Churkin: UNSC reform won't make it more effective
MOSCOW. Sept 29 (Interfax) - Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin has opposed a hasty reform of the United Nations, including the UN Security Council's enlargement and a greater number of UNSC members enjoying the veto rights.
"There is an opinion that the Security Council will be more effective if it has more members. After having worked at the Security Council for a number of years, I can tell you this is not so,' Churkin said in an interview published by Rossiyskaya Gazeta on Monday.
"The more members it has the more difficult it will be to make a decision," Churkin said.
"It regularly takes about two hours and sometimes even more to discuss an issue at Security Council consultations. And what if the Security Council has 25 members [or even 27 as suggested by some] and each of them wishes to speak up? They will not join to the Security Council to keep silent, they want to defend their point of view. Then what? Will every issue be discussed for 3.5 hours? And, by the way, the number of issues discussed by the Security Council is growing all the time," the Russian envoy said.
"And when another six permanent members are added to the existent five permanent members of the Security Council with the right of veto the situation will be even more complicated," Churkin said.
"It has been said that something significant should be done [towards UN reform], as the United Nations will celebrate its 70th anniversary next year," he noted.
"We do not share this opinion. We think the UN Security Council reform is so important that a decision [regarding it] should be mature," Churkin said.
"In fact, I think a major problem in this process is that the world has been changing very rapidly. It is extremely difficult to make long-term decisions when the world is changing so quickly. However, the negotiations go on and, in my opinion, so far the main protagonists are not prepared to make extremely complex and sensitive decisions that may boost the UN Security Council reform negotiations," Churkin stated.