The Prime Minister’s Department says it will not consider any Australian minister to be a candidate to lead the United Nations in 2020.
Key points:Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr will lead the Australian delegation to the UN in 2020The United Nations General Assembly will decide who takes over in 2020Mr Carr said that Australia had not considered any Australian prime minister as a potential candidate for the post in the past”The Foreign Affairs Department will not be taking any decision about the foreign minister role at the UN, particularly at this time, with the election of a new UN Secretary-General,” he said.
“We’ve never considered any foreign minister to lead a UN body.”
Ms Bishop has been a long-time UN ambassador, but her appointment to the position of Australia’s envoy to the United Nation was first announced in January, before the election.
She will lead Australia’s delegation at the General Assembly in 2020 and the United States has previously chosen to send the country’s envoy there.’
I’m not in the business of winning’Ms Bishop was not in favour of a U.N. seat, saying she would prefer the role be occupied by a former U.S. diplomat, John Bolton.
“I’m in the private sector and I’m not the business or the politics of winning at the United World,” she told ABC Radio.
“The idea that I would be putting myself in the shoes of someone else that I think I would win, it just doesn’t make sense to me.”
She said the U.K. had “been doing the right thing for the United Kingdom, and I think we should be doing the same for Australia”.
The United States will elect a new secretary-general in 2020, and Australia’s Ambassador to the U: Mr Bolton has said that he is likely to be elected.
Mr Carr told ABC TV that while he did not think the United nations should elect a leader, it would be “a good idea” to consider a candidate.
“You would have to think about that for yourself, but if it’s someone that you think has the experience of leadership in the U, it could be something that you might want to consider,” he told the program.
“So we’re not necessarily looking at foreign ministers or foreign ministers of any country to be the leaders of the UN.”
Topics:world-politics,government-and-politics.foreign-affairs,world-transformation,politics-and_media,international-aid-and‑trade,un-elected,united-statesFirst posted October 12, 2020 08:37:59More stories from New South Wales
