Malaysia Intends To Work Closely With Other UNSC Members

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 (Bernama) -- Malaysia intends to work closely with other United Nations Security Council (UNSC) members, as well as with all other interested partners and stakeholders, during its term on the council. Malaysia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Hussein Haniff said Malaysia was of the view that the Council had taken a number of important decisions on a number of key issues and situations that had and continued to pose threats to international peace and security. On the Palestine-Israel issue, he said the conflict had long been on the Council's agenda, and that the Council remained seized of the issue including through the schedule quarterly Open Debates, and such move had arguably had little impact in terms of resolving the conflict itself. "On this note, Malaysia would encourage the Council to continue considering fresh approaches and as an incoming member, Malaysia stands ready to contribute towards moving the discussion forward," he said. Hussein said this in his address on 'Agenda Item 28: Annual Report of the Security Council' at the Plenary Meeting of the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York Friday. The text of his speech was made available to Bernama here, Saturday. On Oct 16, Malaysia won a non-permanent seat in the UNSC, taking 187 out of the total 192 votes at the United Nations General Assembly, to fill five vacancies among the Security Council’s non-permanent membership. The new members will take up their seats on Jan 1, 2015 and will serve on the Council until Dec 31, 2016. Hussein said Malaysia was also encouraged to note that the calls for better transparency, coherence and accountability on the part of the Council by the wider membership had, to a certain extent, been implemented or taken on board by the Council. "In addition, Malaysia is positively encouraged by the measures taken by the Council members towards making its work more accessible and transparent including through more regular and open briefings by the relevant Special Advisers/representatives, rapporteurs and other high officials of UN agencies, among other steps," he said. -- BERNAMA