GovWire

On Tuesday 17 January the Foreign Offices UN Minister, Baroness Anelay, hosted a reception for incoming, outgoing and current members of the United Nations Security Council. The event was an opportunity to welcome new non-permanent members of the UN Security Council at the start of their two year term, and also to acknowledge the contribution of outgoing members. In addition to senior diplomatic representatives from each of the UNSC member states, members of both Houses of Parliament and civil society representatives also attended.

The five new non-permanent members of the UNSC Bolivia, Ethiopia, Italy, Kazakhstan and Sweden take up their seats at the same time that the UN sees a change of leadership; Antnio Guterres became UN Secretary-General on 1 January. UNSG Guterres has already spoken of improving the UNs work on conflict prevention, early warning and response. The UK is looking forward to working with all Security Council members to support the Secretary General and his ambitions.

Speaking after the event, Baroness Anelay said

The UN Security Council is the primary tool for maintaining peace and security across the globe. 2016 saw many examples of the international community working together, including the peace agreement in Colombia and growing support to end the stigma of sexual violence in conflict. This demonstrates that the UN Security Council and its fundamental values are perhaps more important now than ever before. I look forward to working with our new Security Council partners in tackling these and other challenges.

Further information

• Follow Foreign Office Minister Baroness Anelay on Twitter @JoyceAnelay

• Follow the Foreign Office on Twitter @foreignoffice and Facebook

• Follow the Foreign Office on Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn

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