President,
I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the Nordic countries, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and my own country, Finland.
We wish to thank Sierra Leone for convening the Security Council for this important meeting and for the timely opportunity to discuss the representation of Africa in the Security Council. I wish to also thank all the briefers.
Today, we would like to highlight three areas of importance.
First, as the current global situation represents serious challenges, strengthening multilateralism is key to finding common solutions.
When we, the Nordic and African Foreign Ministers met in Copenhagen last May we reiterated our shared commitment to work towards a more inclusive and effective multilateralism with the United Nations at its core.
Second, the Nordic countries support a balanced expansion of the Security Council with both permanent and non-permanent seats to be more representative and to better reflect global political and economic realities of today.
We should use the Summit of the Future as an opportunity to transform global governance, and this includes taking steps forward also on Security Council reform. There is a broad agreement that the Council must become more inclusive, efficient, transparent and accountable. This also means developing working methods and ensuring equitable distribution of roles and responsibilities.
Third, there is now an opportunity to redress the historical injustice done to the African continent. The Nordic countries stand firmly together with their African friends in this reform, to ensure that Africa takes its rightful place in the Council, through an expansion of both permanent and non-permanent seats for Africa.
With African peace and security continuing to take up much of the Security Council’s agenda, it is clear that more African voices are needed and African Member States should have a more profound influence over its work.
We would like to see more opportunities for the African members of the Council for penholdership or co-penholdership. The unanimous adoption of the landmark Security Council Resolution 2719 in December, led by the A3 and supported by all Nordic countries, was a concrete example of the importance of African States in responding to the pressing challenges of peace and security on the African continent and beyond.
I thank you.