Mr. President,
I have the honor to speak on behalf of the Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden, and my own country, Norway.
I reaffirm the commitment of the Nordic countries to engage in the collective efforts to reform the Security Council. Given the global and geopolitical challenges that face the United Nations, ensuring the effectiveness of the Security Council is more important than ever.
We are encouraged by the momentum for reform that is currently energizing the work of the Secretariat and Member States. We look forward to listen to and work with other Member States from all regions in support of continued reforms.
The Security Council needs to become more transparent, more effective, more accountable, and more representative than is currently the case. This requires a reform.
An important and desirable step forward would be negotiations, based on a text.
The Nordic countries support a balanced expansion of the Security Council. The aim must be to better reflect current geopolitical and economic realities and ensure enhanced representation of developing countries, including both permanent and non-permanent seats for Africa. In our view it is also important to safeguard possibilities for small states to serve regularly as elected members of the Council.
Rest assured that the Nordics will contribute to a constructive dialogue among Member States, with a view to achieve further progress during this session of the General Assembly.
Thank you.