Mozambique is advocating urgent reform of the United Nations Security Council to bring its international policies into line with the present day, according to Mozambique's Ambassador to the organization, Pedro Comissário.

"We were among the first, immediately after our election to the Security Council, to very emphatically defend the need to reform the Security Council. In fact, this is a topic that is part of Mozambique's priorities in the Security Council: reforming the United Nations and strengthening multilateralism," he revealed.

In an interview with Rádio Moçambique today, the Commissioner said that the current format of the Security Council is obsolete, i.e. it doesn't meet current needs.

"We believe that the current format of the Security Council responds more to the international situation of the 1940s, when the organization was founded, than to the present moment. And we are finding more and more acceptance for the principle that the United Nations, and the Security Council in particular, must be reformed. The bigger problem is how to operationalize this reform. But there is growing consensus on the need to reform the Security Council," he said.

Mozambique was unanimously elected to the United Nations Security Council for the first time on June 9, 2022. The country took over the rotating presidency on March 1, 2023. Pedro was speaking to the broadcaster as part of his nine-month term.

He said that, at first, Mozambique's neutrality on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict was misunderstood. However, he assured that Mozambique's stance on conflicts around the world has been well received.

"For example, on the issue of Ukraine, we took a position from the outset that was not fully understood at the time. As soon as the conflict broke out, Mozambique advocated a negotiated solution between the parties. Of course, it was a period when many people were thinking [about whether or not they were in favor of one of the parties to the conflict]. We said that these positions may please people, but they don't contribute to an effective solution to the problem," he said.