
Statement by Mr. Hirofumi Nakasone, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, on the election of Japan as Non-permanent Member of the United Nations Security Council
October 18, 2008
- On October 17 (October 18 Japan time), Japan was elected as a non-permanent
member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) at the elections held
during the 63rd Session of the UN General Assembly. Japan will serve
a two-year term in the UNSC starting from January 1 next year.
- Japan presented its candidature for this election with a view to making
further contribution to international peace and security. The result
of the election shows that the international community recognizes Japan’s
long-standing commitment and enthusiasm toward the goals of the UN, and
that it expects Japan to make further contributions to this end. With
this successful election, Japan will assume non-permanent membership in
the Security Council for the tenth time, the most frequent among all the
members of the UN.
- Today, the international community faces many complex challenges such
as terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, which cannot
be dealt with properly by individual state or region alone, as well as regional
conflicts, and it is important for the international community to unite
and cooperate in order to tackle these challenges effectively. As
the body endowed with primary responsibility for the maintenance of international
peace and security, the UNSC is expected to play a particularly important
part in this regard. Japan is committed to making proactive and constructive
contributions to the work of the Council.
- On the UNSC reform, the intergovernmental negotiations which are to commence by the end of February 2009, will reinvigorate the momentum for the reform. As a leading candidate for permanent membership, Japan is committed to realizing the UNSC reform at an early date and achieving permanent membership by meeting the expectations of the international community through actively engaging in and contributing to the Council’s work from January 2009.
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