adopted the majority language as their primary mode of communication. Today, only about half the people who identify as Sámi have any facility in Sámi languages, which are considered endangered.

After World War II, church attendance in all the Nordic countries began to plummet. Where 98% of the Finnish population belonged to the state church in 1900, by 2024 that percentage had dropped to 62%. The bulk of defections consisted of people who registered as having no religious affiliation. Membership in the national church shifted from compulsory to voluntary.

Yet as anthropologist David Koester shows, some elements of Lutheran tradition remain extremely popular in all the Nordic countries, particularly Confirmation. The ritual remains a key rite of passage for most Sámi today, yet many of them wrestle with whether they should remain faithful to a church that had worked to suppress their community’s language and culture.

Reconciliation today

Searching for a path forward, contemporary Sámi artist and Lutheran catechist Lars Levi Sunna began to produce church art that incorporated and celebrated pre-Christian Sámi symbols – some of the very traditions that had been demonized by clergy of the past.

For example, in a church in the northern Swedish town of Jukkasjärvi, an image of the sun as it appeared on Sámi ceremonial drums now faces the altar, providing a vivid reminder of the spiritual history and past worldview of the church’s Sámi congregation. The symbol now encloses an image of a communion wafer carved of reindeer antler.

In 2005, Sunna created a traveling art exhibit that portrayed Sámi Christianization as an act of cultural violence. The exhibit, designed for temporary installation in church sanctuaries, aimed to provoke discussion and encourage open dialogue about the past.

Similarly, in 2008, Norwegian Sámi filmmaker Nils Gaup produced “Kautokeino Rebellion,” a film recounting clergy’s role in suppressing religious activism among followers of a Swedish Sámi minister, Lars Levi Laestadius. The so-called uprising in 1852 led to the imprisonment of several dozen Sámi and the execution of two men – whose skulls were deposited in a research institute and did not receive proper burial until 1997.

Descended from one of the punished families, Gaup reminded his audience of past injustice shrouded in shame and silence.

Since church attendance is infrequent in Nordic countries, art and film serve as important vehicles for raising awareness of the church’s past. In November 2021, the archbishop of Sweden, Antje Jackelén, issued a formal apology to the Sámi. Sámi artist and activist Anders Sunna was invited to temporarily redecorate the sanctuary of the Cathedral of Uppsala for the occasion. His decorations included reminders of past Sámi sacrificial traditions that took place both outdoors and around hearth fires. In place of a grand altar, Sunna erected a simple table, surrounded by an octagon of benches where the bishop and members of the Sámi community would sit face to face with a sense of equality and respect.

As Sámi theologian Tore Johnsen notes, formal apologies are necessary first steps in a process of reconciliation. But only once they are followed by concrete acts of “restoration” can real reconciliation occur.

When the Finnish archbishop apologized in May 2025, Sámi in attendance at the Turku Cathedral were appreciative, but they were eager to see what actions might follow, according to reporters at the ceremony. The same wait-and-see attitude characterizes Sámi responses to state-run Truth and Reconciliation processes, which occurred in Norway in 2023 and are currently ongoing in Sweden and Finland.

The process of healing a society injured by colonialism is difficult and slow, requiring extensive discussion – much of it uncomfortable. With Luoma’s words of apology and the arrival of Sámi to listen and witness, an important step in that process occurred.

Thomas A. DuBois does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Scandinavia has its own dark history of assimilating Indigenous people, and churches played a role – but are apologizing – https://theconversation.com/scandinavia-has-its-own-dark-history-of-assimilating-indigenous-people-and-churches-played-a-role-but-are-apologizing-255827

MIL OSI Analysis –

June 28, 2025
MIL-OSI Security: INTERPOL-Europol operation results in global seizures of fake and illicit food

Source: Interpol (news and events)

14 December 2012

A joint INTERPOL-Europol operation targeting fake and substandard food and drink, as well as the organized crime networks behind this illicit trade, has resulted in the seizure of more than 135 tonnes of potentially harmful goods ranging from everyday products of coffee, soup cubes and olive oil, to luxury goods such as truffles and caviar. A further 100 tonnes of misdeclared and/or potentially hazardous food was confiscated during investigations linked to Operation Opson II.

