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UN council reform

(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-01-05 08:54

The debut of Colombia, Germany, India, Portugal and South Africa as non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), starting on New Year's Day, has aroused expectations for the greater representation of emerging economies in the world body and renewed calls for UN reform.

The five newcomers will serve a two-year term on the council, which is believed to be the most representative yet. This means that all the BRIC states, an economic bloc comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and the soon-to-be new addition South Africa, are all members of the council. Given their rising economic clout, these countries have given much hope to the world economic recovery.

In their latest joint statement welcoming South Africa to what will be BRICS, these nations vowed to cooperate more on multilateral platforms.

The UNSC will be an ideal place for their future collaboration and will increase the influence of emerging economies in the world's biggest organization.

The presence of the BRICS nations in the council will be good news to the developing world as well. For years, the voice of developing countries has been relatively small and their role marginalized due to their low representation in the world body, which is a legacy the UN inherited since its founding in 1945.

The fact that three of the Group of Four nations - Germany, India, Brazil - are also on the council at the same time means there will be some aggressive proposals supporting the expansion of UNSC with both permanent and non-permanent seats this year.

This will contribute to the trend of a multipolar world and the building of a just, new world order.

In fact, the expansion of the UNSC is an old issue. The reason that there has been virtually little progress in this regard in recent years is that it is a complicated issue and related to UNSC reform. Experience tells us any complex issue within the framework of the UN requires time and patience to be resolved.

Rational and reasonable UNSC reform is necessary, as it will help improve the authority and efficiency of the council and enable it to carry out more effectively the responsibilities entrusted to it by the UN Charter.

UNSC reform should give top priority to increasing the representation of developing countries, in particular that of African countries, and give more small and medium-sized countries access to the council and its decision-making process. The changes should include not only expansion of the representation of the council, but also improvement of its working methods.

UNSC reform will not occur overnight, or in a few years, it will require many rounds of thorough consultations and negotiations. Therefore any attempt to set an artificial time limit for UNSC reform is both far-fetched and reckless.