CLOSING REMARKS BY

H.E. ZAHIR TANIN

PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF AFGHANISTAN

TO THE UNITED NATIONS IN NEW YORK

CHAIR OF THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL NEGOTIATIONS

ON THE QUESTION OF EQUITABLE REPRESENTATION AND INCREASE IN THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL AND OTHER MATTERS RELATED TO THE COUNCIL

AT AN INFORMAL PLENARY SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

3 JUNE 2010

UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK

Check against delivery

Excellencies, distinguished delegates,

Let me close this meeting by first and foremost thanking all delegations for their active participation and continuing engagement in this process. Let me also thank all Member States for their kind words of support thus far. I have been deeply heartened by the numerous expressions of good faith, and it is abundantly clear to me today that you, the membership, remain as determined as ever to reform the Security Council.

In this regard, I am pleased to note the membership-wide agreement in this room that the text with its annexes, currently in front of you, is a helpful vehicle to continue to move this process forward in accordance with decisions 62/557 and 63/565. This text, revision 1, is as you know a product of your persistent and unanimous calls for text-based negotiations, and could not have been made without your contributions, as these of course constitute the very foundation of our negotiations. However, with everything we have going for us, in our continual quest for reform, we cannot afford to grow complacent. We must now build on the framework that you so meticulously have put together. This is the sense of the house.

As is customary, and as a logical result of yesterday and today’s deliberations, it is therefore my intention to convene a series of meetings of the informal plenary to allow Member States to focus on the text at hand in an open, transparent, comprehensive and inclusive manner. These meetings will be scheduled in accordance with the five interconnected key issues as laid out by decision 62/557, beginning, this time, in reverse order and as a working necessity, only with a meeting dedicated to the section of the text on the fifth key issue concerning the relationship between the General Assembly and the Security Council on 11 June. This meeting will of course be followed by individual meetings on the rest of the five key issues. I believe that this structure will allow the text to continue to evolve in a fair, balanced, comprehensive and open membership-driven way.

I would like to stress that Member States are as always welcome to comment on any matter they deem relevant. However, rather than restating known positions at the meetings devoted to the specific key issues, I encourage all of you to look concretely and comprehensively at the text with a view to making specific amendments that would reduce obvious overlaps, address existing differences and combine common elements in the language of the negotiation text. For my part, and as is customary, I will continue to discharge my responsibility as Chair by reflecting all suggested amendments by Member States in coming versions of the text. Amendments will, however, only be applied with the agreement of the Member State, -or States, whose language is affected as is usual practice in this house when we negotiate. On this note, Member States are of course always encouraged to deliberate amongst each other and convey any results thereof to me either during our meetings or through a letter. You are, and will remain, the masters of your own positions, but only if you reach across the aisle in a spirit of compromise and good faith can this process move forward. Don’t just ask what the text can do for you, but also what you can do for the text.

On this note, I urge you to bring the same kind of engagement and determination to the next exchanges as you have shown in the previous rounds. The task at hand deserves it. Let me remind all of you that we continue to meet in an informal setting. This should mean brief interventions rather than prepared statements, and interaction. I will certainly encourage that to the best of my abilities. Let me also clarify, that an individual meeting could go on for longer than one day, so that we do justice to the scope of every single issue.

Again, thank you all for your participation and engagement in this process. I am confident that, together, we will continue to move forward towards a solution that can garner the widest possible acceptance.

Thank you.