Raids and inspections resulted in around 100 arrests and the seizure of more than 135 tonnes of potentially harmful goods, including everyday products such as coffee, soup cubes and olive oil.

Illicit goods are often produced, transported and stored without any form of hygiene controls, putting the health and safety of consumers at risk.

This year, Opson expanded beyond Europe to include countries in Africa, the Americas and Asia. Inspections were carried out at this warehouse in Thailand.

A project under development – the INTERPOL Global Register – will enable people to scan and verify the legitimacy of a product from their mobile device.

Operation Opson targets fake and substandard food and drink and the organized crime networks behind this illicit trade.

Cash was also seized during Opson II.

INTERPOL and Europol representatives helped coordinate action in Madrid, Spain.

Checks and raids were carried out at airports, seaports, shops, markets and private homes.

The operation was supported by customs (Hungarian customs officers pictured here), national food regulatory bodies and partners from the private sector.

The Thai Food and Drug Administration displayed the wide variety of goods seized including snacks, canned food, coffee and soft drinks.

National police in 29 countries took part. Officers in Budapest, Hungary, were briefed on the operation.

Opson was a week-long operation, coordinated jointly by INTERPOL and Europol.

Operation Opson II (3 – 9 December), which involved 29 countries from all regions of the world, resulted in the recovery of more than 385,000 litres of counterfeit liquids including vodka, wine, soy sauce and orange juice in addition to fish, seafood and meat declared unfit for human consumption, as well as fake candy bars and condiments.

With the fake and substandard food and drink often produced, transported and stored without any form of regulation or hygiene controls, consumers buying these illicit goods are risking their health and safety while the criminal networks make millions in profits which can be used to fund other illegal activities such as human and drug trafficking.

Operation Opson II saw the number of participating countries rise from 10 in 2011 to nearly 30 this year, an increase which, says Simone Di Meo, a Criminal Intelligence Officer with INTERPOL’s Trafficking in Illicit Goods unit, reflects a growing awareness of the problem and involvement by organized crime.

“With this year’s operation going beyond Europe and involving countries in Africa, the Americas and Asia, this will enable us to gather even more intelligence about the networks behind this criminal activity and potentially identify global links with other types of crime,” says Mr Di Meo.

Coordinated by INTERPOL and Europol, the week-long operation was supported by customs, police and national food regulatory bodies in addition to partners from the private sector. Checks and raids were carried out at airports, seaports, shops, markets and private homes.

“With this operation, we are showing the criminal networks involved in this line of business that they are not safe and, just as importantly, we are helping to protect public health and safety. In many cases, the quality of the packaging of the fake food and drink is so well done that consumers may not even be aware that they are buying illicit products and potentially risking their lives,” says Chris Vansteenkiste, Project Manager of the Intellectual Property Crime Team at Europol.

Among the key aims of Operation Opson (meaning food in ancient Greek) were the development of practical cooperation between national law enforcement, food and drug agencies and private companies, the identification of the organized criminal groups behind the trafficking, and raising awareness among consumers and governments about this type of crime.

Countries which took part in Operation Opson II are Austria, Belgium, Benin, Bulgaria, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Jordan, Latvia, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom and the USA.

Investigations are continuing in many countries and additional information on national activities can be obtained from the enforcement agencies of the countries concerned.

MIL Security OSI –

June 27, 2025
MIL-OSI: Sale of Custody Business in Hsbc Germany
Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

Press Release

27 June 2025

SALE OF CUSTODY BUSINESS IN HSBC GERMANY

HSBC Continental Europe has reached an agreement to sell its custody business in Germany to BNP Paribas S.A, Niederlassung Deutschland (‘BNP Paribas’) (the ‘Potential Transaction’), reinforcing its focus on being the leading corporate and institutional bank in Germany and Europe for international clients.

