(New York) – On behalf of the Arab group of states, Kuwait has renewed demand for a permanent seat for the group at the UN Security Council in the future reforms of the Council.
Equitable representation at the UNSC is an essential pillar of the process to revitalize the work of the UN as a whole, Kuwait Permanent Representative to the UN Mansour Al-Otaibi said.
He was addressing a high-level intergovernmental meeting on the question of equitable representation on, and increase in, the membership of the Security Council and other matters related to the Council.
The meeting, an informal closed-door one, is part of UN General Assembly (UNGA)’s 71st session.
It is time to press ahead with this question given the consensus among the UN member states on the need of change and reform, Ambassador Al-Otaibi stressed. “Now that 71 years elapsed since the emergency of the UN, the world’s status quo has dramatically changed. “The last 23 years have seen prolonged negotiations on, and several regional initiative for, reforming the Council to make it better able to deliver its mandate and address the new challenges in a more credible transparent and impartial way,” he said.
He reaffirmed the stance of the Arab group against any attempts to tamper with the credibility of the ongoing intergovernmental talks or impose certain timeframes away from the consensus.
On the challenges facing the negotiations on the UNSC reforms, Ambassador Al-Otaibi said they include the misuse of veto power by the five permanent members which rendered the Council unable to deliver its duty in maintaining the international peace and security in several cases.
He reaffirmed the commitment of the Arab group to contributing to the efforts meant to build trust among the UN member states and reach a mutually-acceptable formula on the planned reforms of the Council pursuant to the provisions of the UNGA Resolution 62/557.
The resolution, adopted on September 15, 2008, during the 63rd UNGA session, commenced the ongoing intergovernmental negotiations.
