Push to enlarge security council looks doomed

[Eugene]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1528890,00.html

Push to enlarge security council looks doomed

Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor
Friday July 15, 2005
The Guardian

An ambitious plan to reform the UN security council by expanding it
from 15 members to 25 looks set to fail next week despite one of the
most intense diplomatic lobbying exercises ever conducted, according
to UN sources.

The foreign ministers of Germany, Japan, India and Brazil, fighting
for a permanent seat each on a new-look council, are to fly to New
York at the weekend to try to rescue the plan.

They need to win two-thirds of the votes of the 191-member UN general
assembly. But a security council source said the reform was proving
difficult to push through.

<snip>

The G4 proposes six permanent seats without veto power and four
non-permanent seats. But, according to the security council source,
the G4 is being opposed by Argentina and Chile, which want to block
Brazil; Italy and, to a lesser extent, Spain, which are reluc tant to
endorse Germany; and Pakistan, which is intent on stopping India. The
G4 is also being opposed at present by all 53 states from Africa -
itself almost enough to prevent the necessary majority.

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