PAKISTAN commenced its two-year tenure as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on 1 January, with Ambassador Munir Akram vowing that the Pakistani delegation would play an “active and constructive” role in tackling the world’s most pressing challenges.
“Our presence will be felt in the Security Council,” Ambassador Akram, Pakistan’s top diplomat to the UN said.
Pakistan will sit in the Security Council for the 2025-26 term, marking its eighth time holding a seat on the 15-member body.
The country was elected to the council in June, securing 182 votes in the 193-member General Assembly — well above the required 124 votes, which represents a two-thirds majority.
“We enter the council at a time of great geopolitical turbulence, intense competition between the two largest powers, raging wars in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere and a sharply escalating and multi-dimensional arms race,” Akram said.
“As a responsible State — the fifth largest by population — Pakistan will play an active and constructive role, in accordance with the UN Charter, to halt wars, promote the pacific settlement of disputes and contain the negative impacts of great power rivalries, the arms race, new weapons and domains of conflict as well as the spreading scourge of terrorism,” he added.
Pakistan has replaced Japan, which held the Asian seat on the Security Council until the end of 2024. This is the country’s eighth term on the council, having previously served in 2012-13, 2003-04, 1993-94, 1983-84, 1976-77, 1968-69 and 1952-53.
In the June election, Pakistan was elected alongside Denmark, Greece, Panama, and Somalia. These new members will replace Japan, Ecuador, Malta, Mozambique, and Switzerland, whose terms end on 31 December 2024.
The new members join the five permanent members of the Security Council — the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, and France — as well as the non-permanent members elected last year: Algeria, Guyana, South Korea, Sierra Leone, and Slovenia.
