Thank you for giving me the floor Mister/Madame Co-Chair.

Distinguished Co-Chairs,

Thank you for convening this meeting and for leading our discussions in the last three meetings discussing the five (5) clusters for the reform of the Security Council.

As in the last three meetings, the Philippine maintains its support to the expansion of members in the permanent and non-permanent category; and will do its part to help facilitate a more transparent, effective and efficient functioning of the Security Council as a whole.

Status of Documents

The Philippines has actively engaged in every session of the IGN and different initiatives of past Chairs of the IGN process including the Framework Document of 2015, the Elements of Convergence paper of 2016, the Elements of Commonality and Issues for further Consideration of 2017 and the Revised Elements of Commonality and Issues for Further Consideration of 2018 and the Elements Paper on Convergences and Divergences of 2021.

From its inaugural round on 19 February 2009, over 12 years ago, the IGN has mainly been a forum for Groups and Member States to reiterate well-known positions that have been expressed year after year. None of the IGN documents produced in the last six (6) years have led to real and actual progress towards Security Council reforms.

There is currently no formal record-keeping of our discussions. If there was, then we can make the process cumulative and progressive, instead of discussing anew every year sans any resolution in any specific cluster or item within the cluster of IGN reform topics.

Therefore, the crux of the issue, is about agreeing to have a single, consolidated written instrument reflecting prior consensus and other matters to be negotiated prospectively in the next round of IGN.

In our 2021 IGN meetings, some states expressed that text-based negotiations are necessary for reform; that we need a single text where member states can concretely attribute their national position; and that text-based negotiations would allow more clarity in the positions of every Member State and facilitate reaching common understanding on divergent issues and move forward with convergent issues.

While some states remain reluctant on negotiating a single text offering a package of possible agreements on Security Council reform, we believe that having one document to look at will help bring a sense of movement and progress after years of discussions over the same clusters of UNSC reform topics.

In this vein, we share the view of many states, as noted in the Co-Chair’s second preliminary oral reflections as delivered on 17 March 2022 during the last third IGN session, that the Co-Chair’s Elements from the 75th session of the General Assembly is a useful starting point for discussions. We support the suggestions by many Member States for updates to be made to the Elements Paper during this IGN session. If we can find consensus, we can also lend support to States and groups of States who have called for their positions to be clearly attributed in the paper.

 Mister/Madame Co-Chair,

We call on your joint leadership to bring this body towards real progress.  We envision an outcome of our exercise to be in the form of a package agreement, including veto powers, expansion of membership and on working methods. All five clusters must be covered in a final instrument, which is truly relevant and responsive to the needs of our changing times.

I thank you, Mister/Madame Co-Chair.