UNITED NATIONS:
Pakistan will begin its two-year term as a non-permanent member of the powerful United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on January 1 (today). Ambassador Munir Akram said the Pakistani delegation will play an “active and constructive” role in addressing key challenges facing the world.
“Our presence will be felt in the Security Council,” Ambassador Akram, Pakistan’s top diplomat to the UN, told APP.
On Wednesday, Pakistan will sit on the Security Council for the 2025-26 term as a non-permanent member, the eighth time the country has held a seat at the horseshoe table of the 15-member body.
In June, Pakistan was elected to the Council with a massive majority as a non-permanent member, garnering 182 votes in the 193-member General Assembly, far more than the required 124 votes representing a two-thirds majority.
“We enter the Council at a time of great geopolitical turbulence, intense competition between the two largest powers, raging wars in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere, and a rapidly escalating multidimensional arms race,” Ambassador Akram said.
“As a responsible State – the fifth largest by population – Pakistan will play an active and constructive role, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, to stop wars, promote the peaceful settlement of disputes and contain the negative impacts of rivalries between the great powers, racial weapons, new weapons and areas of conflict, as well as the growing scourge of terrorism.
At the same time, he added, Pakistan is also obliged to address – in the Council and other UN forums – the threats posed to peace and security in our region by cross-border terrorism, the suppression of Kashmiri self-determination, growing arms imbalance in South Asia, as well as the discriminatory restrictions imposed against Pakistan to compromise its strategic deterrence capabilities.
“Fortunately, Pakistan has a professional and well-trained team at the UN with proven capability to address these challenges effectively. Our presence will be felt in the Security Council,” Ambassador Akram commented.
Pakistan will replace Japan, which currently holds the Asian seat on the Security Council, a primary instrument for establishing and maintaining international peace. Pakistan’s previous terms in the council were 2012-13, 2003-04, 1993-94, 1983-84, 1976-77, 1968-69 and 1952-53.
As a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council in the past, Pakistan had made important contributions to its work towards strengthening international peace and security. For the past 50 years, Pakistan has been a major contributor to United Nations peacekeeping missions. In the June General Assembly elections, Pakistan was elected along with Denmark, Greece, Panama and Somalia, to replace Japan, Ecuador, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland, whose terms end on December 31, 2024.
The new members will join the five veto-wielding permanent members (United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom and France) and the five countries elected as non-permanent members last year: Algeria, Guyana, South Korea, Sierra Leone and Slovenia.
