New York: Europe and the Arabs

At the United Nations headquarters and outside the Security Council chamber, the flags of the five countries that began their two-year terms on the Council on January 1st were raised, including the Kingdom of Bahrain.

These countries are: Bahrain, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Latvia, and Liberia. This follows the expiration of the terms of five other countries on December 31, 2025: Algeria, Guyana, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, and Slovenia.

According to the UN daily news bulletin, the Security Council consists of 15 members, five of whom are permanent members with veto power: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China. The remaining ten members are elected by the 193 members of the UN General Assembly. The tradition of the flag-raising ceremony began in 2018 at the initiative of Kazakhstan, to ensure it was not merely an administrative procedure, as its representative stated in a press conference today during the ceremony outside the Council chamber. He added that the aim is to highlight the responsibility entrusted to the new members by the General Assembly through their election to the Security Council, and to reinforce the sense of shared responsibility upon which the Council's work is based.

Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, said that the new members of the Council will contribute to shaping its work and its impact on international peace and security, from addressing conflicts and supporting UN operations to responding to emerging international crises.

He affirmed that the UN Secretariat, through its comprehensive and detailed reports and briefings, and its advisory and support services, will continue to assist all members of the Security Council to ensure that they fully and effectively carry out their assigned tasks.

He said that the flag-raising ceremony is not a celebration of the roles of the new members, but rather a renewed affirmation of the Council's collective responsibility.

Ambassador Jamal Fares Al-Ruwaie, Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Bahrain to the United Nations, began his remarks at the ceremony by conveying a message of hope to the international community, emphasizing that "peace is a shared responsibility through which we urge commitment to dialogue and understanding, and on which we build strong bridges of communication with everyone to exert every effort to express the aspirations of the countries and peoples of the region and the world at large." Al-Ruwaie stressed that the Palestinian cause would be at the top of the Kingdom's list of priorities in the Council. He added: "Bahrain seeks to support all diplomatic efforts aimed at achieving a just and comprehensive peaceful settlement of the Palestinian issue in accordance with international resolutions, and to guarantee the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to establish their independent, sovereign, and viable national state."