1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites

Africans Reject G4's UN Reform Plan

DW staff / AFP (win)August 5, 2005

A refusal by African leaders to drop demands for two permanent veto-wielding seats on an enlarged UN Security Council is a major setback for council aspirants Brazil, Germany, India and Japan.

https://p.dw.com/p/70AE
The decision is also a defeat for Nigerian President ObsanjoImage: dpa

After a contentious debate at an emergency African Union summit on UN reform, 46 of the pan-African body's 53 members reaffirmed a joint position on the continent's Security Council representation adopted in July in Libya.

The AU agreed to set up a 10-strong committee, comprised of two leaders from each of Africa's five regions, tasked with gaining support for the continent's position and diplomats said that if it failed, the AU would try to forge a new consensus on the issue.

The outcome had been eagerly awaited by the so-called G4 --Brazil, India, Japan and Germany -- which has been lobbying furiously for AU backing for its proposal to enlarge the council to 25 members, with six new permanent seats without veto power and four non-permanent seats.

Kombo G-4 Außenminister
Germany's Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, Indian External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh and Japan's Foreign Minister Nobutaka MachimuraImage: AP

The G4 plan envisions one permanent seat without veto power each for its members and two for Africa with Africa also getting one non-permanent seat and sharing a second with other developing nations.

G4 diplomats here, who had expressed guarded optimism about an AU nod for their draft resolution, were not immediately available for comment.

An enlargement resolution requires a two-third majority in the 191-member General Assembly for adoption and no veto from permanent members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

Africa to push own plan

Algeria's UN ambassador Abdallah Baali, one of the most forceful opponents of the G4 draft, felt clearly vindicated.

"We are pleased that the AU has maintained its unity, articulated around the position we adopted" in Libya last month, he added. "We believe the African position is a realistic position, a legitimate position.

Sitzungssaal des UN-Sicherheitsrat im UN-Hauptquartier in New York
Members of the United Nations Security Council attend a meetingImage: AP

The AU blueprint insists on veto power for two permanent Security Council seats that would be allocated to Africa as well as five non-permanent council seats, including two for Africa.

Thursday's summit outcome was also seen as a defeat for Nigeria, which currently chairs the AU and had urged flexibility and a compromise with the G4 to ensure African representation on the powerful council.

"We need to negotiate with other groups, unless our objective is to prevent any decision," Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo said. "If that happens, let us be under no illusion: Africa stands to lose more than any other region."

Calls to abolish veto power

But his call was rejected as a core group of nine nations -- Algeria, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia -- adamantly opposed to backing down on the demand for veto power for new permanent council members, diplomats said.

Zimbabwe's UN envoy Boniface Chidyausiku told AFP that the stance of the AU majority was based on principle and meant to correct a historical injustice that leaves Africa as the only continent not represented on the council.

"The question is not just to get in (the council), but to get in and be effective," he said. "The right of veto should be abolished but as long as it exists, we too should have it."

China and the United States had lobbied hard separately against the G4 proposal.

Meanwhile the Addis Ababa outcome was sure to welcomed by the so-called United for Consensus led by Canada and Italy, which is pushing a rival proposal to enlarge the council from 15 to 25 seats with 10 new non-permanent members that would be elected for two-year terms, with the possibility of immediate re-election.