Permanent Mission of France to the UN
June 11, 2009
(translated from French)
Dear Mr. President,
Thank you for organizing this new meeting aimed at negotiating Security Council reform in accordance with your proposal and your letter of June 8.
Concerning France, I would like to specify the following key points relating to the composition of the Security Council:
The United Nations Charter gives the UN Security Council primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. Its format and methods ensure its effectiveness.
However, Security Council reform is essential in order for it to remain effective and, at the same time, strengthen its legitimacy in a world that is different to what it was in 1945.
In order to better represent the realities of today’s world, Security Council Reform must be carried out for both categories of members: permanent and non-permanent.
It must take into account the emergence of new powers that possess the willingness to assume the responsibility of a permanent seat in the Security Council and that are, in line with the United Nations Charter, able to make a significant contribution to the Council’s international peacekeeping and international security actions.
In this respect, 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.
At the same time, the expansion of the Security Council should not be carried out to the detriment of the effectiveness of its actions and its credibility as the main organ responsible for international peace and security. The Security Council must therefore be kept to a reasonable size.
Dear Mr. President,
In order to break this current deadlock and to be more certain of achieving Security Council reform, we support the option of an intermediate reform, as proposed by the French president and the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, on March 27, 2008.
This solution could include the creation of a new temporary category of seats, with a longer term than that of the current elected members, and this term would be renewable. At the end of the initial phase, it could be decided to turn these new types of seats into permanent ones.
Such a solution would make possible to test the parameters of a Security Council reform during an intermediate phase.
This is why we hope that this solution will garner the broadest support. In any event, it demonstrates our determination to move forward and to find a simple and pragmatic solution as quickly as possible.
Thank you.
