7/14/2005
And we're off
The race to see who secures further permanent seats on the UN Security Council has begun. The G-4, a group made up of Japan, Germany, Brazil, and India, has submitted a plan that would insert a representative from South America's leading economy, a nation that also is home to more Catholics than any other. Shirin Tahir-Kheli the US Ambassador to the UN is at loggerheads with the Secretary General Annan, among others. While opposing the current expansion of the UN security council, the US has not ruled out the possibility of it being done in the future and has backed Japan to be among that number. Tahir-Kheli made plain the US position by stating the following positions:
Tahir-Kheli presented four reasons for the U.S. position:
- -- A vote would be divisive at this time;
- -- Locking in a particular mode of council expansion now would interfere with the ability to shape a proposal later that would stand a reasonable chance of securing the requisite ratifications to amend the U.N. Charter;
- -- Those nations accorded permanent seats should meet appropriate criteria for the tremendous duties and responsibilities they will assume; and
- -- Expansion should not affect the council's efficiency.
The first is a moot point as it will always be divisive to vote among ones selves who gets to be elevated to the top of the heap, the last is moot as the UNSC is only slightly more efficient than fighting fires with a thimble full of water at a time, the others are very valid points though.
With the potential advent of the EU's coherent foreign policy, it seems redundant to add any more members from that body, which should leave Germany out in the cold. Japan really should be a gimmie for inclusion as they have one of the worlds top economies and the third largest navy. Brazil while vital in terms of regional comparison is still in need of serious work on its overall economic and military might, likewise for India.
The African Union has submitted their own resolution, and I find myself wondering how they managed this trick of willful gross exaggeration of their own importance.
