UNITED NATIONS // A UN chief has claimed a "breakthrough" in the deadlocked negotiations over reforming the Security Council after the approval for full-scale negotiations to expand the 15-nation body. Speaking upon completion of his one-year term as General Assembly president, Sergjan Kerim described a resolution passed on Monday as a key step in adding new members to the council.
After hours of fractious debate on the final day of the assembly's 62nd session, members passed a resolution that approved "inter-governmental negotiations" on expanding the council by the end of February. The deal was agreed by consensus and calls on member states to discuss proposals "in an open, inclusive and transparent manner" and "garner the widest possible political acceptance by member states".
Mr Kerim said the agreement would force the assembly's 192 members into a "process of give and take and pave the way for a viable solution" to reforming the council. "We have really accomplished something which [will] make real progress in the reform process," said Mr Kerim, the former foreign minister of Macedonia. Critics say the Security Council reflects the balance of world power after the Second World War and affords disproportionate power to its five permanent, veto-wielding members: Britain, France, Russia, China and the United States.
The council includes a further 10 members that cannot exercise a veto and are elected for a two-year term by the General Assembly. Discussions on council expansion began in 1993 when a UN working group was given the task of devising plans for enlarging the body, but no alternative model has achieved broad support. Describing council reform as the "most difficult issue" of his presidency, Mr Kerim said debate had seen the assembly split into regional blocs that advocate rival reform agendas.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, the UAE's minister of foreign affairs, has called for reform to "enhance the efficiency and effectiveness" of the council and increase the "representation of developing countries". The Government bands with other members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, which in March called for "adequate representation of the Muslim ummah", or community, in an expanded council, warning that failure to do so will "not be acceptable to the Muslim world".
Other groups seek greater representation, with African countries calling for an expanded council to grant the continent two permanent veto-wielding seats and two non-permanent seats. In 2005, a so-called Group of Four - Germany, Brazil, India and Japan - made a strong push to join the council as permanent members, along with two African countries, but without veto rights. The bid failed to get enough support as it ran into strong opposition from regional rivals, such as Italy and Argentina, who did not want to see their continental neighbours gain influence at their expense.
This week's resolution means discussions will move beyond the committee stage impasse and into the hands of the UN's 192 members early next year, although this does not mean that a deal is imminent. A number of diplomats heralded the agreement as a "historic" step, while Sir John Sawers, Britain's ambassador to the UN, said it meant "that we are now moving from discussion of procedure into discussion of substance".
Jean-Maurice Ripert, France's UN ambassador, spoke in favour of enlargement, saying he hoped an expansion would "increase the legitimacy of the decisions of the Security Council". Mr Kerim said the upcoming phase of negotiations would compel regional blocs to abandon long-held positions in order to garner the two-thirds majority in a General Assembly vote necessary to effect change. "They will realise very soon that their own positions will not lead them anywhere," Mr Kerim said.
Mr Kerim said the likely result of intergovernmental negotiations would be an "intermediary solution". During such a transitional period, members could attempt several configurations, including the repartitioning of seats on a regional basis and the allocation of veto rights and permanent seats. jreinl@thenational.ae
