Kazakhstan To Bid For Non-Permanent Seat On UNSC For 2017-2018

From Nur Adila Abdul Wahab ASTANA (KAZAKHSTAN), May 30 (Bernama) -- Kazakhstan is vying to become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for the year 2017/2018 since it hopes to play a more important role in the world community. Despite being a young country, Kazakhstan feels that it has already shown tremendous commitment in implementing the United Nations' principles for the past two decades, said a statement issued by Kazakhstan's Embassy in Malaysia to this Bernama journalist who is on a tour here. The special media tour is at the invitation of the Kazakhstan Government in conjunction with the International Conference 'Religion Against Terrorism', to be held here Tuesday. Astana will also be hosting the Meeting of the Secretariat of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions on Wednesday. The statement said as the ninth largest country in the world, Kazakhstan's decision to bid for a non-permanent seat of the UNSC was based on four central pillars namely food security, water security, energy security and nuclear security. Kazakhstan, a Central Asian country, became a member state of the United Nations on March 2, 1992, nearly three months after the country’s Independence from the Soviet Union. It supported various peace initiatives, including an attempt to help end the conflict in Ukraine and played a key role in efforts to restore peace in Afghanistan, it said. Through its initiatives such as in the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religion and Astana's membership in groups such as the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the country was clearly trying to promote tolerance and simple understanding at international level, the statement said. The selection of the five non-permanent members of the UNSC is to be held next month in conjunction with the 70th session of United Nation General Assembly in New York. The five non-permanent seats to be filled this time comprise one for the African countries, one for Latin America and the Caribbean, two for Western Europe and other groups, and one for the Asia-Pacific region. Kazakhstan and Thailand would vie for the only seat allocated to the Asia-Pacific countries which was being currently held by Malaysia. --BERNAMA