UNITED NATIONS, Aug 4: The United States and China have agreed to make joint efforts to defeat the G-4 draft resolution on the expansion of the UN Security Council, the Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations, Wang Guangya, said on Thursday. The G-4 — Japan, India, Germany and Brazil – have banded together to lobby for an expansion plan that would give all four of them permanent seats on an expanded council.
Talking to reporters following news from Addis Ababa that no agreement emerged between the African Union and the G-4 countries over the framework resolution, Mr Wang said: “Definitely both sides see that the process now being pushed by the G4 is damaging the prospects for UN reform.”
“Therefore both (US and China) agreed in parallel with our joint efforts to stop it.”
Asked if that meant a coordinated campaign with Washington, Mr Wang responded: “Coordinated efforts, yes.”
Mr Wang said the United States and China “have shared objectives for the UN reform, and we have shared objectives for the SC expansion.” The agreement came in a brief meeting with John Bolton, the George W. Bush administration’s new ambassador to the UN, Mr Wang told reporters.
Meanwhile, the ambassadors of Japan, India, Germany and Brazil, who are known as G4, were expected to meet later in the afternoon to assess the situation following the African Union’s decision which refused to come on board with them.
The Japanese and the Indian Foreign Ministers conceded recently that without the support of the African Union their resolution was doomed. Any framework resolution requires a two-third majority in the 191-member UN General Assembly for its passage.
PAKISTAN: Reacting to the report from Addis Ababa, Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram noted “the result at the AU summit has confirmed the fact that there was no agreement at the G-4 and African Union meeting in London.”
He observed: “It is good that Africa has maintained its unity,” adding that “Pakistan and the Uniting For Consensus” group look forward to close dialogue with our African brothers to see how our mutual aspirations can be realized”.
A US official said Beijing and Washington had long shared a belief that proposals to expand the 15-nation Security Council at this time would lead to a divisive international debate that could harm chances for crucial UN reforms to be taken up at a world summit in New York next month.
Enlargement of the 15-member council, whose membership reflects the balance of power at the end of World War Two, is currently the most contentious issue at the United Nations.
