The UN General Assembly on Friday elected as its next president the foreign minister who helped spearhead Switzerland’s campaign to join the UN less than eight years ago.
Joseph Deiss was the only candidate for the one-year post, which rotates among the world’s regions.
The 192 member world body elected Deiss by acclamation, rather than a vote, and then burst into applause.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The 64-year-old Swiss politician will take over from the current president, Ali Abdessalam Treki of Libya, on Sept. 14 when the 65th session of the General Assembly opens. Soon after, he will preside over the annual gathering of world leaders and a special session called by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to assess progress in achieving UN anti-poverty goals.
In his acceptance speech, Deiss urged the assembled diplomats not only to defend their national interests but to follow the UN Charter’s call “to be friends, working together ... to cooperate for the benefit of our planet and of humankind.”
He said international cooperation will be especially important in addressing key issues that the General Assembly will be focusing on in the next session — how to accelerate global efforts to fight poverty and promote development, prevent new economic and financial crises, protect the environment, ensure stable food supplies for all people and rebuild countries emerging from conflict, to name a few.
“The people of the world are watching us and hoping,” Deiss said. “We do not have the right to let them down.”
Austria’s UN Ambassador Thomas Mayr-Harting, speaking on behalf of the Western European and Others Group which nominated Deiss, called his election “a recognition of Switzerland’s important contribution to the United Nations within the first decade of her membership.”
Deiss brings “a wealth of experience” as a former president of the Swiss Confederation and minister of economy and foreign affairs to the General Assembly presidency, he said.
From the founding of the UN in 1945, Switzerland insisted on maintaining its neutrality and for decades it remained a UN observer, unable to vote on any UN resolutions. In 1986, the Swiss voted against UN membership in a referendum, but 16 years later in a second referendum they voted “yes” by a slim majority.
Deiss, who was foreign minister at the time, campaigned for UN membership saying the world had changed, the Cold War was over and it was time for Switzerland to take part in UN decisions and raise issues it deemed important.
In his new job, Deiss will have the opportunity to preside over the world’s primary forum for debate.
Unlike the more powerful 15 member Security Council, whose decisions are legally binding, the General Assembly’s resolutions carry no legal force.
But the assembly, modeled after national parliaments, controls the UN budget and decides how much each nation should contribute.
It also serves as a unique forum for discussion of virtually every global issue.
Switzerland’s current foreign minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey, noted that Deiss has literally climbed Switzerland’s highest mountain and called his election “an important milestone on Switzerland’s path since it became a UN member.”
“Mr. Deiss has shown leadership. He knows very well what it means to seek compromises, what it means to seek consensus and to build bridges,” she said. “He also knows that you have to be patient and persistent and take each step at a time.”
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