Ambassador: states view Switzerland as Security Council ‘bridge-builder’

View of the room of the UN Security Council at the UN headquarters in New York, June 7, 2022. © Keystone / Alessandro Della Valle

Countries are expecting Switzerland to help build bridges when it takes its seat on the United Nations Security Council in January, says Swiss ambassador Pascale Baeriswyl.

Switzerland is due to take up one of the ten non-permanent seats on the Security Council for the first time in its history on January 1, 2023. The Alpine state was voted on to the important international forum earlier this year.

The role of the non-permanent members is to remind the five permanent powers – the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France – of their responsibilities and to offer moderate positions, Baeriswyl, Swiss ambassador to the UN in New York, toldExternal linkBlick newspaper in an interview on Friday.

Since UN resolutions require at least nine votes, non-permanent members have an important role to play, she declared.

Switzerland will be very clear “when it comes to protecting international law and human rights,” Baeriswyl said.

The Swiss mandate is “very strict”, she said.

“There may be three, four or five meetings a day, often urgent. There are also negotiations. We still have to finalise Switzerland’s position and think about the best way to position ourselves tactically and strategically,” she said.

The fact that Switzerland is neutral is not a problem, said the ambassador.

“There are many people around the world, even those who do not have a political function, who know that Switzerland is neutral and who attach great importance to it,” she said.

Neutrality is also a sign of identification at the international level, she noted. If it were to be abandoned, Switzerland would lose “part of its credibility”.

Switzerland will join Albania, Brazil, Ecuador, Gabon, Ghana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and the United Arab Emirates as non-permanent members of the UN Security Council in January 2023.