Informal meeting of the General Assembly on the intergovernmental negotiations on the question of equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council and other matters related to the Council Statement by Mr. Jeem Lippwe Deputy Permanent Representative New York, 29 March 2018

Co-Chairs, 

We thank you for your letter of March 23, 2018 and the Revised Elements for Commonality and Issues for Further Consideration document.

I associate my delegation’s statement with the statement made yesterday by Her Excellency Rhonda King on behalf of the L69 group. My intervention will thus be brief but the brevity of my statement does not in any way take away the importance that my delegation attaches to the issue before us. I will highlight two points in my national capacity.

Co-chairs,

We have stated many times that our organization has to be fit for purpose, and to aide in that thinking the membership has to expand and reflect the diversity of its members to be able to appreciate the emerging challenges and solutions for our regions. We have heard the call around the room for the inclusion of a non-permanent seat for the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) – a group with so many in numbers but are rarely heard from in the Council. However small they may be, they have a role to play in finding peaceful solution to the many problems affect our world today. My delegation fully ascribes to the call for a non-permanent seat allocated to SIDS.

You and your predecessors have said many times that, we, the members have to talk to each other to make the IGN on UNSC reform a truly member state driven process and a transparent one. Attribution will help us negotiate in good faith.

Let me convey the appreciation of my delegation for your continued leadership in this important process.

Thank you.