Singapore rejoins UNESCO after 22-year absence

Singapore rejoined the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today after a 22-year absence.

The Organization’s Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura welcomed the return of Singapore, which deposited its instrument of adhesion in London today, as the 193rd UNESCO member.

“Universality is UNESCO’s main source of strength,” he said. “It opens the way for global responses to increasingly complex situations.”

He underscored that Organization’s “Member States and all of our partners are as proud as I am to welcome Singapore back, and we share the conviction that this Member State will make a rich and diverse contribution to debates in all of UNESCO’s areas of competence.”

Singapore’s return means that UNESCO now has one more Member State than the UN itself, which has 192. Gan Kim Yong, Minister of Education and Manpower, will lead the South-East Asian nation’s delegation at the 34th session of the UNESCO General Conference from 16 October to 3 November.

In recent years, UNESCO has seen the return of the United States in 2003, as well as the adhesion to the Organization of Serbia in 2000, Timor-Lester in 2003, Brunei Darussalam in 2005 and Montenegro in 2006. Tokelau became an Associate Member in 2001.