Select Page

South Africa co-hosts elected members of the UN Security Council to prepare for start of two-year term as non-voting member

South Africa co-hosts elected members of the UN Security Council to prepare for start of two-year term as non-voting member

The South African government hosted a two-day workshop this week with representatives of the so-called E10 group in the United Nations Security Council. The event was co-hosted in Pretoria with the government of Sweden.

The meeting was in preparation for South Africa’s third term on the Security Council as a non-permanent member, starting in January 2019. The unprecedented meeting brought together the elected members of the Security Council to discuss issues of mutual cooperation and better coordination in a country that is mostly seen as neutral.

The current members of the E10 are Bolivia, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Netherlands, Peru, Poland and Sweden while countries joining the Security Council from January 2019 to serve a two-year term are Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Indonesia and South Africa.

The South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation said in a statement the intention of the workshop is to share experiences and ideas among the elected members of the Security Council for better coordination of the work of the council.

During the workshop, participants mapped out the role of the elected members of the Security Council, the challenges and opportunities of membership, the way forward and the future of E10 cooperation. Participants at the workshop have also looked at civil society perspectives in relation to the work of the Security Council.

At the beginning of the workshop, participants heard messages from both the South African foreign affairs minister, HE Lindiwe Sisulu, and the Swedish foreign affairs minister, HE Margot Wallström.

During a panel discussion, the E10 representatives were updated on current developments by Mr Zaheer Laher, the Director General of International Coordination in South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation; Mr Efraim Gomes, the Deputy Director General of UN Policy Development in Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Mr Gustavo de Carvalho, a senior researcher in peace operations and peacekeeping at the Institute for Security Studies, and Ms Shamala Kandiah, the Deputy Executive Director of the Security Council Report.


(Photograph by Yandisa Monakali/DNS)


 

About The Author

SADC Correspondent

SADC correspondents are independent contributors whose work covers regional issues of southern Africa outside the immediate Namibian ambit. Ed.