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Statements and Speeches

Statement by the Deputy Permanent Representative of South Africa to the United Nations, Mr Mahlatse Mminele, on "The Question of Equitable Representation on the Increase in the Membership of the Security Council and Other Matters Related to the Council"

6-7 February 2017

Dear Co-Chairs,

We would like to thank you for convening this important and timely debate on the question of the equitable representation on and the increase in the membership of the Security Council and other related matters of the Council.

My delegation aligns itself with the statements delivered by Saint Lucia on behalf of the L.69 Group and Sierra Leone on behalf of the Africa Group and we wish to make the following additional remarks in our national capacity. Allow me, Mr President, to briefly speak to seven core areas which my delegations views as priority.

Firstly, we support the debate format which encourages vigorous engagement amongst member states on the framework document and how to move it forward. We remain convinced that the outcomes of the 69th and 70th Session should form the basis of our text-basednegotiations;

Secondly and in this regard, South Africa suggests that the first order of business should be on developing a Roadmap - such  a roadmap will need to have clear implementable time frames - for the start and progression of text-based negotiations;

Thirdly, we believe that the IGN will benefit from "block meetings". In this regard, we propose that the chairpersons consider scheduling a few concurrent days per element -to allow for interactive exchanges and negotiations between member states;

Fourthly, we wish to discourage a situation where there are long breaks between meetings, hence we recommend that the available at our disposal until maybe mid-August, be qualitatively used for regular IGN meetings;

Fifthly, we wish to encourage an open rigorous process characterised by discussions that respect the important principles of transparency and inclusivity;

Last but not least is that, while we believe that the broadest possible consensus be reached, we feel that the necessary consensus already exists for us to move forward text-based negotiations, based on the outcomes of the 69th/70th Sessions.

I thank you co-chairs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rev. Saturday, 18-Feb-2017 9:32 AM