Germany Supports UN Security Council Reform

JAKARTA - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stated that Germany supports reforms of the United Nations Security Council (DK PBB) in accordance with current global conditions and challenges.

Delivering his speech at the General Debate session of the UN General Assembly in New York, USA, Tuesday (19/9), Scholz said the composition of the current Security Council is the clearest example that the organization does not represent a multipolar world reality.

The UN Security Council consists of 15 countries. Five of the five countries are permanent members, namely the United States (US), Britain, France, China, and Russia.

These permanent members have greater authority, namely veto rights that allow them to prevent or cancel the adoption of Security Council resolutions. In other words, if there is only one permanent member of the UN Security Council who refuses, the decision cannot be made.

While the other 10 countries are members of the rotating or non-permanent. Members do not still have a two-year membership period.

"Of course Africa deserves greater representation, as does Asia and Latin America," Scholz said in an official transcript released by the United Nations via its website.

The UN Security Council reform is a discourse that has been rolling for quite a long time. One country that often calls for reforms is Russia.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in July that UN DK should be reformed according to existing reality. According to him, the dominance of Western countries in these bodies must be balanced.

Lavrov said Moscow would seek to expand its UN DK membership to provide more representatives to Asian, African and Latin American countries.

At the opening of the UN General Assembly, Tuesday (19/9), UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also expressed the need to reform UN DK which reflects the current world reality.

'Reformation is a question of power. I know, there are many interests and agendas that compete with each other. However, the alternative is reform, not status quo. An alternative outside of reform is further fragmentation. Reform or division," he said.

He said reforming the Security Council also meant redesigning a universal international financial architecture and functioning as a global safety net for developing countries that are in trouble.