This decision forms part of the simplification strategy of HSBC announced in October 2024. HSBC is focused on increasing its leadership and market share in the areas where it has a clear competitive advantage, and where it has the greatest opportunity to grow and support its clients. This includes connecting European clients to opportunities across HSBC’s international network. For Securities Services, this means focusing on HSBC’s market-leading franchise in Asia and the Middle East and providing best in class custody and fund services to clients in the UK and Europe via our strategic hubs in London, Ireland and Luxembourg.

The custody business in Germany focuses on domestic custody, clearing and depository services for German institutional clients.

All custody staff employed by HSBC Continental Europe S.A., Germany, as well as its assets and clients, would transfer to BNP Paribas as part of the Potential Transaction.

Completion of the Potential Transaction is subject to customary regulatory and anti-trust approvals and the conclusion of negotiations with the Works Council in Germany.

A phased transfer of staff and clients starting early 2026 is anticipated. Both parties are focused on enabling a smooth transition for clients and colleagues.

The analysis of strategic options for HSBC Germany’s fund administration business is ongoing.

Contacts:

HSBC Continental Europe
Headquartered in Paris, HSBC Continental Europe is an indirectly held subsidiary of HSBC Holdings plc. HSBC Continental Europe comprises corporate and institutional banking, private banking, insurance and asset management activities across Continental Europe, including the business activities of 10 European branches (in Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden) and two banking subsidiaries in Luxembourg and Malta. HSBC Continental Europe’s mission is to serve both customers in Continental Europe for their needs worldwide and Group customers for their needs in Continental Europe.

HSBC Continental Europe S.A., Germany (‘HSBC Germany’)
HSBC Germany is the German branch of HSBC Continental Europe, whose activities comprise corporate and institutional banking, private banking and asset management.

HSBC Holdings plc
HSBC Holdings plc, the parent company of the HSBC Group, is headquartered in London. HSBC serves customers worldwide from offices in 58 countries and territories. With assets of US$3,054bn at 31 March 2025, HSBC is one of the world’s largest banking and financial services organisations.

About BNP Paribas (group.bnpparibas)
Leader in banking and financial services in Europe, BNP Paribas operates in 64 countries and has nearly 178,000 employees, including more than 144,000 in Europe. The Group has key positions in its three main fields of activity: Commercial, Personal Banking & Services for the Group’s commercial & personal banking and several specialised businesses including BNP Paribas Personal Finance and Arval; Investment & Protection Services for savings, investment and protection solutions; and Corporate & Institutional Banking, focused on corporate and institutional clients. Based on its strong diversified and integrated model, the Group helps all its clients (individuals, community associations, entrepreneurs, SMEs, corporates and institutional clients) to realise their projects through solutions spanning financing, investment, savings and protection insurance. In Europe, BNP Paribas has four domestic markets: Belgium, France, Italy and Luxembourg. The Group is rolling out its integrated commercial & personal banking model across several Mediterranean countries, Türkiye, and Eastern Europe. As a key player in international banking, the Group has leading platforms and business lines in Europe, a strong presence in the Americas as well as a solid and fast-growing business in Asia-Pacific. BNP Paribas has implemented a Corporate Social Responsibility approach in all its activities, enabling it to contribute to the construction of a sustainable future, while ensuring the Group’s performance and stability.

About Securities Services at BNP Paribas (securities.cib.bnpparibas)
BNP Paribas’ Securities Services business is a leading global custodian providing multi-asset post-trade and asset servicing solutions to buy-side and sell-side market participants, corporates, and issuers. With a global reach covering 90+ markets, its custody network is one of the most extensive in the industry, enabling clients to maximise their investment opportunities worldwide. As a pillar of BNP Paribas’ diversified banking model, Securities Services provides asset servicing solutions that are closely integrated with the first-class services of the Group’s other business lines, in particular those of Global Banking and Global Markets. As of 31 March 2025, Securities Services had USD 15.4 trillion in assets under custody, USD 2.9 trillion in assets under administration and 9,350 funds administered.

