UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who spoke in favor of limiting the right of veto in The Security Council (SC) of the world organization has exceeded its authority. This was stated at a briefing by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova.
"We are forced to state that Mr. Guterres has once again, so to speak, come out <Probably, it would be more correct to say it out of ourselves, but we will adhere to ethics, let's say beyond our powers and made, to put it mildly, ambiguous political statements, given that this area is defined by the UN Charter. And he exceeded his authority and made some statements that many people were just dumbfounded," the diplomat noted.
She drew attention to the fact that the issue of Security Council reform does not fall within the competence of the UN Secretariat.
"It is being considered within the framework of specialized intergovernmental negotiations, which remain an alternative platform for finding common denominators on this topic," the diplomat continued. "As for the right of veto specifically, we consider it as a unique mechanism that does not allow Western members of the Security Council to blindly push through decisions that are beneficial to them, relying on their conditional numerical advantage."
"We are convinced that it is not the veto right itself that should be criticized, not the veto right itself, but the line of the collective West, which does not want to seek compromises and is still trapped in the illusion of its own, as they say, dominance and exclusivity. In addition, discussions on the veto should not overshadow the key problem — conscientious compliance with the already adopted resolutions of the UN Security Council, which, according to the charter of the organization, are, once again, mandatory. But there are serious problems with this," Zakharova stressed, quoted by TASS.
EADaily adds that the UN Security Council includes permanent members — Russia, the United Kingdom, China, the United States and France, which have the right of veto, unlike 10 non-permanent members (five states change annually as part of rotation) — those do not have the right of veto.
Earlier, Guterres stated that most UN countries recognize the need for reform of this body. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in turn, noted that the UN Security Council should be expanded not at the expense of Western countries, but at the expense of Asian, African and Latin American states. According to him, the refusal of the right of veto in The UN is unrealistic, because otherwise the organization will become useless.