Foreign Secretary to convene meeting of Foreign Ministers from the UN Security Council’s permanent five members

• Liz Truss will chair the talks today (Wednesday 22 September) with Foreign Ministers from the US, France, China and Russia, and the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
• In the margins of the United Nations General Assembly, she will call for greater cooperation among the P5 on maintaining international peace and security.
• It comes on her first overseas trip in her new role and follows a visit to Washington D.C. alongside the PM yesterday.

The Foreign Secretary will today hold talks with her counterparts from the US, France, China and Russia to discuss the world’s most pressing crises.

Liz Truss will convene the meeting of the UN Security Council’s five permanent members (P5) during the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meetings in New York as part of her first overseas visit in her new role.

The P5 will discuss the vital role the Security Council, including its permanent members, has to play in maintaining international peace and security, amid a backdrop of ongoing conflicts and crises, including in Afghanistan, Myanmar, Yemen and Tigray.

Truss will call for Russia and China to agree a co-ordinated international approach to Afghanistan.

Speaking ahead of the meetings, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said:

The P5 have clear shared interests in maintaining stability in volatile regions to prevent terrorism and keep our citizens safe.

If we want to avoid Afghanistan becoming a haven for global terror then the international community – including Russia and China – needs to act as one in its engagement with the Taliban.

I want our foreign policy to be practically-focused and geared towards strengthening our network of economic and diplomatic partnerships, underpinned by strong security ties. My visit to the UN is the start of an autumn where Global Britain leads the way on the world stage.

The last meeting of P5 Foreign Ministers with the UN Secretary-General was in 2019 and convened by China.