Argentina rejects increase of permanent members
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-07-27 11:25

Argentina opposes an increase of permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Vice Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana told Xinhua on Tuesday.

Argentina has joined the "Uniting for Consensus" movement, which believes it is inadequate to expand permanent membership of the Security Council, Taiana said.

The UN reform is an integral process which includes several aspects, such as the reform of the General Assembly and the reform of the Human Rights Commission, said the Argentine diplomat.

Argentina, which has a historical position on the UN reform, proposes an increase of non-permanent members of the Security Council in order to facilitate its work, he said.

The Security Council is currently composed of five veto-wielding permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- and 10 elected members with two-year term, half of which are rotated annually.

The "Uniting for Consensus" movement, which groups Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Italy, Malta, Mexico, Pakistan, South Korea, San Marino, Spain and Turkey, submitted a draft resolution last week to the General Assembly calling for expanding the council by simply boosting the number of non-permanent members by 10 to 20.

Under the draft, Asia and Africa would each get three new non-permanent seats, Latin America would gain two, and the Eastern Europe and Western Europe would each obtain one.

The draft is widely seen as a counteract to a framework draft resolution submitted to the General Assembly in early June by Japan, Germany, India and Brazil, known as G-4.

The G-4 proposal calls for an increase of six new permanent members and four non-permanent members on the Security Council. It also provides for a 15-year freeze on the veto power for the new permanent members.

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