Speech by High Representative/Vice-President Kaja Kallas at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue

*Esteemed guests, Dear Ministers, it is an honour to be sharing the stage with you. Thanks to the International Institute for Strategic Studies for your work in organising such a great meeting of minds and for inviting me for the second time. This year marks 80 years since the end of World War Two. When autocratic powers tried to bend the global order to their will, and lost. 80 years ago, freedom prevailed. We collectively established a rules-based international system with the United Nations at its core. We developed legal principles to try crimes of atrocity. We established international law to protect territorial integrity. We signed the United Nations Charter. This is a treaty that binds every UN Member State by law. 80 years after the end of World War Two, some actors are subverting its very foundation. It is the greatest challenge of our time. Three points. First, Russia is waging an illegal war of aggression by invading a sovereign state. The UN Charter provides for only two legal grounds for the use of force: Self-defence;And the authorisation of force by the Security Council in response to a threat to peace, a breach of aggression and an act of aggression. There are no ‘root causes’ under international law that allow for the use of force. North Korea directly contributes to the illegal aggression with soldiers, arms and ammunition. And China says it’s neutral, but its dual-use exports are fuelling Russia’s war. When China and Russia speak of leading together...