New Zealand was elected Thursday to one of five temporary seats that will become available in January, 2015. Malaysia, Venezuela and Angola won uncontested elections for their regions, while Spain and New Zealand defeated Turkey to take the two remaining spots.
Simon Tucker, New Zealand’s High Commissioner to Canada, said Thursday that his country is “delighted” to have the chance to join the Security Council after a multiyear campaign for a seat.
Speaking by phone after the election results were made public, he said Canada was among the countries that helped in the campaign, adding, “We sought advice from Canada and received it.”
New Zealand promised during its campaign to help give less influential countries a stronger voice at the Security Council table.
Other priorities include working more closely with regional organizations and countries that contribute peacekeeping troops to UN missions, and taking a more proactive role in addressing conflicts through mediation and early warning systems, Mr. Tucker said.
Asked about Canada’s help during the campaign, Mr. Tucker said the two countries are close allies with a history of working together at the UN and in other international organizations. A long-running, informal agreement often sees the Canada and New Zealand working alongside Australia.
“So when one of us sticks our hands up and says we want to campaign to serve on the UN’s top body, then the other one is likely to say, ‘Well, how can I help?’” Mr. Tucker said. “And I think that was the case here.”
As a country with a larger foreign-policy network, Canada was in a position to provide information about regions of the world New Zealand was less familiar with, he added. “Often, advice from friends about the best way to conduct yourself is a very welcome thing, and that’s the sort of relationship we have with Canada.”
The 193-member UN General Assembly elected Venezuela (181 votes); Malaysia (187 votes); Angola (190 votes); and New Zealand (145 votes). Runoffs were held between Spain and Turkey for the fifth spot, and Spain eventually won 132-60 in the third round.
Venezuela’s election was criticized by the United States and some human-rights groups, who said they worried about the government’s record. A statement from Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Venezuela’s conduct at the international body and its human-rights record at home were counter to the spirit and the letter of the UN Charter.
A spokeswoman for the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development would not say whether Canada shares those concerns. “Canada expects all members of the Security Council to work constructively and responsibly to address the great challenges facing global peace and security,” Claude Rochon wrote in an e-mail.
With a report from Reuters
Follow on Twitter: @kimmackrael
Commentary by the Ottawa Mens Centre
Simon Tucker needs to put up a Travel Warning regarding Canada, where the
government policy in one of promoting violence towards fathers and where fathers
are treated as SHPOS, that's Sub Human pieces of well, excrement.
Canada has at its Capital Ottawa, where Real Criminals are lawyers for the
Children's Aid Society of Ottawa, aka locally as "The Gestapo" and they have
more power than the Gestapo of WW2.
They have their own private courts, their own judges and are totally
unaccountable. They cost Canadians Billions of Dollars to ABUSE CHILDREN.
These lowest forms of psychopaths, and their Rubber Stamp Judges, former lawyers
for the CAS, engage in abuse of absolute Power treating society as their own
political experiment in "Gender Cleansing".
New Zealand Fathers should be warned NEVER come to Canada and if you have
children in CAnada leave with them while you can.
If you don't you could end up being the victim of an Evidence Fabricating Lawyer
like Marguerite Isobel Lewis aka locally (wrongly) as "The Baby-Snatcher".
She does not need to "Snatch babies", she simply Fabricates Evidence in the
Court Room before Judges she knows used to be CAS lawyers and who while Judges
don't mind joining in the abuse of the most vulnerable in society by fabricating
evidence themselves.
New Zealanders need to know that in Ottawa we have "Rotten Evidence Fabricating
Cops like Detective Peter Van Der Zander who personally Fabricate Evidence NOT
to charge the most violent of female offenders.
The New Zealand Government should take a note of these two names, and prevent
them from Entering the Jurisdiction of New Zealand as dangers to society and
while they will never be convicted of their crimes against humanity, their
crimes are obvious enough to make any loving devoted parent want to puke.
If you are religious, you might like to say a prayer, that these two Criminals
decide to do society a favour and walk in front of a truck, or better still take
a one way ticket to Mars and rid society of the very worst forms of Criminality
by those who are given absolute power and abuse it.
Ottawa Mens Centre