The ANNOTICO Report

The Security Council of the UN was established 60 years ago, right after
the end of WWII, and currently has 15 seats.
Five (5) are Permanent Seats awarded to the victors: the U.S., Britain,
China, France and Russia. Ten (10) Seats rotate amongst the other members.

Kofi Annan has recommended amending  the U.N. Charter to expand the council
to 25 seats, increasing the number of permanent members from five to 11,
and the number of rotating elected seats would rise from 10 to 14.

The additional six (6) Permanent Seat members proposed are the G-4 (The
Group of Four), India, Japan, Germany and Brazil, countries considered to
influence international peace and security today. Two unnamed African
countries will be included.

Notice that while WWII Axis members Germany and Japan are being proposed,
Italy is Not !!
The Only Major European country in Population and GDP Not to be proposed is
Italy!!

Italy however is fighting back, and along with Pakistan created the 'Coffee
Club', which has approximately 40 of the 191 member-States,and is promoting
a point of view that the expansion should be only in the non-permanent
category, and is advocating setting up an informal group to be set up to
consider alternative proposals for the expansion, and  evolving a
'solution' to the problems facing the proposed  expansion.

Observers said representatives of 119 member-States attended a meeting, as
against representatives of more than 150 States for the G-4 meeting.

Argentina, Colombia and Mexico oppose Brazil, and Spain and Italy do not
want Germany to be a permanent member. South Korea and China oppose Japan.
Even though Pakistan has not openly opposed India's bid, it favours
expansion only in the non-permanent category.

The 'Coffee Club' emphasized that expansion of the council is not the major
issue. Much more important are reduction in poverty, debt elimination of
poor countries and issues of security, among others.

Referring to the G-4's campaign, the 'Coffee Club'  said great and big
countries do not need to be permanent members of the Council. They will
have influence in any case and can exert it whenever they wanted.

Interestingly, the U.S. and China have rejected giving the new permanent
members the same veto power as the five current permanent members. Hmmm.

As you read the above account and the article below. please note the entire
lack of  argument on the basis of MERIT,
and the agendas of retaliation, competition, self interest, and pique, like
the US is feeling about Germany's opposition to the American-led invasion
of Iraq, which is REALLY strange considering that Germany and France were
Right about the merits of the Invasion.

Brazil, Germany, India and Japan -- seeking permanent seats -- are
preparing a plan.
But key members oppose some of the details.

Los Angeles Times
By Maggie Farley
Times Staff Writer
May 13, 2005

UNITED NATIONS — Four nations that aspire to permanent seats on the
Security Council — Japan, Germany, Brazil and India — are preparing a
resolution to change the U.N. charter to expand the council. But the group
is heading for a showdown with countries, including existing members of the
Security Council, that oppose key aspects of the proposal.

Expanding the 15-member Security Council is one of the highest-profile
reforms in a package proposed this year by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to
reinvigorate the United Nations.

The Security Council has been modified only once since it was created 60
years ago, when permanent seats were awarded to the victors of World War
II: the U.S., Britain, China, France and Russia. Annan recommended
expanding the council to include more of the countries that influence
international peace and security today.

The four nations, known as the G-4, plan to introduce a resolution next
week that would amend the U.N. Charter to expand the council to 25 seats.
Under this plan, the number of permanent members would increase from five
to 11, including two African countries that have not yet been named. The
number of rotating elected seats would rise from 10 to 14.

The G-4 aims to have the General Assembly vote on the proposed change in
June, select the new African members in July, and have the new council
endorsed by a summit of world leaders in September at the U.N.'s 60th
anniversary session.

The resolution needs backing from two-thirds of the 191-member General
Assembly, although some countries, including the United States and China,
demand at least a "broad consensus" to ensure that the change doesn't
deepen divisions among member states.

The draft also proposes that the new permanent members have the same veto
power as the five current permanent members. The U.S. and China have
rejected this approach.

A diplomat from one of the G-4 countries, who asked not to be named because
the draft resolution was still being discussed in the four capitals,
cautioned that the proposal was just a starting point for negotiations and
indicated that the group might be willing to give up the veto demand.

"What's more important than what is in it, is how it will be received," he
said. "Every country will look at it and say, 'What's in it for me?' Some
might be interested in finding a weak spot and trying to stall the whole
thing."

Indeed, opposition is growing among countries that believe the plan would
diminish their chances for a seat on the council or that oppose a regional
rival's ascent to power.

China, for instance, objects to Japan's bid for a permanent seat, and aims
to block it until Tokyo formally apologizes for atrocities committed
against it in World War II. Beijing has until recently allowed massive
street protests against Japan's effort to join the council.

The United States, on the other hand, has endorsed only Japan for a new
seat, and acting U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson said recently that raw
feelings about Germany's opposition to the American-led invasion of Iraq
would make it difficult for Washington to back that nation's bid.

Pakistan opposes a seat for adversary India, and it leads a group that
includes Mexico, Canada and some Scandinavian countries that believe their
power would be reduced under the G-4 plan. Pakistan's ambassador, Munir
Akram, said that if the G-4 nations "do press ahead, they will create
divisions that will not only affect council reform, but the whole reform
exercise."

Pakistan and Italy have proposed alternative plans that seek more
nonpermanent seats with longer terms on the council and a chance for
reelection. Akram argues that those plans would give smaller countries more
of a chance to have a temporary rotating seat.

"In the new world today, there are not only six powers, but about 20
countries that can contribute to peace and security," he said.

But others think that merely expanding the Security Council is not the way
to improve it.

"To make the council larger is not reforming it. You need to make it more
accountable first," said Edward Luck, a professor at Columbia University
who has been active in efforts to reshape the U.N. since the most recent
attempt that failed nearly a decade ago. "Otherwise, you'll just have a
bigger, more unaccountable Security Council."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/
world/la-fg-unreform13may13,1,411951
.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

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