Germany Confident About UN Council Seat

[Prussian]

Germany Confident About UN Council Seat



Germany believes it will enter the exclusive Security Council club Germany, India, Brazil and Japan have enough votes to land permanent seats on the UN Security Council, but they'll still seek more support before pushing for a vote, the German and Indian ambassadors said.

Speaking with reporters after a meeting with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, German Ambassador Gunter Pleuger and Indian Ambassador Nirupam Sen said they still envision putting their proposal to enlarge the Security Council from 15 to 25 seats to a vote by the end of June.

The proposal calls for the creation of six new permanent seats and four non-permanent seats on the Council.

Holders of the six new permanent seats would be identified later, in a second resolution, but it is already known that they would go to members of the G4 and two African countries to be chosen by the African Union in a summit in early July.

If the two resolutions pass, a third resolution would be required to amend the charter of the United Nations.



"We are seeking consultations, dialogue and discussions with all member states here... and at the end of that we'll have a vote on the resolution," Pleuger said. "June has always been our target, we have not given up. We are confident that we have the two-third majority that we

need but we're also striving to have the largest possible support."

Enlargement before September?

The General Assembly of the United Nations comprises 191 members, so a two-third majority is 128 votes. The General Assembly does not hold veto power, a privilege reserved for the five permanent members of the Security Council -- China, the United States, France, Britain and Russia.

"The schedule remains the end of June, there's no change of that," Sen said.



The two diplomats affirmed that Annan believes the enlargement of the Security Council should take place before the world summit in September, where participants are scheduled to adapt an ambitious reform program on the 60th anniversary of the creation of the world body.

But since the draft resolutions began circulating, several countries including the United States have moved to put the brakes on it.

"This particular issue is one we don't want to have a deadline on," a US diplomat who did not want to be identified told AFP.

US wary



The United States has publicly expressed support for Japan's candidacy but remains reserved about that of Germany. It has not yet taken a position on the G4, merely repeating that they want reform to produce greater efficiency.

China, for its part, is hostile to Japan and firmly opposed to the G4 proposal, which it calls "dangerous," likely to divide the UN and derail reform.

Friday, Pakistan's Ambassador Munir Akram echoed that stance. Asked by journalists what will happen if the G4 pushes for a vote at the end of the month, he said: "They'll lose.

"I think everybody is advising against a trainwreck happening, and that will happen if this draft is tabled and put to a vote," he said. "There will be a strong division here at the UN, no matter who wins or loses. So if you want to have that happen, divide the whole organization, derail the whole process, create tension, that's the way to go."

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US Wary of German Security Council Bid



How many seats are open for expansion of the Security Council? Washington has thrown a wrench into Berlin’s aspirations of becoming a permanent member of the UN Security Council, arguing that the expansion of the body is not its top reform priority.

At a joint press conference with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held back on endorsing Germany's bid to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council, arguing that other UN reforms such as streamlining management were more important than the expansion of the top decision-making body from the current 15 members to 25, as proposed by Germany, Japan, India and Brazil.

While generally acknowledging the need of a reform, Rice, however, said the United States was looking closely at the various proposals to have "a sober and reflective discussion" aimed at achieving "the broadest possible consensus on how to move forward on what would be a very fundamental change.

"And so our plan at this point is to try, through the appropriate channels at the UN, the presidency of the General Assembly and so forth, to promote that dialogue on what it is that we are trying to achieve in Security Council reform as well as in the broader UN reform," she said.

Support for one of four

Support for the reform initiative and the four contenders for permanent seats is far from certain. On Wednesday, Rice said the US was not ready to endorse all four countries and their bid for permanent seats. Although she reiterated Washington's interest in reforming the council, she left the door wide open in terms of the exact context of the expansion proposal.

"The only country that we have said unequivocally that we support is Japan, having to do with Japan's special role in the UN and support for the UN," Rice said. "But obviously, we are going to look at how to think about UN Security Council expansion within the context of… broader reforms."



Despite the stated preference for only one of the four bidders, German officials interpreted Rice's statements as less of a rebuff of Berlin's efforts to join the council, and more of a general wariness to expansion.

"We were given to understand by the United States that their concerns about this procedure are not motivated by any anti-German considerations," said Wolfgang Ischinger, the German ambassador to the United States, who attended the meeting with Rice and Fischer.

However, several other European and Asian diplomats who asked to remain anonymous have indicated that one of the factors in the US position on Security Council expansion was its continuing distrust of German Chancellor Gerhard Schöder's strong opposition to the US-led war in Iraq.

Back to the drafting board?

The reform proposal favored by Germany, Japan, India and Brazil initially called for the adoption of a resolution which would add 10 new members to the council, six permanent members and four non-permanent ones, which would rotate for two-year terms. The council currently consists of five permanent members, France, Britain, China, Russia and the United States, and 10 non-permanent rotating members.



The four chief contenders for permanent seats, Germany, Japan, India and Brazil, had joined forces to lobby for their reform plans over the past year, arguing that the UN's highest body needed to better reflect the current geo-political situation and the amount each of them contributes financially and otherwise to the UN.

But on Wednesday, the initiative was shaken up a bit after the four chief contenders revised their proposal and dropped the right to a veto for the first 15 years for new permanent members, in the hopes that their resolution would be adopted as early as this month. Diplomats speculate that the four contenders have about 100 of the 191 UN members behind them, far short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass the reform resolution.

Five powers divided

Among the current five council members, only France and Britain support all four of the new bidders. China openly opposes any seat for Japan while Russia's position remains unclear.

Within the General Assembly, diplomats say Germany faces the least opposition, while Muslim nations are expected to organize against India and developing nations are believed to want to block Japan's aspirations.

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