Global Policy Forum

By Edith M. Lederer

The United States and China have agreed to work together to block a plan to expand the powerful U.N. Security Council, China's U.N. ambassador said Wednesday. Ambassador Wang Guangya said he reached the agreement with John Bolton during a meeting Tuesday, which was the new U.S. ambassador's first full day in his new post, because both believe the proposal by Brazil, Germany, India and Japan would divide the U.N.'s 191 member states.

Washington and Beijing are already on record as opposing the so-called Group of Four resolution for different reasons, but the agreement would mark a new joint effort to prevent its approval by the U.N. General Assembly, which requires a two-thirds "yes" vote.

Wang and Bolton, who have known each other for about 15 years, met again Wednesday outside the office of General Assembly President Jean Ping, part of a round of courtesy calls the U.S. envoy is making to Security Council members and senior U.N. officials. "There's a lot of important work," Bolton said. "It's a very busy schedule in the first couple of days, and I think it's been productive and I'm certainly enjoying myself." He wouldn't discuss his meetings with Ping or council members.

Wang said the ultimate objective of China and the United States is to expand the Security Council with a formula that is not divisive. "But at this stage, I think our objective will be to oppose the G-4, to make sure they do not have sufficient votes to take the risk to divide the house," he said.

"We agreed to work together to make sure that our interests are being maintained - which means that we have to work in parallel ways to see that the unity of the U.N. members, the unity of every regional group, will not be spoiled because of this maneuver and process," Wang said. But he said Washington and Beijing will be working in parallel in the coming weeks to block the resolution - not together - because "we have different friends in different parts of the world."

After 10 years of seemingly endless debate, Secretary-General Kofi Annan told U.N. member states in March that he wanted a decision on Security Council expansion before a summit of world leaders in September. But the issue remains highly contentious, and no proposal on the table at the moment can win the required two-thirds support.

The U.S.-China effort to defeat the Group of Four comes on the eve of Thursday's emergency summit called by the African Union to consider whether to approve a compromise agreement which some of its ministers reached with Brazil, Germany, India and Japan in London on July 25.

The Security Council currently has 15 members, 10 elected for two-year terms and five permanent members _ the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France. Brazil, Germany, India and Japan have introduced a resolution calling for a 25-member council that would add six permanent seats without a veto and four nonpermanent seats. They are hoping to win four of the permanent seats with the other two earmarked for Africa. South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt are the leading African contenders.

The African Union has proposed expanding the council to 26 members _ adding six permanent seats with veto power and five non-permanent seats. A third resolution by a group called Uniting for Consensus would add 10 non-permanent seats.

There is widespread support for enlarging the council to reflect the world today rather than the global power structure after World War II when the United Nations was formed. But all previous attempts have failed because of national and regional rivalries.

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