MOSCOW, October 9. /TASS/. Moscow believes that it is important to reach consensus on the UN Security Council (UNSC) reform, while the expansion of the world organization's central body by means of coopting NATO and EU countries is unacceptable, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin told a news conference following the participation of the Russian delegation in the high-level week of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly.

"We believe that it is very important to achieve consensus - the widest possible agreement of countries as far as reforming the UN Security Council is concerned. There is too much at stake. The Security Council is the central body that determines and resolves issues related to the maintenance of peace and security. There should be no mistakes here," Vershinin said. "Today there is a very serious discussion about who can join the Security Council when it is expanded and in what capacity. As permanent members? As non-permanent members? Categories of membership are an issue. What is to be done to the right of veto?"

"We need a reform that takes into account the positions of a majority of countries," he said. "What some are dreaming of, namely, promoting to the Security Council some more countries - members of the military-political alliances we already know - NATO and the EU - is unacceptable for us, it would be a flawed solution."

"We believe and say so officially and publicly that such powerful countries as India and Brazil are certainly worthy of becoming newly-adopted permanent members of the Security Council. But we still have a very important problem of the underrepresentation of Africa," Vershinin pointed out. "It is an imperative that this issue should be resolved and Africa's representation expanded. The parameters of such a decision should be determined by the Africans themselves. We will support them."

"As for the Western countries - and you know what such countries as Japan and Germany are being mentioned - we also say frankly and honestly that we will be against it, because it will not make the Security Council more effective or objective," he pointed out. "Commands to the Western countries actually, let's be frank, are coming come from Washington and from Brussels. These commands are flawlessly carried out by the current faction of the Western countries in the Security Council". Vershinin remarked that the Western community does not even need to use the veto power in the UNSC because it constitutes the majority, and this "should be taken into account."