Thai FM drums up support for nomination to UN body
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Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul wrapped his mission to the United Nations General Assembly with a series of bilateral and multilateral meetings and also hosted a reception to ask for support for the Thai candidacy for s
Thailand will apply for a seat as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the two-year term of 2017-2018 with the aim of playing a role within the global body and uplifting the country’s international profile, he said.
In the meantime, Thailand will also apply for a position on the UN Human Right Council in 2015-2017. The campaign has already been launched for the two bodies.
The country proposed itself, as a moderating nation, to serve as a bridge for developed and developing countries in building peace and stability as well as development, he said.
Surapong told a gathering of more than 100 ministers, senior officials and diplomats during a reception in New York that Thailand has experience in many UN tasks such as peacekeeping, development issues and human rights efforts. “You will not be disappointed, Thailand is the right choice,” he said at Monday’s reception.
The country has served on the UN security body once, in 1985-1986, and began a three-year term as a member of the Human Right Council in 2010.
The foreign minister spent most of his time in New York during the General Assembly last week and this week meeting his counterparts from 13 countries and attending multilateral forums in his bid for support, which included offers to trade votes with members.
Surapong said he would meet as many of his counterparts as possible bilaterally and multilaterally, since all members of the UN, small or big, have one vote. Thailand needs two-thirds of the 193 member votes to secure the position in the UNSC.
While in New York, he met representatives of countries mostly from Africa, Latin America, the Balkan Peninsula and the Middle East, among them Bahrain, Uganda, Liberia, Albania, United Arab Emirates, Colombia, Macedonia and Sudan.
He joined a meeting of Landlocked Developing Countries on Monday to offer development assistance and Thailand as a linkage hub to facilitate connectivity between them.
Thailand, as a transit country, has the ability to connect landlocked nations with trade and investment, he said. Thailand, in fact, has played the role of transit country for neighbouring landlocked Laos for a long time.
