国际英语资讯:UN Security Council holds first in-person meeting in 4 months_时事

国际英语资讯:UN Security Council holds first in-person meeting in 4 months

Heusgen, whose country holds the Security Council presidency for the month of July, said his delegation intends to have a few more in-person meetings before the end of July.

Heusgen said Tuesday's in-person meeting was the result of a unanimous decision of the 15 members of the Security Council.

He said he would discuss with other council members after Tuesday's meeting to see whether further in-person meetings would be arranged.

Germany's position is that Security Council meetings should go gradually in this direction, he said. "We were pushing, as the presidency, for this. We have everybody on board. And now I want to see how colleagues react. We haven't made any concrete plans. But to give you a German response: yes, we would like to have a few more meetings before the end of our presidency here at the UN Headquarters."

Heusgen said virtual meetings cannot replace in-person diplomacy. But he added that the safety of everyone involved is a priority. "We will continue to be very careful," he said.

The Security Council began to convene via video teleconference in mid-March after restrictive measures were implemented at UN Headquarters in New York in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The last in-person meeting of the Security Council was held on March 12. After that it had to shift to interim procedures for the conduct of its business, including how meetings are convened and how resolutions are adopted. No interpretation between languages was made available in the meetings via video teleconference.