<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-top-anchor"></div>
<div id="gmail-toolbar" class="gmail-toolbar-container">
</div><div class="gmail-container" dir="ltr" lang="en-US">
<div class="gmail-header gmail-reader-header gmail-reader-show-element">
<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.mintpressnews.com/china-global-south-united-nations-security-council-reform/284811/">mintpressnews.com</a>
<div class="gmail-domain-border"></div>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Led by China and India: The Global South Is Trying To Fix the UN</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits"></div>
<div class="gmail-meta-data">
<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">
<em><span id="m_6431454419807233698m_7723447118284086293gmail-docs-internal-guid-a2e894a3-7fff-a365-0867-840e6c79189a"><strong>Dr. Ramzy Baroud</strong></span></em>- May 22, 2023<br></div>
</div>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="gmail-content">
<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><p>In anticipation of next month’s United Nations Security Council<a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3218932/china-says-un-security-council-should-give-smaller-nations-greater-say-and-redress-historical" target="_blank"> talks</a>
on reforming the inherently archaic and dysfunctional political body,
China’s foreign policy chief, Yang Yi, stated his country’s demands.</p>
<p>“The reform of the Security Council should uphold fairness and
justice, increase the representation and voice of developing countries,
allowing more small and medium-sized countries to have more
opportunities to participate in the decision-making of the Council,”
Wang Yi<a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3218932/china-says-un-security-council-should-give-smaller-nations-greater-say-and-redress-historical" target="_blank"> said</a> in a statement on April 29.</p>
<p>More specifically, the new UNSC must “redress historical injustices against Africa”.</p>
<p>Although calls for reforms of the UNSC have been made many times in
the past, Beijing’s position is particularly important in both language
and timing.</p>
<p>When the United Nations was<a href="https://www.un.org/un70/en/content/history/index.html#:~:text=The%20United%20Nations%20is%20an,living%20standards%20and%20human%20rights." target="_blank"> founded</a>
in 1945 following World War II, it was meant to mark the rise of a new
world order, one that was largely dominated by the winners of that
horrific war, giving greater influence to the United States and its
Western allies.</p>
<p>Indeed, of the 51 founding members of the UN back then, five countries were<a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/un-security-council#:~:text=What%20is%20the%20Security%20Council's%20structure%3F&text=The%20Security%20Council%20has%20five,them%20can%20veto%20a%20resolution." target="_blank"> chosen</a>
to serve permanently on the Security Council – the executive branch of
the UN. The rest were given membership in the General Assembly, which
played a marginal and, at times, even symbolic role in world affairs.</p>
<p>Six other nations were<a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/un-security-council#:~:text=What%20is%20the%20Security%20Council's%20structure%3F&text=The%20Security%20Council%20has%20five,them%20can%20veto%20a%20resolution." target="_blank"> allowed</a>
to serve as non-permanent members of the Council, though they were not
granted the same veto power held and exercised by the five powerful UNSC
members only.</p>
<p>A few years later, in 1963, the non-permanent membership status, served through annual rotations, was<a href="https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/content/resolutions-adopted-security-council-1963" target="_blank"> expanded</a> to 10, making the total number of 15 UNSC members. However, the ‘reforms’ ended there, never to be revisited.</p>
<p>The UN was hardly ever a democratic platform, fairly reflecting the
realities of the world, whether based on economic influence,
demographics or any other indicators – aside, of course, from military
might and political hegemony.</p>
<p>From the post-WWII geopolitical realities, however, the UN perfectly
expressed a sad, unfair, but also somewhat true global power paradigm.</p>
<p>That paradigm, however, is now shifting, and rapidly so.</p>
<p>Calls for reforms have been underway for years,<a href="https://www.iai.it/sites/default/files/iai0926.pdf" target="_blank"> reflected</a> in the activities of the Group of Four (G4) – Brazil, Germany, India and Japan – for example; and the<a href="https://www.iai.it/sites/default/files/iai0926.pdf" target="_blank"> Sirte Declaration</a>
of the African Union (AU) in 2005, among others. But the renewed calls
for reforming the UN in recent months have become louder, more
significant and, indeed, more possible.</p>
<p>The Russia-Ukraine war, which has divided the world into political
