Egypt has played an important role in the discussions to establish the United Nations. During the San Francisco conference on the establishment of the United Nations, Egypt took part with a high-level delegation.

During the meeting, the Egyptian delegation has positively contributed to the discussions on stressing the rule of law in international affairs, restricting the competences granted to countries by the veto power and giving a more robust role to the UN General Assembly in achieving the UN goals. Egypt is one of the 51 founding countries of the United Nations Organization, which officially came into existence on October 24, 1945.

Over the years, the Egyptian policy showed a solid response in interaction with the principles and goals of the United Nations and its subsidiaries. It called for respecting and applying the UN resolutions and worked for commitment to the maintenance of international peace and security, development of friendly relations with the world peoples, enhancement of social progress and improvement of living standards and human rights.

Egypt has a permanent representative to the United Nations headquarters in New York and Geneva, in addition to dispatching permanent delegates to the United Nations subsidiaries.

In a new sign of respect and appreciation of Egypt's role in the world body, Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali was elected in January 1992 as Secretary-General of the United Nations.

On July 30, 2007, Egypt nominated Farouk Hosny, the then minister of culture, to succeed Koichiro Matsuura as Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and began a campaign to have him elected to the position.

Egypt has played an effective role in the preparatory talks on the United Nations reform and the expansion of the UN Security Council.

With regard to reforming the UN system, Egypt highlights the necessity of enhancing the independence of the world body with the purpose of achieving the independence and neutrality of it.

Egypt has been seeking to obtain a UN Security Council permanent seat in an effort to increase the representation of the developing countries in the Security Council.

The Egyptian stance on the Security Council membership is based on supporting the right of African countries to obtaining two permanent and five non-permanent Security Council seats.

In its quest for the Security Council membership, Egypt is supported by a long history of assisting third world liberation and independence movements and by its role on the Arab, African and Islamic arenas.

In addition, Egypt has been a pro-active participant in all UN activities in the political, economic and social domains as well as in the peacekeeping operations in many parts of Africa.

Egypt's credentials for obtaining a Security Council seat can be summed up in the following:

• It is a heavyweight state with Islamic, Arab, African and Mediterranean affiliations.

• It has one of Africa's major economies; it also ranks second in terms of population continent-wise and has the biggest number of diplomatic missions across the globe.

• It has access to Asia.

• It was one of the founding members of the UN.

• It is represented in most United Nations Executive Councils, organizations and agencies.

• Egypt is a heavyweight Arab African country, bent on protecting the rights and interests of countries of the South; it has also participated in many peacekeeping operations worldwide.

• It has hosted numerous international conferences; e.g. the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, September 1994), the Ninth UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders (Cairo, April – May 1995) and the Summit of Peacemakers (Sharm al-Sheikh, March 1996). 

Egypt and UN Security Council membership