Denmark will be one of the five countries that will take up a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council from the new year.
According to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark will work to defend human rights, ensure that preventive measures against climate change are given higher priority on the agenda, and "focus on promoting women's role in the work for peace and security".
Lars Løkke Rasmussen was present at the voting in New York and says that the country has been working behind the scenes since 2009 to secure a seat in the Security Council. This will be Denmark's fifth term, with the last being 2005-2006.
The other four new countries that will join the Security Council for two years are Greece, Panama, Pakistan, and Somalia.
The five new countries will take over from Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, and Switzerland. The remaining permanent members are the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, and France, as well as the five countries that took up their seats on January 1 this year – Slovenia, Guyana, Sierra Leone, Algeria, and South Korea.
Sweden has sat on the UN Security Council four times, most recently in 2017-2018.