camps, further empowered China – the world’s soon-to-be largest economy –
and emboldened many countries in the Middle East, Africa and South
America.</p>
<p>Of the many indicators of a global power shift, the BRICS nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – have<a href="https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-06-20/-Achievements-under-the-BRICS-mechanism-in-the-past-16-years-1b1wO2beXn2/index.html" target="_blank"> proven</a>
to be the greatest success story in challenging Western dominance over
global markets and the status of the dollar as the world’s main
currency.</p>
<p>As BRICS readies for a major membership<a href="https://www.cnbctv18.com/views/world-view-brics-expansion-can-be-beneficial-but-with-risk-of-beijing-turning-it-into-soft-power-tool-16565971.htm" target="_blank"> expansion</a>, it is poised to become the world’s leading economic forum – ahead of the powerful G7.</p>
<p>One of the BRICS members, India, as of April 2023,<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/24/india-overtakes-china-to-become-worlds-most-populous-country" target="_blank"> overtook</a>
China to become the world’s most populous country. Along with China and
the combined demographics and wealth of other BRICS countries, it
becomes unacceptable that a BRICS member like India, is still not a
permanent member of the UNSC. The same logic applies to Brazil.</p>
<p>India’s UN Ambassador, Ruchira Kamboj, recently<a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/angry-with-reform-delays-india-calls-un-system-anachronistic-slams-veto-power/article66781723.ece" target="_blank"> referred</a>
to the UN Charter as “anachronistic”. “Can we practice ‘effective
multilateralism’ by defending a charter that makes five nations more
equal than others and provides to each of those five the power to ignore
the collective will of the remaining 188 member states?” Kamboj said
during a debate on the UN Charter.</p>
<p>Of course, she is right. Her logic, however, carries much greater
weight now that her country – along with other BRICS nations, the
collective power of the African Union among other nations and political
entities – is in a much stronger position to bargain for substantive
change.</p>
<p>China, on the other hand, is already a permanent UNSC member and a holder of the veto power.</p>
<p>The fact that Wang Yi is demanding serious changes at the UN,
particularly in the makeup of the Security Council, is a powerful
indicator of China’s new global foreign policy agenda. As a rising
superpower with close and deepening ties with many countries in the
Global South, China rightly believes that it is in its interests to
demand inclusion and fair representation for others.</p>
<p>This is an unmistakable sign of political maturity by Beijing, which
will surely be resisted by the US and other European powers.</p>
<p>The West is keen on either maintaining the UNSC’s West-leaning status
as it is, or, if it must, engaging in superficial or self-serving
reforms. This would be unacceptable for China and the rest of the Global
South.</p>
<p>The UN’s reputation is already in tatters following its failure to
address international conflicts, climate change, global pandemics and
more. If not reformed to address global challenges through more
democratic means meaningfully, the UN will risk its future relevance, if
not its very existence.</p>
<p>Feature photo | Foreign Minister of China Wang Yi addresses the 77th
session of the United Nations General Assembly, Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022
at U.N. headquarters. Mary Altaffer | AP</p>
<p><em><span id="m_6431454419807233698m_7723447118284086293gmail-docs-internal-guid-a2e894a3-7fff-a365-0867-840e6c79189a"><strong>Dr. Ramzy Baroud</strong>
is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He
is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappé,
is ‘<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Our-Vision-Liberation-Palestinian-Intellectuals/dp/1949762440" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Our Vision for Liberation</a>:
Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak Out’. His other
books include ‘My Father was a Freedom Fighter’ and ‘The Last Earth’.
Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam
and Global Affairs (CIGA). His website is <a href="http://www.ramzybaroud.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.ramzybaroud.net</a></span></em></p>
</div><p>
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect MintPress News editorial policy. </p><p><span>
<img src="https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/themes/core/images//icons/creative-commons.png">
</span>
<strong>
<a>
Republish our stories! </a>
</strong> MintPress News is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0
International License. </p></div></div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div></div>
</div>
</div>