Romania advocates for an expanded Security Council, where transparency and responsibility are the norm, and not the exception, the President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, declared on Wednesday in New York in his speech before the UN General Assembly.

„There is no viable alternative to the United Nations and the principles upon which the Organization was built remain more valid than ever. Our focus now is to continue the UN reform, so that it will be fit to address current challenges and the ones looming,” said the Romanian head of state in his last speech before the UN General Assembly as president.

He pleaded for a United Nations Organization „more effective and efficient, a more representative UN, in which trust can be fostered”.

Iohannis said that the UN must be „more accessible to the public and more meaningful”, to be an organization where youth can have „a say on matters affecting them” and where „the voices of the civil society and other stakeholders are heard”.

„That is why a Pact for the Future was so urgently required. To give fresh shape and purpose to our vision for the next generations”, the Romanian head of state said, referring to the document signed on Sunday by most of the member states.

Iohannis spoke of the UN as „a continuous aspiration for a better world (…), a world where sovereignty, territorial integrity, international law and human rights are respected. Where each country can choose its own path, with dignity and free from aggression. Where every citizen is safe and free. This is our call to action,” concluded the Romanian president.

AGERPRES