Australia Launches Bid For Another UN Security Council Seat

Hundreds of prisoners convicted of terrorism-related crimes are due to be released from Indonesian jails over the next couple of years, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says. “I will leave that up to prime minister Wyatt Roy in 2029”, she said.

“We estimate that there are around 120 Australians now in Iraq and Syria supporting Daesh and other terrorist groups”, Bishop told reporters in New York.

During Australia’s last two-year term in the council, Bishop was at the forefront of a push to coordinate a global response to the threat of foreign fighters.

The Coalition Government now appears to be a Security Council convert.

“We have to a number of results in intruding move unusual extremist protectors, nevertheless i wouldn’t say you’ll find that we have but still twisted the tide”, Bishop supposedly said.

“I think the Australian Government will certainly have a few explaining to do during the course of its bid for the Human Rights Council spot”.

She said that, on this occasion, Australian diplomats had longer to make their case. “We championed initiatives that directly supported our national security interests, taking the lead on a number of landmark resolutions”, Ms Bishop said in a statement.

Former Australian ambassador Tony Kevin said lobbying for a seat on the Security Council and the Human Rights Council was “absolutely doing the right thing”.

“Australia chaired the al-Qaida, Taliban and Iran sanctions committees and coordinated the council’s work on Afghanistan”.

Bishop’s comments come just days after Tina S. Kaidanow, the U.S. State Department’s top counterterrorism official, said that the “trend was still upward” insofar as foreign nationals traveling to fight in Iraq and Syria are concerned.

Australia last held one of the rotating temporary seats on the UNSC from 2013-14 after a much shorter campaign time.

The foreign affairs minister at the time, Bob Carr, described it as a “big, juicy, decisive win”.

In the 2013/2014 stint, Ms Bishop used Australia’s position to push for assistance on MH17 and for global support in combating terror.

The Security Council, charged with maintaining global peace and order, is made up of five permanent members, with veto powers, and 10 non-permanent members. The bid was announced in 2008 while the two other candidates for the seat, Luxembourg and Finland, commenced their pitches in 2001 and 2002.

The 2029-30 term is the first available opportunity to nominate for a seat that is uncontested, giving Australia the greatest chance of success.