Volodymyr Yelchenko, United Nations Security Council President
New York - Ukraine assumed the presidency of the United Nations Security Council as of the 1st of March. Ambassador Yelchenko held a press conference today to lay out the scope of work facing the Council today. Although there is a wide range of issues to be addressed, Mr. Yelchenko placed his emphasis on the conflicts in Africa and expressed his goals to make the proceedings in the Security Council more accessible and open.
"Let me start by saying the we in Ukraine regard the presidency of our country in the Security council as a very serious and responsible mission. This is the first time that Ukraine is presiding over the Security Council since its independence, and this will be the only presidency of Ukraine during this two year term in the Security Council.
"On the eve of assuming presidency in the Security Council, the President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma addressed the Secretary General with a letter in which he informed about the general intentions of Ukrainian delegation during this month and outlined the priorities for our country in the course of deliberations in March.
"One of those priorities is to organize a follow-up on the previous Security Council decisions, and most importantly the Security Council Summit declaration which was adopted on the 7th of September last year. Tomorrow will be exactly 6 months since its adoption, and that is why tomorrow we organized an open meeting of the Security Council in order to listen first to the non-members of the Security Council. This is another priority of Ukraine - to try to make the Security Council as open and as transparent as possible. We will hear the views of the non-members, their evaluation of the results of the deliberations of the Security Council summit declaration on 7 September.
"As you remember, the declaration was devoted in particular to the prospects of conflict prevention and settlement in Africa. We think that it is the right time for the Security Council to concentrate once again on African issues.
"There are good stories, success stories, and bad stories about what's happening in Africa. This month we are going to expand the mandate of the United Nations mission in Sierra Leone. Possibly we will be able to approve a new mandate for the United Nations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There are good prospects for certain peace there after the new President came into power. In Ethiopia and Eritrea, there will be the completion the withdrawal of the forces at the beginning of March, sometime next week.
"But at the same time there are things which are not so well, like the situation in Burundi, and the situation in Angola, and in other places. That is why we think that this would be a good time for the Security Council to concentrate on the African issues."
Mr. Yelchenko continued by announcing a meeting requested by the Foreign Minister of Macedonia in order to examine the border issue between Kosovo and Macedonia. Other issues to be tackled or raised in the Security Council include settlement of the Abkhaz conflict in Georgia, the Palestinian issue (Ukraine voted in favor of a resolution on the Palestinian question which was not adopted by the Security Council last December), the sanctions against Iraq, East Timor, security problems in the refugee camps in West Timor, the situation in west Africa, Liberia, and other topics.
DISCLAIMER:The contents of press releases on this website represent
solely the positions of their respective authors and organizations.
BRAMA neither endorses nor disapproves of the views expressed therein.
BRAMA retains all final rights as to what may or may not appear on these
pages. Anyone wishing to comment on the press releases is welcome to
post notices to the News and Politics Comment Board.
