Turkish diplomat Volkan Bozkir elected President of the UN General Assembly

Defence Redefined

Published on 18/06/2020 at 09:55

On Wednesday, the UN General Assembly elected theTurkish MP and former diplomat Volkan Bozkir, running uncontested, President of the 75th Session. His presidency will begin in September this year. Out of the 192 members, 11 abstained while three ballots were invalid.

Mr Bozkir was a candidate for the Western European Group – to which the rotating presidency belonged this year – and in spite of the efforts of various countries, no candidate was found. Cyprus and Armenia – in a joint letter – but also Greece with the United Arab Emirates, had addressed the President of the General Assembly asking for voting, despite the lack of a candidate.

In addition to these countries, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have coordinated to show the greatest possible opposition. A diplomatic source described the opposition as “satisfactory.”

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In a Twitter post, Volkan Bozkir thanked the member states for electing him “by an overwhelming majority.”

“As we mark the 75th anniversary of the UN, I will guide the efforts to contribute to international peace, in the challenging times we live in”,

said the newly elected Turkish General Assembly President, thanking Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu for selecting him as well as his country’s Foreign Ministry for the strong support.

Volkan Bozkir promised to make every effort to serve the members of the UN, “so that the General Assembly can continue to carry out its mandate effectively in the near future and take relevant decisions on global issues and their solutions, while promoting multilateralism and international cooperation.”

The General Assembly also held elections yesterday to nominate 5 non-permanent members of the Security Council, who will take office on 1 January. Norway was elected with 130 votes and Ireland with 128 votes, while Canada, which received 108 votes, was excluded. Mexico and India were elected without a candidate, while a fifth vote on Thursday will determine the fate of the fifth seat by the African continent, between Kenya and Djibouti.

Source: CNA