May 26, 2005
Some Argue Against U.N. Council Expansion
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 
Filed at 11:33 p.m. ET
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Opponents of a plan to add new permanent members to the U.N. Security Council warned aspirants Brazil, Germany, India and Japan on Thursday that putting their proposal to a vote will divide the United Nations.
After years of debate, Secretary-General Kofi Annan told U.N. member states in March that he wants a decision on council expansion before a summit on U.N. reform in September.
Opponents said in a letter circulated Thursday that additional permanent members will aggravate the inequitable situation created in 1945 when the United Nations was founded and heighten tensions.
The council currently has 15 members, 10 elected for two-year terms and five permanent members -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.
Brazil, Germany, India and Japan have introduced a resolution to expand the council from 15 to 25 members and create six new permanent seats. The four countries have been lobbying for four of those permanent seats, with the other two earmarked for Africa.
But opponents said they will call for 10 additional non-permanent council seats, making for 20 in all -- and for all 20 to be open to re-election by the General Assembly, rather than limiting terms to two years.
Italy's deputy U.N. ambassador Aldo Mantovani, writing for the opponents of six new permanent seats, said adding them would run counter to the U.N. Charter's principle ''of sovereign equality,'' giving a permanent presence to 11 countries while consigning 180 nations to compete for 14 seats.
Mantovani said ''If such a divisive proposal is brought to a vote, it would further heighten tensions and erode the universal support of member states for the United Nations,'' he said. ''Such universal support is the basic foundation of the organization's credibility and legitimacy.''
The Security Council, the U.N.'s most powerful body, should enhance, not reduce, the accountability of member states -- and the periodic elections of 20 members proposed by Uniting for Consensus would be ''the best means to ensure accountability,'' Mantovani said.
Other countries opposing adding new permeant members include Algeria, Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Pakistan, Qatar, South Korea, Spain and Turkey.