Mozambique Readies to Join United Nations’ Security Council

The United Nations’ Security Council report says that with Mozambique joining Gabon and Ghana on the Security Council, the three African members (A3) are likely to work closely in coordinating their positions and advancing the common African position on regional and thematic items on the agenda.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Verónica Macamo Dlhovo, currently in New York, has held series of preliminary negotiating meetings with the permanent representatives, including Nicolas de Rivière, France’s permanent representative to the United Nations. At the end of the meeting, the French diplomat said that his country was ready to support Mozambique’s candidacy to the Security Council, not least because it considers Mozambique’s presence important for the body.

“France is eagerly awaiting Mozambique’s accession to the Security Council in 2023 and 2024. I am sure that we will have a lot of work to do. I am sure that Mozambique will bring a lot of southern African experience to the Security Council. It has experience in cooperation with the United Nations and experience in resolving conflicts in a peaceful way, so I am sure that France and Mozambique will cooperate very well together,” the diplomat said.

France is among the European countries at the forefront of the fight against Islamic extremism in the Sahel region in Africa, and Mozambique faces the same problem in the north of its own territory. Its participation in the Security Council is therefore seen as opportune for a well-coordinated international response to the terrorism.

For her part, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation thanked France for its willingness to support Mozambique before the election and also after, saying that the meeting had deepened the conviction that France had made the right choice to join international efforts to guarantee peace and security in the world.

According to reports, three permanent members of UN Security Council (China, Russia and the United Kingdom) have reaffirmed their support for Mozambique’s candidacy for a non-permanent seat. China, Russia and the United Kingdom, which, together with the United States and France, comprise the five permanent members of the body mandated with ensuring international peace and security.

After separate meetings held previous days with the permanent representatives of those countries to the United Nations in New York, Mozambique’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Verónica Macamo said the country’s election was guaranteed.

“They are with us. We are satisfied, the candidacy is indeed well underway, our friends are with us, this gives us more and more confidence,” she said, according to Rádio Moçambique.

She intensified her campaign for Mozambique to become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, ahead of the elections scheduled for June 9. A press release says Mozambican diplomacy will carry out a work agenda within the scope of promoting Mozambique’s candidacy in meetings with senior United Nations officials and heads of diplomatic missions from various accredited countries.

The Mozambican candidacy is subordinated to the motto “International Peace and Security and Sustainable Development” and that underlines firm commitment to and maintenance of international peace and security, the preservation and respect for human rights and promoting sustainable development.

On election day, Mozambican Verónica Macamo will participate in the act of choosing the five candidates, namely Ecuador, Japan, Mozambique, Malta and Switzerland, each endorsed by its geographic region, respectively Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific, Africa and Western Europe. 

The promoter of the candidacy, Leonardo Simão, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, already in New York, where he has been working on the matter since June last year.

Leonardo Simão reiterated his conviction that Mozambique would be elected, based on the indications given by the 192 countries that make up the United Nations. The diplomat said there was great expectation regarding Mozambique’s performance within the organ, especially by countries that have conflicts themselves or in their regions and are waiting for solutions, taking into account the country’s long experience in solving these problems.

In this last stage of the campaign, Leonardo Simão says that he is seeking to ensure that the support shown since the launch of the race – on September 16 of last year – results in a favourable vote.

Minister Verónica Macamo completed her pre-election working days in the United States with more meetings with permanent representatives of continental blocs and participation in events at United Nations headquarters. 

Mozambique is a candidate for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2023-2024 period. The UN General Assembly is scheduled to hold elections on June 9 for five non-permanent seats of the Security Council for the 2022-2024 term in New York.

The permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (also known as the Permanent Five, Big Five, or P5) are the five sovereign states to whom the UN Charter of 1945 grants a permanent seat on the UN Security Council: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The permanent members were all allies in World War II (and the victors of that war), and are all states with nuclear weapons, according to reports of the United Nations. 

Kester Kenn Klomegah
Kester Kenn Klomegah
MD Africa Editor Kester Kenn Klomegah is an independent researcher and writer on African affairs in the EurAsian region and former Soviet republics. He wrote previously for African Press Agency, African Executive and Inter Press Service. Earlier, he had worked for The Moscow Times, a reputable English newspaper. Klomegah taught part-time at the Moscow Institute of Modern Journalism. He studied international journalism and mass communication, and later spent a year at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. He co-authored a book “AIDS/HIV and Men: Taking Risk or Taking Responsibility” published by the London-based Panos Institute. In 2004 and again in 2009, he won the Golden Word Prize for a series of analytical articles on Russia's economic cooperation with African countries.