A Greeting from Ambassador Gregor W. Koessler. On the occasion of a reception held in the context of Austria’s candidacy for membership in the UN Security Council for the years 2027–2028, In the presence of Her Excellency Ms. Beate Meinl-Reisinger, Minister for European and International Affairs.
New York-Rashad Alkhader – From – UN
The Permanent Mission of Astoria to the United Nations hosted a grand reception to mark its candidacy for non-permanent membership of the UN Security Council for the 2027–2028 term.
The event was attended by Their Excellencies the Ambassadors accredited to the United Nations and international organizations, as well as by prominent figures and business leaders.
A Greeting from Ambassador Gregor W. Koessler.
On the occasion of a reception held in the context of Austria’s candidacy for membership in the UN Security Council for the years 2027–2028,
In the presence of Her Excellency Ms. Beate Meinl-Reisinger,
Minister for European . pic.twitter.com/FaalfCyxcy— عين اليمن الحر (@FreeYemenEye) March 27, 2026
Also in attendance was
Her Excellency Ms. Beate Meinl-Reisinger
Minister for European and International Affairs
At the commencement of the ceremony, His Excellency the Permanent Ambassador of the Mission of Astoria to the United Nations, Mr. Gregor W. Koessler…., delivered an address.
Through it, he welcomed all the guests participating in the ceremony.
He provided a detailed overview of the Republic of Astoria, covering its history since joining the United Nations and its active participation at all international levels.
For the sake of establishing peace and development.and Human Rights
Say two things. First of all, as always, thank you to my team, because, you know, they transformed this location, which is a cool location, into a much better location. Can you give a hand to my team please? Thank you. And as you know, you know we Austrians can do two things. Well. We can do two things very well. One is to celebrate. This is what we’re doing tonight. But we can also work very hard. So for this night, we we rented a special location. It’s actually called loft and garden, almost like a British magazine. For a special guest, our Foreign Minister beat Emmanuel Reisinger. You may applaud
And if you didn’t look around and you don’t know yet, you will know after the speech of my minister, and little hint, I’m happy to announce my wonderful foreign minister without the Mendel Risinger, the floor is yours.
The only British magazine I know from movies is horse
and hands. Excellent. It is a Hong Kong puny it is. Tomorrow. It will be harder. This is my third official visit to New York since taking office, and almost exactly one year since I first addressed you on Austria’s candidate to go to the Security Council, a candidacy we announced 15 years ago, so it wasn’t me at the time, as the First we open country, what a year it has been since my first visit. I believe we can all agree that the world we are facing today has become widely more complex, more insecure and more unpredictable, especially for small and medium sized states. But despite the pressure, despite the changing tides, Austria stands by its unwavering commitment to international cooperation, to the rule of law and to the United Nation and its charter, which we all have vowed to uphold. The world around us seems to be crumbling. The order we have built is shaken to its foundations. Violent conflicts are raging. Cooperation is replaced by competition. Energy prices are rising. Our citizens demand answers and solutions, and rightly so. You might ask, in a world like this, what has Austria to offer? What can a small country like Austria even bring to the Security Council? But here is my pitch, particularly in times like these, seeking an elected seat in the council is not about prestige. It’s hard work, by the way, and it’s about responsibility when it matters. It’s about finding opportunities for compromise only probably a militarily, militarily neutral country like Austria can offer. It is about the conviction that our children serve our very best effort to serve the entire membership of the United Nations. This is how Austria sees its role. Let me tell you, Austria is a country that understands what the United Nations means to those who do not have the strength of power politics on their side. My Country joined the United Nations 70 years ago, shortly after regaining our independence and sovereignty. At this time, Austria made a conscious choice to become a neutral country, not a member of any alliance. 70 years ago, Austria sat right at the point where east and west were ideologically and physically divided. This made us cherish and cherish and foster dialog. Prioritize cooperation and develop our own profile, a role to bridge divides, a place for dialog and a home to one of the four UN Headquarters and over 50 international organizations in Vienna. Well, the world has changed. Inch since then. But what has not changed, though, is our commitment to dialog and diplomacy as cornerstone of our foreign policy. Austria’s long standing experience as a mediator speaks for itself, itself from hosting pivotal Cold War negotiations to more recent efforts, including the talks on Syria and other crises in the Middle East, Vienna has consistently served as a platform for peace efforts. We have always believed that our unique role as a small and neutral country and as a place for dialog comes with responsibilities to be independent, to be principled and to lead diplomatic initiative, and it also comes with the responsibility to listen to all standpoints, even if we don’t agree on them, and draw our own conclusions based on our own and not somebody else. Assessment, above all, our foreign policy is guided by the conviction that our security and prosperity rely on the respect for international rules. This is expressed in our strong and unwavering support to the rule of law, which led us to found and shared a cross regional group of friends of the rule of law more than 20 years ago. It also comes with our conviction to uphold the principles in practice. You can count on Austria to call a spade a spade, rather than bow to the trends of the time and cheer on violence over diplomacy, because it is politically opportune, and it translates into our commitment to an effective, transparent and accountable Security Council as founding member of the Act group and having