MOSCOW, April 27. /TASS/. Expansion of the UN Security Council is on the agenda, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on the Rossiya 24 TV channel on Monday.
"The UN Security Council’s reform is on the General Assembly’s agenda," Lavrov said.
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"Our position is very simple: of course, the Security Council is a central body and its decisions are compulsory. So any changes in the methods of its work, in its composition should be addressed in a very cautious way," he said. "The time is ripe for expansion. Developing countries are not represented properly in the Security Council."
"New powerful centers of economic growth and political clout have appeared for the years since the establishment of the UN," Lavrov said. "These are India, Brazil. Of course, the African continent should be honorably represented in the UN Security Council."
"And this expansion can’t be too big," he said. "It’s necessary to ensure a reasonable balance between fair representation of all regions on the one hand and the Security Council’s ability to work quickly and effectively. It is clear that there is a limit beyond which expansion will hinder promptitude and fast decision making."
Lavrov stressed that "any reform should be based on a broad consensus, broad consent of all member states."
"Attempts to promote such fateful decisions by vote, when two-thirds vote ‘for’, and one-third against, will only lead to a situation when that third… of the countries see less legitimacy in the Security Council," he said.
"The key problem now is that there is a group of states that necessarily demand creation of new permanent seats and want to occupy them," the Russian foreign minister said.
"And there is another group of states that does not in the least want the UN Security Council to get new permanent members. The decision may only be a compromise one," Lavrov said.
He said Russia "is trying in all possible ways to contribute to consensus."
"Any reforms should necessarily confirm the fundamental principles of the Charter," Lavrov said. "And we should build barriers on the way of attempts to violate these principles."
"We don’t want a new Yugoslavia that was bombed despite all norms of the Charter, nor do we want a new Iraq that was occupied without any consent of the UN Security Council, nor a new Libya against which a war was unleashed with the purpose of deposing the regime," he said.