MINSK, 18 July (BelTA) – I harbor no illusions about any possible reform of the Security Council, a major body of the United Nations Organization, Belarus’ Permanent Representative to the United Nations Valentin Rybakov told BelTA.
“It is absolutely wrong to say that the UN does not need to be reformed, that there is no need for improvements, enhancements. This concerns more the technical side of work - methods of work, duplication of work by various bodies, committees and other UN structures. The UN Secretariat (the people who work for the UN, they are not country representatives like us, but the secretariat personnel) are technical staff who perform clerical tasks. When we talk about reforming the UN, we mean them too, of course. But mainly we are talking about reforming the structure of the work in the UN.”
As for changing the membership of a particular body, and first of all the Security Council as one of the UN main bodies, this work has been on for many years already.
“Frankly speaking, I harbor no illusions that this issue will be resolved in some perspective, neither in the near nor in the medium term. The countries fail to agree on some basic things today: on who should be admitted as permanent members of the Security Council [currently there are five of them - Russia, China, the USA, France and the UK], which continents should be represented, and in what number. It is a tangle of interests and contradictions,” Valentin Rybakov said.
Besides, some of the countries that are active in their desire to become permanent members of the Security Council are among the states that lost the Second World War, which led to the creation of the UN.
The Belarusian diplomat also wondered whether the work of the Security Council would be effective even in case of “reforming this entourage”.
“Now it cannot make a decision on the main issues for which this body was established - on issues of war and peace. This is understandable, since the permanent members of the Security Council are Russia and China on the one side, and Western states on the other [each of the permanent members has the right of veto]. The positions are irreconcilable now, especially taking into account the military and political crisis that is raging near our southern borders. These are absolutely irreconcilable contradictions. The Security Council cannot make a decision on very many major issues. I have great doubts that decisions on some of these issues will be taken at all,” Valentin Rybakov said.
“Our goal is to make the UN serve as a moral compass, so that through this platform we would convey information about the situation to the widest possible range of countries, peoples, communities. So far we have succeeded in this, despite certain difficulties in our work. Now we have new tasks, which, I hope, we will successfully fulfill,” the Belarus’ permanent representative to the UN said.
“It is absolutely wrong to say that the UN does not need to be reformed, that there is no need for improvements, enhancements. This concerns more the technical side of work - methods of work, duplication of work by various bodies, committees and other UN structures. The UN Secretariat (the people who work for the UN, they are not country representatives like us, but the secretariat personnel) are technical staff who perform clerical tasks. When we talk about reforming the UN, we mean them too, of course. But mainly we are talking about reforming the structure of the work in the UN.”
As for changing the membership of a particular body, and first of all the Security Council as one of the UN main bodies, this work has been on for many years already.
“Frankly speaking, I harbor no illusions that this issue will be resolved in some perspective, neither in the near nor in the medium term. The countries fail to agree on some basic things today: on who should be admitted as permanent members of the Security Council [currently there are five of them - Russia, China, the USA, France and the UK], which continents should be represented, and in what number. It is a tangle of interests and contradictions,” Valentin Rybakov said.
Besides, some of the countries that are active in their desire to become permanent members of the Security Council are among the states that lost the Second World War, which led to the creation of the UN.
The Belarusian diplomat also wondered whether the work of the Security Council would be effective even in case of “reforming this entourage”.
“Now it cannot make a decision on the main issues for which this body was established - on issues of war and peace. This is understandable, since the permanent members of the Security Council are Russia and China on the one side, and Western states on the other [each of the permanent members has the right of veto]. The positions are irreconcilable now, especially taking into account the military and political crisis that is raging near our southern borders. These are absolutely irreconcilable contradictions. The Security Council cannot make a decision on very many major issues. I have great doubts that decisions on some of these issues will be taken at all,” Valentin Rybakov said.
“Our goal is to make the UN serve as a moral compass, so that through this platform we would convey information about the situation to the widest possible range of countries, peoples, communities. So far we have succeeded in this, despite certain difficulties in our work. Now we have new tasks, which, I hope, we will successfully fulfill,” the Belarus’ permanent representative to the UN said.
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