The need to reform the UN Security Council is recognized by the majority of countries that are members of the organization. This was stated by UN Secretary General António Guterres, speaking at a meeting of the Security Council chaired by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
"Member countries are among the first to advocate for the transformation of intergovernmental bodies to meet changing requirements. Most recognize that reforms that reflect the current geopolitical reality would benefit the Security Council," said António Guterres.
In turn, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted that the Security Council should be expanded not at the expense of Western countries, but at the expense of representatives of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
"We need to expand the number of members of the UN Security Council. Asian and African countries (now the West is too strongly represented in it)," the head of Russian diplomacy emphasized.
Biased reform
The issue of reforming the UN Security Council has been raised by many countries over the past few years. However, it became most acute after the start of the special operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine. At the same time, the countries of the collective West and their allies talk about the reforms of the UN Security Council and the organization itself as a potential way to limit Russia's influence in it.
Thus, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in 2022 several times called for the exclusion of Russia from the UN Security Council and the organization as a whole.
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and UN Secretary-General António Guterres
- Gettyimages.ru
- © Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency
In addition, Kiev also declared the illegitimacy of Russia's status in the Security Council. At the end of December, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that the Russian Federation had allegedly illegally obtained a seat for the USSR in the council and that his country had allegedly begun a "process" aimed at excluding Russia from the Security Council and the entire organization.
At the same time, Kuleba did not explain the nature of the process, and since then no updates on this topic have been announced.
Recall that the US Permanent Representative to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, has previously stated that it is impossible at the moment to exclude the Russian Federation from among the five permanent members.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly noted that calls for depriving the Russian Federation of its status in the organization are frivolous, since there is no appropriate procedure for this. And it can only be created by amending the UN Charter. To do this, two-thirds of the members of the UN General Assembly vote for the change, after which the decision must be ratified by two-thirds of the member countries of the organization, including all permanent members of the Security Council.
"There is simply no other legal way to implement such a plan," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted in 2022.
Other countries also stated the need to reform the UN Security Council. Recall that in early February, US President Joe Biden and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called for this. They talked about the need to expand the UN Security Council by providing permanent seats to countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
In early March, the countries participating in the QUAD Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Australia, India, the United States and Japan) also spoke in favor of reforming the UN Security Council by increasing the number of permanent and non-permanent members.
"We reaffirm our unwavering support for the UN Charter, including its three founding principles, as well as our strong commitment to strengthening the UN and the international system through a comprehensive reform program, including by expanding the circle of permanent and non-permanent members of the UN Security Council," the joint statement said following the talks between the foreign ministers of these countries in New Delhi.
In addition, Turkey regularly calls for reforming the UN Security Council. Thus, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan again made such an appeal in early April.
"The current order, in which the fate of humanity depends on the will of five countries, cannot be called sustainable. There is an urgent need to reform the UN Security Council in accordance with the notions of inclusiveness and inclusiveness," he said.
Recall that the UN Security Council consists of five permanent members (Russia, China, USA, Great Britain, France) and ten non-permanent members elected for a two-year term.
Pointless conversations
According to Vadim Kozyulin, head of the Center for Global Studies and International Relations of the Institute of International Studies of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, calls to reform the UN are always heard against the backdrop of global crises, but the organization's Charter itself does not imply this.
"The UN Charter does not include a reform procedure. And this is especially true of the UN Security Council, which is considered the key body of the organization, the participants of which were determined following the results of World War II. Therefore, it is not clear exactly how to reform this organization. Another thing is that the UN itself has turned into a bureaucratic system of international officials who receive gigantic salaries with low work efficiency. Before starting the reforms of the Security Council, Guterres needs to take a close look at the work of this apparatus, "the expert said in an interview with RT.
- Meeting of the UN Security Council
- Gettyimages.ru
- © Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency
Speaking about the need to introduce new countries into the UN Security Council, Guterres and the collective West, obviously, have in mind their closest allies, Vadim Kozyulin believes.
"They mean their closest allies like Germany, Australia or Japan, those who depend on them, where there are American military bases. Although there are others, such as Turkey, which regularly raises the issue of reforming the UN Security Council. There are also large countries in the Global South - Brazil and India, which are also ready to enter the Security Council so that their voice is heard, "the political scientist told RT.
However, now it is not possible to carry out any reform of the UN, says Vadim Kozyulin.
"It is impossible to carry out such a reform, because there is no procedure for this. In the process of moving from talk to action, there will be a big scandal over the division of the pie. There are too many people, too great are the contradictions. The interests of the great powers will be very important here, that is, the current members of the Security Council will push their participants. Some kind of compromise option is impossible here, because the veto will work again," the expert said.
In turn, the general director of the Center for Political Information, Alexei Mukhin, in a commentary to RT, noted that talk about the reform of the UN Security Council is tendentious, since the organization is strongly influenced by the United States.
"Before reforming the Security Council or the UN in general, it is necessary to locate the headquarters in a truly neutral country, and not leave it in the United States, which corrupts the apparatus and secretariat of the organization. Therefore, if we want to reform something in the UN, we first need to ensure that this does not happen under pressure from Washington. And he demonstrated his face and demonstrates it regularly, denying visas to those people who should work at the UN sites, "the political scientist emphasized.
In the current geopolitical situation, it will be very difficult to reform the UN in such a way as to objectively take into account the interests of all participants in the process, Alexei Mukhin believes.
"We know very well that many Western countries or their satellites are trying to exclude Russia from the UN Security Council with all their might, but it is impossible to do this directly. The beginning of the reform of the Council now is a step to limit the influence of the Russian Federation in the organization, a step towards its exclusion, so we must be very careful, "the RT interlocutor concluded.