Habiba Hamdy , Thursday 2 Feb 2023
Egypt’s permanent delegation to the United Nations received on Thursday the rotating chairmanship of the UN African Group in New York for February 2023, following the end of the Senegalese presidency of the group for January 2023, a statement by the Egyptian foreign ministry said.
“It is my pleasure to assume the chairmanship of the African Group in New York for the month of February. The African Group is a vital forum through which our continent advances its interests and priorities at the UN system,” Permanent Representative of Egypt to the UN in New York and the current chairperson of the group Osama Mahmoud Abdel-Khalek was quoted as saying by the African Union (AU) website.
The discussions of the African Group, which consists of the 54 AU member states at the UN, revolve around issues relevant to the continent such as health, migration, peace, and security among others, according to the group’s page on the AU website.
“I intend to build on the stellar job done by my predecessors and to further push for African positions across all work streams of the UN,” the chairperson said, according to the ministry’s statement.
Abdel-Khalek said that Egypt’s chairmanship of the group comes within the framework of its active role in promoting the African continent’s presence and interaction in the various fields of work of the UN, and advancing the interests of the continent and its peoples, especially in priority issues, foremost of which are peacekeeping, peace-building, development, confronting climate change, and others.
Abdel-Khalek indicated that the African Group has a number of major commitments within the negotiating tracks at the UN, including the Sustainable Development Goals Summit, the Summit of the Future, the high-level meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response, the ministry statement reported.
The member states in the UN General Assembly are divided into various geographical groupings through which elections are conducted into various UN bodies and agencies.
The African Group holds regular meetings to receive briefings from guests and UN officials and discuss UN resolutions and topics so a common African position can be reached, according to the AU website.
