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General Assembly Meeting on Security Council Reform: Regional Representation – Statement by M. Jean-Maurice Ripert, Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations

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In this statement, the French ignore the precise question of regional representation and address the more general issue of membership expansion in both the permanent and non-permanent categories. They reiterate their support for the G4 and African states, and raise the question of a permanent Arab seat on the Council.




Permanent Mission of France to the UN
March 24, 2009


Mr. Chairman,

Thank you for organising this new meeting as part of our negotiations on the reform of the Security Council. Your letter of 20 March on the question of regional representation is a useful reminder of the state of play on this subject.

Regarding France’s position, I would like to underline the following essential points:

- France supports enlargement of the Council in both categories of members, permanent and non permanent.

- Being a member of the Security Council bears particular responsibility towards the international community. In this regard, the United Nations Charter emphasizes that due regard should be specially paid, in the first instance to the contribution of members of the United Nations to the maintenance of international peace and security and to the other purposes of the Organisation

- It is in regard to this criterion that we support the accession of Germany, Brazil, India and Japan to permanent member status.

- We also support an increased presence of African countries within the Security Council, in particular among its permanent members. There is also the question of the presence of an Arab State as part of the permanent members of the Security Council.

- We recall our support to the option of an intermediate reform, as proposed by the French President and the British Prime Minister on 27 March 2008, in order to secure a successful reform of the Security Council.

Thank you
 

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