The flags of the five newly-elected Member States of the UN Security Council for the 2024-2025 term, namely Algeria, Guyana, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, and Slovenia, were ceremonially installed. This marks the official start of their tenure on the Council.
On the first business day of the new year, the Security Council welcomed five new non-permanent members for 2024 -2025, namely Algeria, Guyana, Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone and Slovenia.
At a flag installation ceremony of the newly elected Members today (02 Jan) in New York, Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan spoke as the Master of Ceremony.
He said, “We firmly believe that these five incoming members will bring much depth and focus on the issues of peace and security.”
French Ambassador Nicolas de Rivière, whose country is holding the Presidency of the Council for the month of January, said, “Sitting in the Security Council is both an honor and a responsibility, especially at a time when regional crises are multiplying. I'm thinking in particular of the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Africa.”
He continued, “We are looking forward to working with you for the two coming years to implement the mandate of this Council - preserving international peace and security and to defend the multilateralism respectful of the values of the UN Charter.”
Algerian Ambassador Amar Bendjama said that today marks the start of his country’s mandate of the representative of both the African and the Arab regions. He said, “The plight of the Palestinian people will be high in our agenda. We will not give up our demand for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and for a just and lasting solution to the Palestinian question, based on the fulfillment of the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to establish its independent State with Al-Quds as its capital.”
Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Permanent Representative of Guyana to the United Nations said that he country will be constructive in its approach to the work of the Council, “fully committed to partnerships for the peace and prosperity of the world's people.”
“We will seek a people centred approach including the involvement of women and youth in the search for solutions, ever mindful that conflict is a driver of poverty and under development, and therefore inimical to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals,” she reiterated.
South Korean Ambassador Hwang Joon-kook said, “Faced with escalating security threats surrounding the Korean Peninsula, the Republic of Korea, grounded in our own history, approaches and Security Council tenure with heightened seriousness in solidarity with those facing similar challenges across the world.”
He continued, “We aspire to create more success stories that resonate globally. And we are confident that it is possible to do so by working together genuinely for our shared objectives of promoting international peace and prosperity, as well as upholding human rights and the rule of law.”
Ambassador of Sierra Leone Michael Imran Kanu said his country will “pursue its priorities based on partnership and a representative approach to sustain global peace and security,” and “to make more significantly make the council take meaningful action and timelessly in maintaining international peace and security, underlining the utility of regional arrangement and regional ownership.”
Samuel Žbogar, the Representative of Slovenia to the Security Council said, “The work of Slovenia in the Council will be guided by the UN Charter, international law and our foreign policy of peace. We pledge to act in goodwill and transparency to all UN members.”
“We trust in a multilateral system with the UN at its core as the only way to finding solutions - the most difficult crisis on the agenda,” Ambassador Žbogar concluded.
The five newly elected countries will join Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland as non-permanent members of the Council.
They took seats previously occupied by Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana and the United Arab Emirates as their two-year terms ended on 31 December 2023.
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