China is advocating for a place for Africans in the UN Security Council.
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang has said Africa should have a greater voice in the UN Security Council and other international bodies, something the continent’s leaders have long called for.
Qin made the call in a statement issued after meeting the head of the African Union Commission Moussa Mahamat Faki in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, recently.
“We should boost the representation and voice of developing countries, especially those of African countries, in the UN Security Council and other international organizations,” he said.
Qin, who is on his first overseas visit as foreign minister, rallied countries to work together “to make the global governance system more just and equitable”.
“Africa should be a platform for international cooperation, not an arena for competition between major countries,” he said.
The African Union has sought to shake up its relations with the world and has called for two permanent African members on the powerful council, saying African issues make up most of the council’s business.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, and approving any changes to the UN Charter. Its powers include establishing peacekeeping operations, enacting international sanctions, and authorizing military action. The UNSC is the only UN body with the authority to issue binding resolutions on member states.
Like the UN as a whole, the Security Council was created after World War II to address the failings of the League of Nations in maintaining world peace.
Proposals to reform the Security Council began with the conference that wrote the UN Charter and have continued to the present day. As British historian Paul Kennedy writes, “Everyone agrees that the present structure is flawed. But consensus on how to fix it remains out of reach.”
Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan asked a team of advisers to come up with recommendations for reforming the United Nations by the end of 2004. One proposed measure is to increase the number of permanent members by five, which, in most proposals, would include Brazil, Germany, India and Japan (known as the G4 nations), one seat from Africa (most likely between Egypt, Nigeria, or South Africa), and/or one seat from the Arab League. On 21 September 2004, the G4 nations issued a joint statement mutually backing each other’s claim to permanent status, together with two African countries. Currently, the proposal has to be accepted by two-thirds of the General Assembly (128 votes).
The permanent members, each holding the right of veto, announced their positions on Security Council reform reluctantly. The United States has unequivocally supported the permanent membership of Japan and lent its support to India and a small number of additional non-permanent members. The United Kingdom and France essentially supported the G4 position, with the expansion of permanent and non-permanent members and the accession of Germany, Brazil, India, and Japan to permanent member status, as well as an increase in the presence of African countries on the council. China has supported the stronger representation of developing countries and firmly opposed Japan’s membership.
The permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (also known as the Permanent Five, Big Five, or P5) are the five sovereign states to whom the UN Charter of 1945 grants a permanent seat on the UN Security Council: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The permanent members were all allies in World War II (and the victors of that war), and are all states with nuclear weapons. All have the power of veto which enables any one of them to prevent the adoption of any “substantive” draft Council resolution, regardless of its level of international support. The remaining 10 members of the UN Security Council are elected by the General Assembly, giving a total of 15 UN member states.