been instrumental for the setting of the ombudsperson for sanction regime during our last council membership, from 2009 to 2010 From the very inception of our UN membership. Austria took an active role in peace and security at the UN already 1960 only five years after being reestablished as a sovereign country, and after five years after joining the United Nations, Austria participated in its first peacekeeping mission in Congo with the medical contingent. Since then, 140,000 Austrians have served in peacekeeping operations in Africa, Asia Eastern, Europe and the Middle East. And to this day, we participate in five out of 11 peacekeeping operations with our biggest contingent in UNIFIL, in Lebanon, we fully support closer cooperation of the UN with regional organizations, including the African Union. Austria is also a champion for peace building as a consistent donor to the peace peace building fund that we just recently, well actually this week, supported with, well no recently supported with 1 million euros funding pivotal projects in Africa, Latin America and Asia, and we decided this week to additionally contribute 1 million euros within the Austrian government. We have adopted a holistic approach to peace and security, not least as a champion of the women peace and security agenda. It’s very close to my heart. In addition, our role is reflected in a foreign policy that prioritizes disarmament and Non Proliferation. We believe in a world free of nuclear weapons, and are at the forefront of multilateral initiatives. To this end, Austria has played a leading role in the conclusion and entry into force of the Treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons, and we have championed, in partnership with others, multilateral action on autonomous weapons systems. Austria, together with a cross regional group of co sponsors, tabled the very first resolution on lethal autonomous weapons systems, which was adopted with an overwhelming majority. History teaches us that we will not be able to prevent or avoid every war. Thus we have sought to prioritize the protection of the most vulnerable people where conflicts occur, hence our strong focus on the protection of civilians. During our last Security Council term, where Austria championed the United Nations Security Council resolution 1894 on this topic, Austria will place a particular focus on the protection of civilians and the respect for the international humanitarian law in our aspired Security Council term, in addition, in addition to our long standing and consistent engagement in children and armed in armed conflict, the challenges face. Facing our world go far beyond peace and security, whether in Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America or the Caribbean, climate change and its consequences, like rising sea levels, droughts and extreme weather events are severely threatening livelihoods and our biodiversity, particularly, of course, for small island developing states, Austria is a country that heavily relies on its pristine nature for its economy and tourism. In my country, glaciers are melting. Forests are endangered by insufficient rainfall. There can never be prosperity and security and stability without resolute action to protect our planet, we are committed to tackling those environmental challenges together and to supporting especially the most vulnerable countries. Austria has vowed to be Climate Neutral by 2040 it’s a tough job. I can tell you, over 80% of Austria’s electricity comes from renewables. We have a lot of expertise to offer in this regard, and we just introduced the bill this week as the Austrian government to even foster faster the faster transition to even more renewable energy projects.
Austria is convinced that climate and security are intrinsically interlinked. As recent co chair of the climate and security mechanism, I can assure you that climate and security is a priority for us, and that we will actively seek to build coalitions within the council to keep climate and security firmly on the agenda. As a country that has recovered from complete devastation after World War Two, Austria is a champion of the agenda 2030, and sustainable development. We have invested billions in development corporations over the years, Science, Technology and Innovation play a key role in development. And Austria will co chair, together with Zambia, the STI forum for the SDGs in May, as a landlocked country ourselves, we have particularly offered our expertise solidarity and support to landlocked developing countries who have their own specific set of challenges to deal with due to the lack of direct access to the sea and the remoteness from international markets. Let me also underline that Austria understands that in order for our system to remain legitimate, it must undergo meaningful reform, as I have said on a previous occasion regarding the United Nations reform, yes, replace No.
This includes pursuing the important reforms
under the UN at initiative the future requires us to embrace change. Austria is a reliable partner and generous host for the UN also by paying its contributions in full and on time, we have to reform the Security Council as well to make it more effect, effective and representative of today’s world, also by redressing the historical injustice against Africa. Also, together with our partner, Kuwait, has worked hard to achieve this goal by CO chairing the IGN until early 2025 which is reflected in a strong chapter on the Security Council reform the pact for the future. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, this is our offer to you. We are not a country that seeks division.
dialog, partnership and trust. We are a country that seeks pragmatic solutions on the basis of our shared principles, reflected in successful diplomacy over the years, we offer independence. We are for our experience as a mediator, as an actor that can engage with those we don’t agree with a council member that approaches everyone at eyes level, that listens, consults and partners, having served on the UN Security Council three times before now, after 18 years, Austria is once again Ready to assume an elected seat on the Security Council.
I would like to humbly ask your support at the UN Security Council elections, 2728 on the third of June, permit a moi de conclude en Frances Yemen homage a. Notre diversity, cultural mercy on
