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Just two days after the dynamic demonstration in The Hague against the NATO Summit, the International Forum for Peace 2025 convened in Brussels to advance a bold, urgent agenda for global peace. The NATO meeting, which saw member states (with the exception of Spain) commit to increasing defence spending to 5% of GDP, marked a dangerous escalation in the militarisation of Europe. In response, the Forum served as a vital counterpoint — politically, strategically, and morally.

The Brussels event hosted by transform! europe in partnership with the International Peace Bureau, Progressive International, the Party of the European Left, and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, followed a two-day counter-summit on 20–21 June in den Hague, which brought together 400 activists from across Europe to resist the transformation of the EU into a war-oriented global actor. The International Forum for Peace gathered around 150 participants from around the world, with also a strong European political presence signalled through the presence of MEPs Özlem Demirel and  Marc Botenga, as well as the president of the European Left Party Walter Baier and the leader of the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB-PVDA) Peter Martins.

Across two days of plenaries and workshops, the Forum provided space for diverse voices advocating peace, climate justice, and social justice. A common thread ran through the debates: the urgent need to break the current political deadlock in Europe, which is accelerating the march towards war, and to instead reorient resources and diplomacy towards the real needs of people and the planet.

Participants called for a democratic, peaceful, and multilateral world — one that overcomes colonial legacies and puts cooperation over confrontation. From investing in climate resilience and socially beneficial technologies to defending human rights and global working-class livelihoods, the Forum reaffirmed the necessity of building alliances for peace rooted in justice, solidarity, and internationalism.

The IFFP concluded with a common declaration (below also in French and Spanish) and the affirmation to continue the efforts for a future of peace and justice and to be active on during the International Day for Peace on the 21^st of September 2025. transform! will remain committed to IFFP and to all efforts of our network for peace.

On the other side are the forces striving to forge a new multilateral order, committed to the principles of the UN, based on peaceful coexistence, mutually beneficial cooperation, social progress, and solidarity.

The NATO Summit on June 24–25, with its proposal to increase military spending at the expense of social spending, deepens the arms race, which in 2024 amounted to a global military expenditure of 2.718 trillion dollars.

We believe that the Atlantic Alliance is part of a security system that has repeatedly violated the UN Charter and is generating greater insecurity in a global scenario marked by a multidimensional crisis that threatens humanity and the planet.

We are deeply concerned about the resurgence of fascism and the multiple crises threatening life on the planet, taking us further away from the goal of achieving a peaceful world. These crises are causing intensified exploitation, growing inequality, increased poverty in significant regions of the world, climate change, and escalating global violence.

The growing conflicts worldwide—including the genocide perpetrated by Israel in Gaza, the war in Ukraine, conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Western Sahara, Sudan, the recent Israeli aggression against Iran, and many others—are flagrant violations of international law and the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.

We recognize that these wars are economically driven, aiming to seize natural resources for profit.

The consequences of these crises manifest in death, suffering, destruction, and denial of the most basic rights of peoples. Wars especially affect the millions of human beings who lose their lives or are forced to flee their homes, particularly women—who are raped as spoils of war or trafficked—alongside children, the elderly, and people with special needs.

We also denounce the continued interference in the internal affairs of other countries by the United States and its allies, such as the European Union, as well as their manipulation campaigns and attempts to destabilize sovereign nations that do not bow to their interests.

We explicitly condemn the economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed on Cuba, as well as its unilateral inclusion on the list of so-called state sponsors of terrorism, from which it must be immediately removed. These policies are unjust, inhumane, and contrary to international law.

We also condemn the recent U.S. bombing of facilities in Iran, which violates Iran's sovereignty and international law, posing a direct threat to global peace and stability.

Reducing security to merely a matter of armaments and military confrontation poses immense dangers for all peoples.

The growing militarization and increasing geopolitical tensions obstruct the multilateral cooperation urgently needed to solve global problems created by the current unjust international order—poverty, inequality, patriarchal violence, hunger, lack of housing, climate change, limited access to health and education, genocide, armed conflicts, and the nuclear threat.

The ongoing increase in military budgets diverts resources urgently needed to ensure real security for people and the planet.

History shows that many of the international security problems stem from a lack of respect for rights and sovereignty, often accompanied by the promotion of fascist forces, and rooted in socioeconomic and ecological disruptions, unbridled exploitation of resources, and the absence of diplomacy and multilateral mechanisms for collective security.

In response to the belligerent escalation proposed at the 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague— which seeks more military spending, more rearmament, and a globalized NATO serving the dominance of a few—we emphasize the relevance of the Helsinki Accords, signed 50 years ago, which established essential principles such as respect for the sovereignty of peoples, peaceful conflict resolution, and non-intervention. We also highlight the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace, which offers a cooperative model to be replicated in other regions of the world.

Now more than ever, we must move towards a multilateral, just, democratic, and equitable international order based on peaceful coexistence, solidarity, and international cooperation.

We, the organizers of this International Forum for Peace, believe that to build peace, we must unite, cooperate, and organize in all our diversity to support the struggles of the working class and the efforts of social movements—especially involving youth—in the project of constructing a common security architecture based on multilateralism and adherence to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.

This must focus on diplomacy, disarmament, social justice, equality, and environmental sustainability, placing life at the center of all government actions, and rejecting power structures that fuel war, perpetuate poverty, and destroy the planet. We stand in solidarity with all those who fight for a dignified future in every corner of the world.