Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Mohamed Asim has stated that Maldives is confident of winning its bid to secure a non-permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
Speaking on “Maldives Today” talk show on PSM News, the Foreign Minister said Maldives has proven its ability to be a responsible member of the international community since 1965.
“When the Security Council was debating the admission of Maldives, there was a lot of debate, uncertainty, and also a lot of skepticism on whether a very small country like the Maldives can be fruitful member of the United Nations. But, I believe, that we have over the years proved otherwise, we have become a very active member of the united nation. We have been active in both UNHRC and also at the UN in New York. Internationally we are also now chairing the Association of Small Island States, which is a grouping of 43 member states and we are working on their behalf, especially on environment and climate change issue,” Minister Asim said.
The country brought new ideas to the UN, such as the security of small states, highlighting the link between human rights and the environment as well as been a norm setter, and a bridge builder in many negotiations, the Minister said. He added that seeking to serve on the Security Council is the logical next step for the Maldives.
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"The membership of the UN Security Council, the non-permanent seat is open to any country that is able and willing. We are able, and we are willing. We feel that the Maldives will have a fair chance in winning this election. We did announce our candidature quite a long time back, in 2008, but its only more recently that we have been gearing up our campaign, especially this year. We have been drawing up a program to target and accelerate our campaign,” Minister Asim said.
The Minister said that the Maldivian ambassadors oversees are working very hard, to campaign on the possibility of getting a UNSC seat. Noting that Maldives will bring diversity to the council the Foreign Minister said that, Maldives as a small island developing state has a distinct voice and unique perspectives on global issues which would be very useful in the Security Council, as the United Nations is a diverse body made up of the diverse countries with very diverse problems.
Referring to work carried out by the Maldives as a member of UNHRC, the Foreign Minister highlighted that during the six year tenure Maldives has been a strong advocate for global efforts at increasing the resilience of SIDS as well as emerging democracies, in bringing their human rights mechanism to international standards.
Although the smallest country at the time to gain membership, over the years Maldives has definitely proven its ability to be a responsible member of the UN. Maldives announced its candidature to secure a non-permanent seat at UN Security Council in 2008.