Malta Officially Joins UN Security Council For Two Years As Ukraine Demands Russia’s Expulsion
With 2023 now underway, Malta has officially joined the UN Security Council for a two-year term.
Malta joins Ecuador, Japan, Switzerland, Mozambique, Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana and the UAE as the non-permanent members of the council, as well as the five permanent members – the US, the UK, China, France and Russia.
Its tenure – the country’s first since 1983-84 – comes at a critical junction for the UNSC, which was set up in 1945 to maintain international peace and security after World War II.
On Saturday, Ukraine formally called for Russia’s expulsion from the international body in light of its latest missile attacks on residential areas in Kyiv.
“This time, Russia’s mass missile attack is deliberately targeting residential areas, not even our energy infrastructure. War criminal Putin ‘celebrates’ New Year by killing people. Russia must be kicked out of its UN Security Council seat which it has always occupied illegally,” Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
Malta has not yet provided a position in this regard. However, during a recent meeting in Washington D.C. with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Foreign Affairs Minister Ian Borg said that Malta “does not stand idle” and will continue to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “in the strongest terms possible”.
In November, Borg also said that Malta will use its two-term to prioritise tackling climate change and the impact of rising sea levels on international security and peace.
Malta is set to be represented on the council by Vanessa Frazier, its Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
A seasoned diplomat, Frazier was last year appointed chairperson of ECOFIN, the UN’s Second Committee that deals with global financial matters, and also became the first woman to lead a fully-female ECOFIN.
She told Lovin Malta that she had successfully lobbied UN groupings to nominate women to the bureau.
Vanessa Frazier, Malta's Permanent Representative to the United Nations
“I couldn’t force them but I asked them to try and make it happen. If they had a qualified woman, I told them to nominate them,” she said.
“I did it because I wanted us to make a statement. It was another glass ceiling to break. Perception is very important when it comes to gender parity. Younger diplomats are inspired by these moves because once you see someone in a certain position you can visualised yourself in that position more easily.”
When applying for the seat, Frazier pitched Malta as a “successful small island state with a history of bringing people together”.
She noted several Maltese contributions to the UN over the years, including diplomat Arvid Pardo’s successful lobbying for the seabed to be considered part of the common heritage of mankind, Michael Zammit Cutajar’s appointment as the first executive secretary of the UN Climate Change secretariat, and President Emeritus Guido de Marco’s term as President of the 45th Session of the UN General Assembly.
Cover photo: Malta’s Foreign Affairs Minister Ian Borg (left) with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington D.C.
How would you like to see Malta contribute to the UNSC?
READ NEXT: Watch: Roberta Metsola's Hopeful Yet Honest Message For 2023
