UN Headquarter hosts flag installation ceremony for newly-elected Security Council members

Baku. 5 January. REPORT.AZ/ At the initiative of Kazakhstan, a flag installation ceremony for the six newly-elected non-permanent members to the Council - Cote d‘Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Peru and Poland, was held at UN headquarter for the first time ever in the history, Report informs referring to  the UN press-service.

Kazakhstan assumed the presidency of the UN Security Council yesterday for the month of January 2018. Ambassador Kairat Umarov, Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the United Nations introduced flag installation ceremony.

Representatives of all six new non-permanent members of UN Security Council participated in the ceremony. They hoisted flags of their countries in the Security Council Stake Out area by the side of existing flags of the five currently elected members - and the five permanent members and four previously elected non-permanent members.

“This new innovation of an impressive ceremony takes on meaning and a special significance of its own so that it becomes an annual tradition of the Council,” said Kairat Umarov.

The UN Security Council consists of fifteen members, while China, France, the Russian Federation, United Kingdom and Northern Island and the US are the five permanent members. Ten non-permanent members elected for two-year terms by the UN General Assembly. Each year, five new non-permanent members are chosen by the General Assembly though this year saw an exception as Italy and the Netherlands made a special arrangement, endorsed by the General Assembly, to serve one year each.