Statement by
Mr, Jehezkiel S, George Lantu
Member of the Indonesia Delegation
before Open Ended Working Group on the Question of Equitable Representation
on and Increase in the Membership of the Security Council and Other
Matters related to the Security Council
On
Size of an enlarged Security Council
New York, 26 March 2004
Mr. President,
My Delegation would like to thank you for convening this meeting,
which we see as a significant step in our efforts to improve the work
of the United Nations, especially the Security Council.
Member States of the United Nations have been discussing Security
Council reform for many years. The Open Ended Working Group on the
Question of Equitable Representation on and increase in the membership
of the Security Council and Related Matters has made appreciable progress
on procedural matters. It is reassuring that in this meeting, our
focus is specifically on the question of the enlargement of the membership
of the Council. This kind of focus, in our view, can help us make
important advances on the substantive issues.
Mr. President,
Like many other delegations, Indonesia is concerned that substantial
progress has so far eluded us on the subject of Security Council reform,
10 years after the Open-ended Working Group was set up, and began
to deliberate. Some of the international developments that we have
seen in the past year constitute irrefutable evidence that the Council
must be comprehensively reformed. This is critical if its reputation
and its decisions are to continue to enjoy the support of the broader
membership of the United Nations.
In principle, my Government advocates
and supports the enlargement of the Security Council in both the permanent
and elected categories. This is an endorsement of the structure in
which the Council keeps its permanent membership structure along with
the category of non-permanent members. We believe that this structure
works well, but must be enlarged.
The composition of the Security Council was last altered in 1963,
when the nonpermanent membership in the body was increased from six
to join order to reflect the growth in the Organization's membership
to 113 from the original 51. Today, UN membership has grown to 191
thus the composition of the Security Council, especially during the
past three decades, has been grossly imbalanced, inequitable and unrepresentative
of this growth.
Mr. President,
While we are finally concentrating on concrete ideas for restructuring
and enlarging the Security Council, I would like to stress that we
cannot avoid the subject of the veto. Historically, it has been central
to the concept of permanent membership of the Council, and it is important
to discuss it along with the enlargement of the body, including the
number of permanent members.
Finally, I wish to reiterate our position that only a transparent,
democratic and representative Security Council whose membership and
practices reflect the 21st century is capable of guaranteeing international
peace and security as mandated by the United Nations Charter. Let
this be the inspiration behind our deliberations and our decisions.
I thank you, Mr. President.
