More and more.. it seems like there is real momentum behind this push for some sort of significant reform at the UN. Now we’re hearing it from the Russians and Indians.
As usual with world politics, change seems to be happening not for the betterment of humanity, but rather to change geopolitical influence.
The BBC reports today that Russian President Putin is visiting India… and he has announced his support for India to join the UN Security Council as a permanent, veto weilding member.
And what if… under the reform… new Permanent members aren’t given vetoes? Well, Putin has an answer to that as well.
“If we agree that future permanent members of the Security Council should have no veto, the next step would not be giving these countries veto power but rather abolishing the veto.
“The loss of this instrument for the United Nations would mean a loss of credibility of this organisation in the world,” the Russian president added.
So.. he says… new vetoes must be handed out to new permanent members if reforms handed.
Putins support of India comes at a very interesting time.
Not the least of which is that President Mucharraf visited George Bush in Washington yesterday. Coincidence that the two Nuclear powers in SE Asia are meeting with the two world nuclear leaders?
I think not.
It looks like in return for Putins backing on Indias permanent UNSC membership and veto, India will support Russias’ entry into the WTO. Classis stuff…
We’ll see how things pan out over time here.
In light of all the movement on UN Reform, I’ve created a new category for it so that you can easily track the discussions.
It looks like this reform movement is really starting to pick up steam.