From today, Germany holds the Chair of the United Nations Security Council for one month. Under the UN Charter, the Security Council is the central body for resolving conflicts and maintaining international peace. We are aware of the responsibility we are shouldering in assuming the Chair. Yet we not only want to help ensure that the Security Council does justice to its role in crisis management. We also want to place our own issues on the agenda in order to strengthen long term conflict prevention.

During our term as Chair, we intend to focus on the role of humanitarian aid workers. Hospitals, doctors and helpers are increasingly being targeted, while access to food and medical care is being used against the civilian population as an instrument of war. We need to put a stop to this growing willingness to stop at nothing in military conflicts. Otherwise we will descend to a new level of barbarity.

We will also put the issue of disarmament on the Security Council agenda, because we are witnessing the dangerous erosion of international disarmament agreements. And we intend to work for the better protection of women in armed conflicts and a greater role for women in conflict resolution.

It is good to know that our European partners stand alongside us on all these issues.