photo (Foreign Minister Nakasone)

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

  1. 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.
     
  2. 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.  
     
  3. 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.
     
  4. 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.
(END)