African ambassadors have been in Cairo to hear why Egypt should be elected a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2016/17. Foreign ministry assistant for African affairs Sabry Magdy and assistant for multi-party matters and international security Hisham Badri met with ambassadors of the African Group in Cairo on Monday. Elections for Security Council membership are due to take place in October 2015. Badri presented Egypt's vision about regional matters and expressed Egypt's hope that the African countries will support it during the elections. He also explained Egypt's participation in UN peacekeeping missions and expressed Egypt's support for UN organisations for peace in the Middle East and Africa. Egypt has provided 30,000 peacekeepers in 24 countries since its first contribution in 1960. It currently provides 2,659 military and police personnel across nine UN missions, according Egypt's State Information Service. The African Group may later give its endorsement to Egypt. The chair would then submit to the president of the Security Council a "clean slate," which helps in the documentation of the election process by the UN's secretariat, according to a Special Security Council report about the elections published in September. The African Group is one of five regional groups in the Security Council, and includes 54 member states. The group has three non-permanent Security Council seats that rotate between African member states and are chosen by the group. One seat is available for election every even calendar year and two seats are contested for odd years. "The Egyptian stance on Security Council membership is based on supporting the right of African countries to obtain two permanent and five non-permanent seats in the Security Council," according to Egypt's State Information Service. Egypt has been seeking to obtain a UN Security Council permanent seat in an effort to increase the representation of the developing countries in the Security Council." Egypt was last member of the Security Council in 1997. Egypt has been a Security Council non-permanent member in 1946, 1949-50, 1984-85 and lastly in 1996-97. Source: MENA & Ahram Online
