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Official Statement from China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States

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The P-5 members of the Security Council have resisted Council reform, but are making open statements to argue that they must be included in the reform process. As the commentary on this statement shows, the P-5 feel largely ignored as they’re not consulted directly but must respond to proposals in the media. Ironically, it is a reversal of the Security Council where the P-5 is at the center and the rest of the United Nations is waiting for them to release statements.




By Mateja Potočnik

Wordpress.com
April 4, 2009

No agreement can be achieved without negotiations. And this is what the representatives of the permanent members of the Security Council (the P-5 group) are trying to tell to other states. They have expressed their deep disappointment that they only read about the other states’ responses on their proposed draft resolution in the media. The P-5 group would like to encourage other United Nations member states to give them any official response to their draft resolution, because they are open to discuss different proposals.   

You can read more about their appeal to open and concrete negotiations on the SC reform in their joint statement, which was delivered to me yesterday evening by Isabelle Giroux, the representative of France.

“We deeply regret the profound division of the Member States over the question of the Security Council reform.

We believe in the necessity of a Security Council reform, and we sincerely wish that the Assembly is going to achieve something concrete on that point. We would like the Member States to remember that the General Assembly is going to adopt a resolution that will be presented to the Security Council. This resolution has to be strong. A clear mandate has to be given to the Security Council. To insure its strength and to give the best chances to this resolution to come into reality, it has to be supported by a majority of Member States, including the five permanent members of the Security Council.

China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States believe that all the Member States will have to work together in order to reach the largest consensus possible. Long negotiations already took place between us in order to propose together a draft resolution that has been presented to the delegates several weeks ago. We presented it and are open to comments, discussions and further negotiations. We would like nothing better than to have an open and concrete discussion over this proposition, with each and every member state. We understand that over this question many compromises will be necessary from every side, and we certainly are ready to adjust.

We would simply like to remind the Member States that any resolution concerning the Security Council reform adopted by the General Assembly with the support of China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States would have much stronger effects than a resolution adopted without their support. We also would like to reiterate our willingness to collaborate and to compromise over this question. It is the Member States that make the United Nations, and we have a deep respect for each and every perspective that could exist regarding that point.”

 

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