UN Security Council Reform and Expansion

Mr. President,

The United States is committed to strengthening the Security Council and helping it perform its important functions more effectively. Enlarging the Council is a means to that end, not the end in itself. A reformed Council, with Japan and Germany assuming permanent seats, and with an expanded number of rotating seats, would better enable the Council to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security under the Charter.

The Open-Ended Working Group is entering its ninth year of deliberations. This is indicative of the complexity of the issues that remain to be resolved. They include a balancing representation between the developed and developing countries, achieving appropriate and equitable representation among regions, and ensuring that Council enlargement does not curtail its ability to act promptly and decisively.

Despite these challenges, we want the Open-Ended Working Group to succeed in building as broad a consensus as possible. To move forward, it is necessary to seriously analyze the various models for an expanded Council, to determine how to make the Security Council stronger and more effective. This will require genuine and broad support. To get there, we cannot divorce the discussion from issues of the expanded Council' s ultimate size and composition. Doing so merely ensures more delay.

It will come as no surprise that we will continue to oppose efforts to limit or eliminate the veto -- initiatives that only serve to stifle progress on the important task ahead of us. The veto remains an essential element of the Council's ability to maintain international peace and security.

In bolstering the effectiveness of the Council, the United States will work through the Open-Ended Working Group and in any discussions to ensure that the Security Council continues to be the lynchpin of international peace and security. We will also join with others in making the Council more transparent and more representative of the entire membership. That is important work, and we are fully engaged. We hope that we can make real progress on all these issues in the coming session.

Thank you, Mr. President.