Lithuania in the News
9th February 2014
Lithuania Takes up Presidency of UN Security Council
Lithuania at the UN Security Council, with Ambassador
Raimonda Murmokaitė at the front. Photo courtesy urm.lt
Last October Lithuania was elected to a seat on the UN Security Council as one of its 10 non-permanent members for a 2 year term beginning January 1, 2014 and since the beginning of February actually had to take on the Presidency of the Security Council for the month of February.
Lithuania’s first UN Ambassador Anicetas Simutis (left)
presenting his credentials to the then UN Secretary-General
Javier Perez de Cuellar on 8 October 1991. Photo courtesy urm.lt
The Security Council Presidency rotates monthly in alphabetical order and Lithuania will have to take up the Presidency one more time before its membership of the Security Council expires at the end of 2015. In fact Lithuania was due to take up the Presidency on the very day it took up its seat, but the last minute replacement of Saudi Arabia by Jordan meant it became Jordan’s task to take on the Presidency in January.
Lithuania has come along way since it first joined the United Nations on September 17, 1991, one and a half years after it re-established its independence. It is now a highly regarded member of the international community. It was elected to the UN Security Council on October 17, 2013 with a near unanimous vote of 187 out 193, a significantly higher majority than for the other 4 countries also elected at that time.

Further information:
http://un.mfa.lt/index.php?678432166
http://www.delfi.lt/news/daily/lithuania/istorinis-pasiekimas-lietuva-isrinkta-i-jungtiniu-tautu-saugumo-taryba.d?id=63066126