Belgium Charts a Course for Rules-Based Order at the UN General Assembly

Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prévot delivered a sweeping address to the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 22, 2026, defending international law as the world's indispensable compass, standing firmly with Ukraine, and making a concrete bid to host the new high seas biodiversity treaty secretariat in Brussels.

• Belgium declares international law must hold even when compliance is hard, warning that a signature that loses value weakens trust itself

• Russia's war against Ukraine threatens every border, Belgium says, insisting sovereignty cannot be treated as optional outside Europe

• Brussels offers to host the BBNJ high seas treaty secretariat, calling the agreement proof that international law continues to be built

• Belgium pledges to defend international court judges and staff facing sanctions or pressure for carrying out their mandates

• Humanitarian aid is "neither a reward nor a bargaining chip," Prévot warns, urging nations not to cut funding as hundreds of millions need assistance

• AI governance, maritime security, and migration round out a comprehensive vision linking small-state survival to common rules

Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prévot opened Belgium's address with a literary flourish, quoting the Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck's "The Blind": "Years and years we have been together and we have never seen each other." The allusion framed Prévot's central argument — that nations gather constantly but rarely achieve genuine understanding.