July 24, 2005
Africans Hold Key at UN Council Expansion Session
By REUTERS
Filed at 3:27 p.m. ET
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Foreign ministers from Japan, Germany, India and Brazil on Monday mount their second diplomatic offensive in a week to get crucial African support for their bid to expand the U.N. Security Council.
The four, contenders for new permanent council seats, meet in London with African Union ministers from Nigeria, Ghana, Libya, Egypt, Algeria and others. On July 17, they met in New York but failed to reach a compromise on rival plans.
Without support of the 53-member African Union no enlargement is possible of the 15-member council, whose composition still reflects the balance of power at the end of World War II.
But the window of opportunity is rapidly closing if there is to be any Security Council expansion before a September U.N. world summit as Secretary-General Kofi Annan wanted. U.N. General Assembly President Jean Ping has indicated decisions should be made by Aug. 5, after which the General Assembly would take a break and return on Aug. 22.
Envoys from the four contenders expressed optimism a deal could be brokered but Brazil was more realistic about getting support from all 53 African Union nations, which are divided among themselves.
``If we have the feeling that we will get 35-plus African votes, we want a vote in July. But this is a G-4 decision on when we want to vote,'' Brazil's deputy U.N. ambassador, Henrique Valle, told reporters on Saturday.
Germany, Japan, Brazil and India, the G-4 or Group of Four, have called on the General Assembly to enlarge the Security Council from 15 to 25. This plan has six new permanent seats, including two for Africa, but new members would not have veto power.
The African Union's draft resolution asks for the council to be enlarged to 26 seats, one more nonpermanent seat than the G-4 proposal. Its proposal for six new permanent seats is the same as the G-4, except that it would give the new members veto privileges.
Nigeria, which holds the presidency of the African Union, has urged compromise, but diplomats said Arab nations in the north were among the key hold outs. The main contenders for two proposed permanent seats for Africa are Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt.
In a letter to African leaders last week, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said of the veto that ``lack of flexibility at this juncture will put an end to Africa's aspiration,'' according to excerpts obtained by Reuters.
In discussing the AU's insistence on 11 nonpermanent seats, Obasanjo said, ``Our negotiators should be given the latitude to negotiate the best possible outcome that will not jeopardize Africa's overall interest in the reform.''
The Security Council now has 15 members, 10 rotating for two-year terms, and five permanent members with veto power -- the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France.
The five have no veto power in the 191-member General Assembly, which needs to approve an expansion by two-thirds or 128 votes. But they can exercise the veto in the final step when national legislatures have to approve a U.N. Charter change.
The United States supports Japan receiving a permanent seat and says that the expansion should have no more than five or six seats but has not submitted its own proposals. China opposes Japan, Russia has criticized all proposals while France and Britain back the G-4.
For Japan, the issue has become a major national cause, with news stories nearly each day. Tokyo pays more U.N. dues than Russia, China, Britain and France combined.
To complicate the contentious issue further, a third plan is to be formally introduced this week that would add 10 seats, all of them nonpermanent ones with varying terms to give larger nations more time on the council.