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Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Gordan Grlić Radman on Friday participated via video link in marking the 75th anniversary of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), held as part of the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.
On 7 June this year, Croatia was elected a member of ECOSOC for the third time, for the 2022-2024 period. In 2002, presiding over ECOSOC was Croatia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ivan Šimonović.
“In 2002, we faced a lot of challenges, but we also made headway in a number of important areas, such as peace building and conflict prevention, cooperation with international financial and trade institutions, as well as active participation in decision-making at international conferences and summits. Many issues from that time are still outstanding and Croatia continued to work on them within the UN. For instance, together with Afghanistan, we coordinated the General Assembly’s Omnibus Resolution on the Comprehensive and Coordinated Response to the Coronavirus Disease,” Grlić Radman said.
In addition, the minister underscored that Croatia would give its contribution in the 2022-2024 period so that ECOSOC could provide a strong multilateral response to the pandemic, in the spirit of global solidarity and partnership. “No country can deal with the COVID-19 crisis alone. Safe and effective vaccines, as well as diagnostics and treatment, should be easily available to everyone, in a quick and sustainable manner, without discrimination,” he added.
Concluding his address, Grlić Radman underlined that ECOSOC’s success should not be measured by the number of resolutions adopted, but by tangible changes that their implementation achieved in the field. He added that ECOSOC had made great progress, but that the future called for more flexibility and interactive cooperation among all the stakeholders within the UN system, so that no one is left behind.