ANKARA, December 6. /TASS/. Turkey is continuing to discuss the prospects for reforming the United Nations system with Russia and does not foresee any difficulties in this critical dialogue, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said to journalists in his press pool upon returning from Qatar.
"Our negotiations with Russia are ongoing, and so far there have been no problems [in this dialogue]. We don't anticipate any. The UN, as an institution, has proven incapable of managing its own system and is watching the unfolding events with its hands tied. Unfortunately, we are once again feeling the severe consequences of this crisis [at the UN]. The primary duty of the UN is to safeguard peace worldwide. However, due to the distorted structure of the Security Council, it is unable to carry out this task," the Anadolu agency quoted him as saying.
The Turkish leader was commenting on the situation around the distribution of votes at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) during voting on the issue of calling a ceasefire in the ongoing Gaza Strip conflict between militants of the radical Palestinian movement Hamas and Israeli forces. He noted that "121 countries at the UNGA opposed the oppression of the Palestinians," while 40 countries abstained, and "the number of countries that sided with the West and America was only 14." Erdogan noted that he intends to continue diplomatic work with the abstaining countries in order to convince them to stand on the side of Palestine.
He noted that, at the moment, he has more hope for and confidence in the effectiveness of the UNGA than in the UN Security Council (UNSC). He recounted that the current state of affairs in the UNSC has long been subject to sharp criticism by Ankara, with Erdogan himself repeatedly stating that "the world is bigger than five," meaning there should not be only five countries on the UNSC that enjoy the decisive right to vote and can wield veto power. "We must engage in a review of the UN system. And we must do it before it's too late. Otherwise, the UN system will not be able to extinguish a big fire, and the world will face losses again," Erdogan warned.
In September, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov highlighted the existence of growing demand for an expansion of the UNSC "exclusively by means of eliminating the underrepresentation in the membership [of the UNSC] of countries from the global majority in Asia, Africa and Latin America."