The United Nations Disarmament Commission (UNDC) approved on Sunday Egypt’s candidacy as one of the vice chairs of the UNDC, representing the African continent, according to a statement from the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Australia is the current head of the commission. During its last meeting, the commission approved the agenda of the current round, which extends from 2018 to 2020. The UNDC agenda included the issues of nuclear disarmament and preventing an arms race in outer space, according to the statement.
The statement pointed out that Egypt is highly interested in the two mentioned issues. Egypt also supports all the resolutions regarding achieving the two objectives, in consistence with Egypt’s stance that aims for eliminating nuclear weapons from the globe, as well as halting any manoeuvres that would make outer space—which it says is the property of all humanity—another arena for an arms race.
Egypt’s permanent representative to the UN, Mohamed Edris, expressed Egypt’s intention to exert all the needed efforts to make the current round of the commission successful, in light of holding another meeting for reviewing the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which will be held in 2018.
Moreover, Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry will head to Vienna, Austria to give Egypt’s speech before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and the UNDC.