Attachment
- SALE OF CUSTODY BUSINESS IN HSBC GERMANY
The MIL Network –
June 27, 2025
UN bids to salvage global development summit after US boycott

Source: Government of India

Source: Government of India (4)

Scores of world leaders will be sweltering in the summer sun of southern Spain next week at a once-a-decade United Nations development financing summit aimed at curbing global poverty, disease and the worst-case threats of climate change.

Despite the scorching temperatures, though, a major chill looms over the event – the decision early this month by the United States, traditionally the world’s largest aid giver and key finance provider, not to show up.

UN countries want to close a $4 trillion-a-year funding gap they now estimate prevents the developing world achieving the organisation’s Sustainable Development Goals that range from cutting infant death rates to minimising global warming.

Critics say the promises at the heart of the conference – called the “Seville Commitment” – are nowhere near bold enough.

The measures, agreed by consensus after a year of tough negotiations, include tripling multilateral lending capacity, debt relief, a push to boost tax-to-GDP ratios to at least 15%, and shifting special IMF money to countries that need it most.

The run-up, however, has been marred by the U.S. decision to withdraw over what it said was the crossing of a number of its red lines, including the push to triple development bank lending, change tax rules and the use of the term “gender” in summit wording.

The European Union only joined the summit with reservations, particularly over how debt is discussed within the UN.

Speaking to reporters this week, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed described Washington’s boycott as “regrettable”, especially after its “catastrophic” recent aid cuts that she said had cost lives and livelihoods.

Speaking alongside officials from summit host Spain and Zambia, which has helped organise it, she said the final outcome document agreed reflected both “ambition and realism” and that the U.N. would try to re-engage the U.S. afterwards.

Remy Rioux, chief executive officer of the French Development Agency, said Washington’s withdrawal had not been a total surprise given Donald Trump’s views. The hope is that agreements next week will allow bolder action at the UN climate talks in Brazil in November.

“We will push for the new framework… (and) its operationalisation from Seville to Belem,” he added, referring to the Brazilian city that will host COP30.

AID IN DECLINE

Other measures to be announced include multilateral lenders automatically giving vulnerable countries the option to insert repayment break clauses into their loans in case of hurricane, drought or flood.

Another buzz phrase will be a “Global SDR playbook” – a plan where the wealthiest countries rechannel the IMF’s reserve-like Special Draw Rights they hold to the multilateral banks, who then leverage them as capital in order to lend more.

Campaigners warn that it will fall far short of what is needed, especially as more than 130 countries now face critically high debt levels and many spend more on repayments than on health or education.

Aid and support from rich countries, who themselves have rising debts, is dropping too.

In March, the U.S. slashed more than 80% of programmes at its USAID agency following federal budget cuts spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk. Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden have all made cuts in recent years too.

The OECD projects a 9–17% drop in net official development assistance (ODA) in 2025, following a 9% decline in 2024.

It looks set to hit the poorest countries hardest: bilateral ODA to least developed countries and sub-Saharan Africa may fall by 13-25% and 16-28% respectively, the OECD estimates, and health funding could drop by up to 60% from its 2022 peak.

So what would be a good outcome in Seville, especially given the U.S. pull-out?

“We should make sure we are not backtracking at this point,” said Orville Grey at the International Institute for Sustainable Development, referring to funding commitments. “We should at least remain stable.”

(Reuters)

June 27, 2025
MIL-OSI Economics: Thales and KONGSBERG to establish new major Defence communications joint venture in Norway

Source: Thales Group

Headline: Thales and KONGSBERG to establish new major Defence communications joint venture in Norway

Thales and Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace have agreed to combine two of their businesses – KONGSBERG’s secure communications unit and Thales’ crypto and secure communications business in Norway – in a joint venture designed to meet the growing connectivity needs of defence forces in Norway, NATO countries and other nations. This new company is a response to European armed forces’ call for greater interoperability, sovereignty, and the urgent need for large-scale equipment delivery.

