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STORY: UN / DENMARK PRESSER
TRT: 02:47
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 03 AUGUST 2026, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior UN Headquarters
03 AUGUST 2026, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press room dais
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Christina Markus Lassen, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Denmark:
“We do hope, of course, to make progress on this election of the new Secretary-General. This is arguably one of the most important decisions of the Council this year. We, obviously, cannot comment on the results - if you wanted to ask me that - on the straw polls last week. But we do expect to conduct another round of straw polls later this month.”
4. Med shot, press room dais
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Christina Markus Lassen, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Denmark:
“We're very excited about it, and we think it's historic to be part of this process. So, yes, I can say - and I think that's all I can say unfortunately, and I hope you respect that confidentiality in that room. There was, of course, a lot of suspense and excitement. We know that this is a very important issue that we're working on, and very important to try to get the Council to some kind of - not some kind, but to agreement - as it's managed after all the past nine times.”
6. Wide shot, press room dais
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Christina Markus Lassen, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Denmark:
“We were one of the members as you might know who argued in favour when we were discussing the modalities of these elections for more transparency and for actually releasing the polls. We agreed not to do so. So now, when we agreed on that, we're very strict on that. So, we find it unfortunate, as in many other Council members, that results will leak because now we had agreed not to but that's the way we look at it. So, we respect that.
Again, you would have probably followed.”
8. Wide shot, journalists
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Christina Markus Lassen, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Denmark:
“Since we entered the Council a little more than a year or a half ago it has been one of our main concerns not surprisingly, we're in the neighbourhood. We're extremely concerned about this conflict, which has now been going on for more than four and a half years.”
10. Med shot, journalist
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Christina Markus Lassen, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Denmark:
“The Russian attacks on Ukraine keep getting more and more brutal and more and more important in numbers, so to say. So, we have, you know much better than me, but almost every single night we have major attacks on Kyiv and other big cities of Ukraine and of course, increasing number of civilian casualties. I believe that we heard that May and June were already the highest numbers of civilian casualties so far in the conflict. And we haven't seen the final numbers for July yet, but I fear that that would be again beating that horrible record.”
12. Med shot, press room dais
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Christina Markus Lassen, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Denmark:
“A just and lasting peace has to, of course, be in accordance with the basic principles of the Charter and respecting every state sovereignty and territorial integrity. So, we believe that a peace has to be comprehensive to be a lasting peace. And that would be the principle we keep we're working from. And also, the reason what we try to do this month in the Council.”
14. Wide shot, end of presser
The President of the Security Council for the month of August, Danish Ambassador Christina Markus Lassen, today (3 Aug) told journalists in New York that the Council is expected “to make progress” on the election of a new Secretary-General this month and said this was “arguably one of the most important decisions of the Council this year.”
The Council held its first straw poll on the participating candidates during the month of July, and Lassen said it is expected to conduct another round of later this month.
She said Council members are “very excited about it” and added that there was, “a lot of suspense and excitement” in the room.
Lassen noted that Denmark was one of the Council members “who argued in favour when we were discussing the modalities of these elections for more transparency and for actually releasing the polls.”
She said that after agreeing to keep the straw poll results confidential, it was “unfortunate” that results had been leaked.
Turning to Ukraine, Lassen, who was briefing correspondents on the Council’s program of work for the month, said, “since we entered the Council a little more than a year or a half ago it has been one of our main concerns not surprisingly, we're in the neighbourhood.”
She said, “Russian attacks on Ukraine keep getting more and more brutal and more and more important in numbers, so to say,” and pointed out that “May and June were already the highest numbers of civilian casualties so far in the conflict. And we haven't seen the final numbers for July yet, but I fear that that would be again beating that horrible record.”
The Danish Ambassador said, “a just and lasting peace has to, of course, be in accordance with the basic principles of the Charter and respecting every state sovereignty and territorial integrity. So, we believe that a peace has to be comprehensive to be a lasting peace. And that would be the principle we keep we're working from. And also, the reason what we try to do this month in the Council.”
