United Nations Security Council reforms must reflect fairness, justice: Chinese envoy

UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy said on Monday that member states should ensure that United Nations Security Council reforms reflect fairness and justice, with all countries benefiting.

"We should draw experience from past negotiations on the Council reform, and earnestly proceed from the common interests of all member states to ensure that the reform process moves in the right direction, so as to ensure a reform for all and a reform for fairness and justice," Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, told the plenary meeting on Security Council reform at the 76th session of the UN General Assembly.

"The United Nations is a symbol of multilateralism. It carries the ardent expectation and relentless pursuit of people all over the world for peace and development after two world wars," said Zhang.

"In the face of a centennial change and global pandemics, and in order to effectively respond to global challenges, we need a strengthened United Nations to improve global governance, practice true multilateralism, and make greater efforts for democratic international relations underpinned by the rule of law," he said.

The Security Council needs to improve its authority and efficiency and better discharge its duties entrusted to it by the UN Charter through comprehensive reform, he said.

"A Security Council that is efficient, more representative and fully embodies equity and democracy is the common expectation of member states. At the same time, the reform of the Security Council is of great importance, having implications on war and peace and the future of the collective security mechanism," the ambassador added.

Zhang added, "we need to ensure that all countries share the fruits of reform."

"The United Nations belongs to the 193 member states. All countries, big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, should all benefit from the Council reform. Reform cannot only satisfy the selfish interest of a few," he said.

Zhang called for stronger regional representation at the Security Council, saying developing countries are underrepresented at the body.

"At present, the makeup of the Security Council is out of balance between the North and the South, and reform should correct the over-representation of developed countries, earnestly improve the representation of developing countries, correct the historical injustice suffered by Africa, and give more opportunities to small and medium-sized countries that come from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Arab countries and small island countries to serve in the Council and play their important role," he noted.

Zhang underscored that "we need to enhance the unity and trust among member states" and stressed the need to avoid a small group of countries leading changes at the Council.

"The Council reform involves the major interests and concerns of states. Efforts need to be made to engage in full communication and respect their opinions and concerns of all parties. No reform package can be made at the expense of the unity of member states. The attempt of a small number of countries to forcibly push forward a reform plan in which there are still great differences among the parties will only aggravate differences and antagonism," Zhang said.

Referring to the Intergovernmental Negotiations framework, or IGN, a group of nation-states working within the United Nations to further reform of the Security Council, the ambassador said, "the IGN is the only legitimate platform for member states to discuss the Council reform, and it is widely supported by member states," adding that reinventing "the wheel outside of the IGN track will not work, and it will not produce the desired results."