Switzerland to join UN Security Council
After more than ten years of preparation, Switzerland has become a new member of the UN Security Council. The country was elected to the Council by the General Assembly in New York with 187 votes out of 192 states present. Its term of office begins on 1 January 2023 and will last two years, until the end of 2024. A rise in status for the country or an additional burden?
Energy would have been better invested elsewhere
The next two years will be tough for Swiss politics, writes the Tages-Anzeiger:
“Even in normal times the Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and the Federal Council are often overwhelmed by global political upheavals. ... Overall, the [UN] Security Council will absorb a lot of political energy in Bern. This energy will be lacking for other things - above all for the European dossier, which is more important for Switzerland than a two-year performance on the world stage. ... The Ukraine war has left the Council even more blocked than it already was. ... Under these circumstances, Switzerland would have been better off investing its diplomatic resources elsewhere.”
Swiss mustn't bury their heads in the sand
Switzerland must assume its international responsibility as a neutral country, the Aargauer Zeitung counters:
“It is right for Switzerland not to bury its head in the sand but, like other neutral states before it, to assume its responsibility in the Security Council. As a small country with a global economic network, a rule-based international order is very much in our own interest. The Russian war of aggression, which violates international law, poses a fundamental threat to this order. The Security Council is blocked on the crucial Ukraine dossier. Switzerland will not be able to change this. But it can contribute to the Council fulfilling its mandate of peacekeeping in other conflicts.”