Romania’s President at the UN General Assembly

Romanias President Klaus Iohannis pleaded for giving Romania a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

România Internațional, 27.09.2018, 12:43

President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday expressed hope that Romania’s track-record within the United Nations will convince world leaders to back the country’s candidacy for non-permanent membership of the UN Security Council for the term 2020-2021. In his address delivered before the UN General Assembly in New York, the president said that peace, development and justice are foundational pillars of the country’s multilateral strategy.

Romania will be a responsible partner in promoting a common agenda of the United Nations, the President went on to say. According to the Romanian official, the Security Council could play a more prominent role in addressing more aspects that impact peace and security, such as climate change. Klaus Iohannis believes climate change has become one of the toughest global challenges. Its consequences, be it water shortage, food insecurity and displacement of people or rising sea levels, threaten lives all around the world.

In addition to the efforts of other UN platforms to tackle climate related risks, the Security Council could create the framework to address them in an integrated manner. “We welcomed the organization of a debate in the Security Council this July on aspects of peace and security related to climate change and we are ready to follow-up on the topic if elected as a non-permanent member”, Klaus Iohannis said.

The president went on to say that during its term at the helm of the EU Council in the first half of 2019, Romania is determined to strengthen the European Union — United Nations partnership. “And when I speak about engagement I don’t just mean politicians and diplomats. We have to reach out to our younger people, representatives of the civil society, journalists, business people. We need them all for the cause of multilateralism and global leadership”, Klaus Iohannis told the UN General Assembly. In this context, the president said that in April 2019 Romania will host an international conference titled “Building resilience to natural disasters”.

President Iohannis also said that UN member states have a duty towards their citizens to better explain the current challenges to peace, equity and sustainability of our societies and to speak more about the role of the United Nations in addressing them. The Romanian President also pointed out that citizens need to be informed on potential security threats. Since its UN accession in 1955, Romania has had another four mandates of non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.