Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Hanna Tetteh has lent support to Egypt’s request for non-permanent membership of the UN Security Council in 2016-2017.
According to an Egyptian Foreign Ministry statement, Tetteh approached Egypt’s ambassador to Ghana, expressing the “leading role and experience of Egyptian diplomacy”.
Tetteh considered this support a part of the strong relations and cooperation between the two countries, the statement added. A high level delegation from Ghana will be attending the opening of the Suez Canal.
Egyptian officials frequently present the country’s foreign policy achievements to the United Nations agenda as part of their diplomatic visits. These concern issues of development, climate change, disarmament, and peacekeeping, and have been used to guarantee that member states’ support for Egypt’s candidature to the Security Council.
However, counterterrorism has been most important on Egypt’s diplomatic agenda. On 30 July, Egypt participated in a closed door meeting, held in Quebec City, of an International Coalition to combat “Islamic State” (IS). The meeting was headed by Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Rob Nicholson, and US Special Presidential Envoy John R. Allen.
Egypt’s delegation was headed by Egyptian Ambassador Moataz Zahran who presented Egypt’s political, military, cultural, and religious efforts to counter the militant organisation.
The meeting discussed different strategies to counter IS, and possible changes in the manoeuvres currently used by the coalition to fight the extremist group. The coalition, of which Egypt is part, was formed in 2014 and commenced with countering IS. However, Egypt is not militarily involved in the fight.
Zahran asserted the importance of having a wider scope to fight militants all over world “while putting Libya into consideration, and not focusing only on Syria and Iraq”, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has previously presented a booklet to his counterparts at several meetings on the sidelines of diplomatic visits, featuring Egypt’s aspiration to take a seat in 2016 on the United Nations Security Council.
A similar demand was presented by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi during his 2014 UN speech, in which he announced that Egypt is aiming to gain non-permanent membership to serve and protect the interests of developing countries.
Egypt was elected as non-permanent Security Council member in 1946, 1949-1950, 1961-1962, 1984-1985, and 1996-1997.
