The United States would support two permanent seats for African states on the UN Security Council, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the American ambassador to the United Nations, said on Thursday.
The announcement, which echoes a similar call from the UN Secretary General António Guterres to overhaul the Council so it would reflect the world powers of 21st century, comes ahead of the UN General Assembly later this month, the New York Times reported.
The Security Council has 15 members, five of which have permanent seats with veto power: the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France. The other 10 members of the Council rotate every two years.
Adding any new permanent members would require the approval of all five permanent members and changing the UN charter, a dim prospect given the divisions among the permanent members, the report said.
Adding only African countries as permanent members would likely get pushback from other countries, including Japan, Brazil, India, Germany and Italy. For years, those nations have also lobbied for seats, arguing that the world had evolved since the aftermath of World War II when the world body was founded.
For several years, Nigeria has been asking to be considered for a permanent seat at the UN, flaunting its several contributions to global peace, especially to the UN peace keeping mission across the globe as well as to peace and security in Africa.
Thomas-Greenfield’s announcement could be viewed as a geopolitical gesture toward repairing US relations with Africa, which have been frayed by the conflicts in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip, and toward matching Chinese and Russian influence there.
The two US rivals, which have been keen on expanding their influence on the continent, have already backed permanent seats for Africa on the Security Council.
Ms. Thomas-Greenfield may also be considering her legacy at the United Nations as her term possibly draws to an end, with the American election looming in November and the likelihood that a new administration would appoint a new ambassador. During her tenure, she has made Africa a priority of her diplomacy, frequently traveling to the continent.
“The problem is, these non-permanent seats don’t enable African countries to deliver the full benefit of their knowledge and voices to the work of the Council,” Ms. Thomas-Greenfield said during a meeting at the Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank in New York City.
The Council is tasked with maintaining peace and stability, preventing and mediating conflicts and approving UN peacekeeping missions, and it has the power to impose sanctions.
African countries have long pushed for permanent seats on the Council, arguing that the size of the population living on the continent, as well as its economy and its pressing issues, should be represented permanently at the world body. Nations from Asia, Europe and Latin America have made similar campaigns.
Africa is one of the largest voting blocs in the UN, with 53 member states. The majority of UN peacekeeping missions are in Africa, and thousands of Africans serve in these missions.
But Thomas-Greenfield said the US would support the expansion of the Security Council’s permanent membership to include not only African members, but also a rotating seat for small island states.
Her announcement, however, came with a significant catch: The White House did not back providing new permanent members with the same veto power to block resolutions that the current five permanent members have.
The issue of veto has been a thorny one because diplomats have argued that without veto power, the Council would be creating a two-tier system, with new members only symbolically present but lacking the impact or power of other five members. At the same time, adding new veto powers would make the work of the Council even more difficult, analysts say.
The United States has also previously expressed support for adding permanent seats for Japan and Germany, two close allies.
Her announcement follows a Council debate last month initiated by Sierra Leone, an African country which has hosted one of the longest-running U.N. missions but has not had a voice on the Council in decades.
“Nearly 80 years after its creation, the Council has been stuck in time,” President Julius Maada Bio of Sierra Leone told its members.
Emmanuel Addeh
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