US resists threats to its powers in UN

The United States has warned that it will resist attempts to change the powers of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

''There should be no change in the status, obligations, or privileges of the current permanent members of the Security Council,'' US Ambassador Bill Richardson said Tuesday before a UN working group on Security Council reform, referring to the veto powers held by the United States, Britain, France, Russia, and China. ''We cannot and will not accept any charter changes that affect our status and prerogatives,'' he said.

Any radical restructuring of the Security Council would need an amendment to the UN Charter that could be vetoed by any of the five permanent members. Besides, the 15-member Security Council also has 10 non-permanent members, mostly developing countries that are elected every two years on the basis of geographical rotation and have no veto powers.

Richardson's speech was in reaction to third world nations who not only seek to restrict the use of veto powers but also derail moves the permanent members’ efforts to include Japan and Germany as two new permanent members, leaving developing nations out in the cold.

He said Washington supported the expansion of the Security Council to include both permanent and non-permanent members, adding that the United States would oppose any expansion that will only bring in new, non-permanent members from developing nations. ''For the council to work effectively, it needs countries with a global role and which make a global contribution. This means new, permanent members,'' he said, singling out Japan and Germany as countries that would ''strongly enhance the council's role at the centre of negotiations concerning threats to international peace and security.''

Third world countries feel the existing Security Council is heavily weighted in favour of industrial nations and is not representative of the world body where the overwhelming majority come from developing nations.

After nearly three years of closed-door sessions, the 185-member working group has failed to reach an agreement on how the UN should be expanded and restructured.

The working group has generally agreed that there should be about five new permanent seats in a revamped council. Under a proposal, three seats would go to Asia, Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean, while the remaining two would go to Germany and Japan.

At least seven countries have indicated an interest in the proposed regional third world seats: India and Indonesia (for Asia), Nigeria, South Africa, and Egypt (Africa) and Brazil and Argentina (Latin America and the Caribbean).

Speaking on behalf of the Nordic countries -- Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and Finland – Norwegian Ambassador Jaaken Biorn Lian told the working group that '' these new, permanent seats should be allocated with the aim of having the Security Council better reflect present political and economic realities'', suggesting improved representation from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Pakistan last year strongly opposed a permanent seat to Germany because there would be an ''over-representation'' of the European Union in the Security Council. Two Eu Members -- France and Britain -- already hold permanent seats.

Ambassador Ahmad Kamal of Pakistan pointed out that the EU was increasingly taking a collective stance on numerous issues, harmonising laws, members' foreign policy, and even seeking to create a common currency.

''How then, does such a single, coordinated union justify its two permanent seats on the Security Council, and the desire of some of its members for a possible third,'' he asked.

It is also likely that third world nations may be deprived of permanent seats in the Security Council on the grounds that no decision could be taken on which countries should be candidates.