New York (ANTARA News) - Foreign Affairs Minister Retno L. P. Marsudi will hold 70 bilateral meetings with counterparts and envoys from other nations to gather support for Indonesias bid for a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council (UNSC).

The bilateral meetings, called diplomatic marathons, will be held on the sidelines of the 72nd General Assembly Session of the UN being held on September 18-29, 2017.

On Monday (Sept 18), the minister held at least 10 bilateral meetings with foreign ministers or representatives of Samoa, Croatia, Namibia, Niger, Liechtenstein, Ecuador, Georgia, Monaco, Tunisia, and Switzerland, among others.

"We request their support for our bid for a non-permanent seat of the UNSC," she noted at the UN Headquarters, here, Monday.

The number of bilateral meetings is double as compared to some 35 meetings that the minister had held last year on the sidelines of the earlier UN General Assembly session.

The UNSC has 15 member countries, comprising five permanent members -- Russia, China, the US, the UK, and France -- and 10 non-permanent members serving for a two-year period.

Since last year, Indonesia has been campaigning to win the membership for the 2019-2020 period.

The country had been a non-permanent member of the UNSC for three periods: 1973-1974, 1995-1996, and 2007-2008.

Marsudi outlined several priorities that Indonesia would pursue if it were to be elected as the non-permanent member of the UNSC.

Indonesia intends to continually contribute to promoting world peace and stability, as the country has rich experience in this area at the regional level.

The minister emphasized the need for better synergy among organizations at the global and regional levels.

Secondly, Indonesia is also keen to strengthen synergy between peace and the sustainable development agenda.

Indonesia is looking to ensure that peace, security, and stability can support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The third priority is global cooperation to respond to cross-border challenges, such as terrorism, radicalism, and extremism, that can threaten world peace and the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the minister explained.

The election of the UNSC non-permanent membership will be held in June 2018, and the threshold for Indonesia to be elected is to receive the support of at least 128 countries.

During the bilateral meetings, Minister Marsudi also discussed efforts to strengthen ties with those countries.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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