Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov warned on Monday that attempts to rush reform of the United Nations Security Council would risk splitting the world body.
”There is no need to hurry to put to a vote a plan that would split the organisation, even if it had a chance of getting some kind of majority of votes,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by the state’s Itar-Tass news agency.
”We have met with two irreconcilable views: a large group of countries think it essential, in widening the Security Council, to create new permanent seats and another group of states is categorically against new permanent seats,” Lavrov said.
It is preferable ”to take more time, not to drop the subject, but to try in the course of continued talks to find some kind of consensus”, he said.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has said he hopes for an agreement on the sensitive issue of reforming the Security Council by year’s end.
The issue is due to come up at a UN summit starting in New York on Wednesday.
Russia is one of the five permanent members of the Security Council. It has given tentative backing to its close ally Germany’s bid for a permanent seat, risking incurring the anger of another ally, Italy, which has also sought a seat. — AFP
