Julie Bishop seeks second term on UN security council for Australia
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Version 0 of 1. Australia will push for second term on the United Nations security council, Julie Bishop has announced. Australia held a seat on the council from 2013-14, and its two-year term came to an end in December. The foreign minister said at a UN dinner on Wednesday night that Australia would seek another term. “I am currently scoping the opportunities for our next term on the United Nations security council,” Bishop said. A formal proposal has not been discussed with cabinet. “There is no proposal, I don’t think, on the table,” the assistant treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, said on Thursday morning. “That’s a decision the foreign minister, the prime minister and I’m sure the national security committee will discuss in due course.” The 15-member council is the key body of the UN and oversees security and peacekeeping missions. Five of the seats are permanent, and are held by China, France, Russia, the UK and the US. UN member nations can bid for one of the other non-permanent seats. Bob Carr, who was foreign minister when Australia won the seat in 2012, hailed the moment a “big, juicy, decisive victory” that endorsed Australia as a “good local citizen”. “It’s countries saying: ‘We like Australia. We think Australia’s role is good and positive and we want to see Australia provide leadership’,” Carr said. The Coalition had been critical of the campaign, started by then prime minister Kevin Rudd in 2008 and estimated to cost $25m over five years. “It’s just a two-year term that we won today at the cost of many, many tens of millions of dollars and some dislocation of our ordinary diplomatic efforts,” the then opposition leader Tony Abbott said in 2012. “But it is two years we’ve got now at this top table, let’s hope we can make the most of it.” Bishop pointed to a number of issues that Australia had highlighted during its term on the council, including countering extremism and condemning the actions of rebels who shot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in Ukraine. “We took our values to the world, in a measured, collaborative, practical and determined fashion,” Bishop said. “Those values were our foundation during many difficult debates and decisions, and they served us well. We used the security council to serve our national interests and to garner international support for our priorities.” Frydenberg said the Coalition would be mindful of the budgetary impacts of a second bid for the council. “We would use proper means and bear in mind the cost to the taxpayer,” Frydenberg said. |