Effective Friday, Brazil has taken over the rotating presidency of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for the whole month of July.
The United Nations has asked Brazil to send troops to join its peace mission in the Central African Republic, said Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the U.N.'s head of peacekeeping operations, in an interview on Monday.
Russia, China, Egypt and Bolivia boycotted an informal public United Nations Security Council meeting on Venezuela on Monday organized by the United States, saying the 15-member body should not be involved in the situation.
The President of Brazil, the first Head of State traditionally to address the annual United Nations General Assembly’s general debate, pledged on Tuesday that his country will sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons – reiterating that the nuclear powers undertake additional disarmament.
Antonio Guterres from Portugal, unanimously backed by the Security Council, will become the United Nations next secretary general, and is scheduled to assume the office, on the 38th floor of the U.N. building in New York City, on Jan. 1, 2017. His ascendance came at a time when expectations were high that the U.N. might elect either a woman or an Eastern European to the position, neither of which has happened before.
Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos has said he will ask President Obama to help implement a peace accord that his government expects to sign with the Farc rebel group next month. The two presidents will meet at the White House on Thursday.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic are among nine countries that have lost their voting rights at the United Nations because of arrears in their annual contributions to the world body.
Colombia’s government and rebel guerrillas Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) agreed to jointly ask the United Nations Security Council to help monitor and verify a future rebel disarmament, should the two sides reach a final peace deal to end their 50-year-old war, crossing a major stepping stone on the road to ending Latin America’s longest-running conflict.
In one round of voting the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday elected Egypt, Japan, Senegal, Ukraine and Uruguay to serve as non-permanent members on the Security Council for two-year terms beginning on 1 January 2016.
Uruguayan lawmaker Jaime Trobo said that a blockade in the Americas was 'unacceptable' and called for closer links between the Falkland/Malvinas Islands and the continent, urging the private sector to take advantage of the business opportunities in trade and services.