MIL OSI Economics –

June 27, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: Informal meeting on migration management in the margins of the European Council

Source: Government of Italy (English)

In the margins of the European Council meeting, the President of the Council of Ministers, Giorgia Meloni, together with the Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, and the Dutch Prime Minister, Dick Schoof, held another informal meeting today with some of the Member States that have the most interest in innovative solutions for the management of migration, and in particular the strengthening of the legal framework regarding returns.

In addition to Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands and the European Commission, the meeting was also attended by Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Malta, Poland and Sweden.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen outlined the main areas of the Commission’s work regarding migration, focusing in particular on the progress of negotiations concerning the most recent legislative proposals on migration, starting with the new ‘Returns Regulation’, while also confirming that another meeting of the global coalition against migrant smuggling had been called for 10 December in Brussels.

President Meloni expressed satisfaction with the results achieved so far by the informal group of the nations most interested in innovative solutions, and also pointed out a number of new focus areas, starting with the follow-up to the open letter dated 22 May regarding international conventions and their ability to respond to the challenges of irregular migration.

Thanking President von der Leyen for the concrete operational work carried out, the leaders present agreed to continue maintaining close coordination also ahead of the next European summits.

MIL OSI Europe News –

June 27, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: Informal meeting on migration management in the margins of the European Council

Source: Government of Italy (English)

In the margins of the European Council meeting, the President of the Council of Ministers, Giorgia Meloni, together with the Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, and the Dutch Prime Minister, Dick Schoof, held another informal meeting today with some of the Member States that have the most interest in innovative solutions for the management of migration, and in particular the strengthening of the legal framework regarding returns.

In addition to Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands and the European Commission, the meeting was also attended by Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Malta, Poland and Sweden.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen outlined the main areas of the Commission’s work regarding migration, focusing in particular on the progress of negotiations concerning the most recent legislative proposals on migration, starting with the new ‘Returns Regulation’, while also confirming that another meeting of the global coalition against migrant smuggling had been called for 10 December in Brussels.

President Meloni expressed satisfaction with the results achieved so far by the informal group of the nations most interested in innovative solutions, and also pointed out a number of new focus areas, starting with the follow-up to the open letter dated 22 May regarding international conventions and their ability to respond to the challenges of irregular migration.

Thanking President von der Leyen for the concrete operational work carried out, the leaders present agreed to continue maintaining close coordination also ahead of the next European summits.

MIL OSI Europe News –

June 27, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: Strategy for Sweden’s humanitarian assistance provided through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency 2025–2029

Source: Government of Sweden

The Swedish Government has decided to adopt a new strategy for humanitarian aid for 2025—2029. Sida is tasked with its implementation. The humanitarian core mandate of saving lives and alleviating suffering is a government priority. Cost-effectiveness, new transformative approaches and innovation are guiding principles for the strategy.

MIL OSI Europe News –

June 27, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: Strategy for Sweden’s humanitarian assistance provided through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency 2025–2029

Source: Government of Sweden

The Swedish Government has decided to adopt a new strategy for humanitarian aid for 2025—2029. Sida is tasked with its implementation. The humanitarian core mandate of saving lives and alleviating suffering is a government priority. Cost-effectiveness, new transformative approaches and innovation are guiding principles for the strategy.

MIL OSI Europe News –

June 27, 2025
MIL-OSI Europe: Strategy for Sweden’s humanitarian assistance provided through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency 2025–2029

Source: Government of Sweden

The Swedish Government has decided to adopt a new strategy for humanitarian aid for 2025—2029. Sida is tasked with its implementation. The humanitarian core mandate of saving lives and alleviating suffering is a government priority. Cost-effectiveness, new transformative approaches and innovation are guiding principles for the strategy.

MIL OSI Europe News –

June 27, 2025