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General Assembly to appoint Ban as UN chief for second term

21 June 2011 19:31 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The UN General Assembly is expected to appoint the incumbent UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for a second five-year term, which will begin on Jan. 1, 2012, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The 192-member General Assembly will make the appointment on the basis of the June 17 decision of the UN Security Council to recommend Ban to the top UN post for a second term.

Ban, a South Korean national, is supported by all five permanent members of the Security Council, who have veto power on the 15-nation UN body.

Ban, whose current term expires on Dec. 31, is certain to win the re-appointment when the General Assembly meets in a plenary session at 3:00 p.m. EDT at the UN Headquarters in New York on Tuesday, UN officials and diplomats said here.

The secretary-general is expected to make remarks at the General Assembly and speak to reporters late Tuesday, his spokesman Martin Nesirky said at a daily news briefing.

Under the UN Charter, the secretary-general is appointed by the UN General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council.

Two weeks ago, Ban put himself forward for re-election as the secretary-general. The 67-year-old former South Korean foreign minister succeeded Kofi Annan in January 2007.