By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, April 11 -- When new Australia Foreign Minister Bob Carr came to meet UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on April 10, Inner City Press went to the photo-op, along with two Australian photographers. See here and here.
Afterward Carr bragged that Ban had acknowledged the strength of his country's case for a Security Council seat, a campaign started by his predecessor Kevin Rudd.
Funny thing, though -- when Ban issued his own read out of the meeting, there was no mention of the Security Council, much less Australia's race against Finland and Luxembourg, where Ban is traveling to now.
So at the UN's April 11 noon briefing Inner City Press asked:
Inner City Press: This meeting with the Australian Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, I saw the readout and then I also saw what Mr. Carr said that Australia’s bid for a Security Council seat was discussed and he said that the Secretary-General has acknowledged that Australia has a good case, so I just wonder, was it discussed in that meeting? This is obviously a key issue to Australia. Is Mr. Carr wrong or is there some diplomatic reason not to include the full agenda of the discussion?
Spokesperson Martin Nesirky: Matthew, readouts are not transcripts of meetings, they are readouts of meetings and we do not put in readouts the interlocutors comments. We are referring to what the Secretary-General has raised or topics that have been raised that are of a general interest. For example, the DPRK. Everybody knows that a number of countries are bidding for Security Council seats, non-permanent seats. And everybody knows that that’s a decision that is in the hands of Member States and not the Secretary-General. And, therefore, it is not proper for him to take a position on any Member State’s bid. It is also obvious that the Secretary-General would recognize the work of any Member State at the United Nations. So, I think that is pretty clear, Matthew.
Any member state? How about Syria? Watch this site.
