Excellencies, ladies, and gentlemen, distinguished guests. 

It gives me great pleasure as Chairman of the Sunhak Peace Prize to send you this warm message of greetings here from Lisbon. But first, let me pay tribute and say some words of recognition to the vision of Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon for the generous patronage of this prize. For a long time, commitment, and advocacy of the values of global citizenship, sustainable development, and above all, World Peace. 

The idea behind this Sunhak Peace Prize is simple, which is making the world better for future generations. The idea is to promote values of truly global cooperation, transcending barriers of race, religion, nationality, or culture. The Prize encourages all peoples of the world today to dedicate themselves to advancing peace by promoting dialogue and cooperation over conflict and confrontation. 

I have the honor to share a very distinguished jury, a very distinguished group of people that took these decisions this year by secret vote, and they have decided to recognize the work of one person and one organization. 

Scientific innovation, as well as international solidarity and multilateral cooperation, are necessary to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, which jeopardized the lives of everyone. Health is a matter of science and medicine, but it's also a matter of basic and fundamental human rights. Paradoxically, I believe that the COVID-19 pandemic is giving us an opportunity to drive real change. We do not know when the next pandemic will occur, but the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that solidarity and cooperation based on humanity are the solutions to the global crisis. 

This Pandemic has shown to us that we really need to have global cooperation to promote global public goods. This pandemic has shown us that science and multilateralism work. I thank you for your attention and I congratulate the laureates of this year's Sunhak Peace Prize. Thank you.