China requests reform of the UN Security Council

China’s senior ambassador claims that emerging nations, particularly those in Africa, should have more representation in the organization.

China’s senior ambassador demanded that the UN Security Council give poor countries more sway. A week before to Wang Yi’s comments, Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, suggested that Western nations are overrepresented in the important international body.

Wang stated: “The reform of the Security Council should uphold fairness and justice, increase the representation and voice of developing countries, and allow more small and medium-sized countries to have more opportunities to participate in the decision-making of the council.” Wang was speaking during a meeting with Kuwait’s and Austria’s ambassadors to the UN, Tareq Albanai and Alexander Marschik, on Saturday.

The central committee member of the Chinese Communist Party, who is in charge of foreign policy, stressed that “historical injustices against Africa” should be rectified.

Ahead of negotiations between Kuwait and Vienna to reform the Security Council, the Chinese diplomat made his remarks.

The Security Council reform process will be widely acknowledged, Wang hoped, if a consensus could be reached. and the outcomes will endure through time.

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang made it plain that Beijing wants to enhance the participation of poor nations in the UN Security Council in order to “make the global governance system more just and equitable” when on a trip of Africa back in January.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last week during a speech at the UN headquarters in New York City that “true multilateralism…demands the adaptation of the UN to the objective tendencies of the forming multipolar architecture in international relations.”

In the body, “the expansion of the representation of Asian, African, and Latin American countries” needs to be expedited, the minister claimed.

The “current massive over-representation of the West” in the Security Council, he continued, was regrettable.

India’s representative Ruchira Kamboj and US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield both spoke in favor of the UNSC reform during the same meeting.

China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US are the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council, and 10 non-permanent members are chosen by the UN General Assembly every two years.

The non-permanent members are now composed of five African and Asian states, one Eastern European state, two Latin American states, two Western European states, and other states.

The West now has five seats in the council, more than any other area, thanks to Switzerland and Malta being non-permanent members. Japan, another one of the ten current non-permanent members and a strong ally of the United States, is also a member.