UN Takes Step to Put UN Veto Users under Global Spotlight

A general view shows the United Nations Security Council meeting on non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, US, March 14, 2022. (Reuters)
A general view shows the United Nations Security Council meeting on non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, US, March 14, 2022. (Reuters)
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UN Takes Step to Put UN Veto Users under Global Spotlight

A general view shows the United Nations Security Council meeting on non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, US, March 14, 2022. (Reuters)
A general view shows the United Nations Security Council meeting on non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, US, March 14, 2022. (Reuters)

The UN General Assembly took a first step to put the five permanent members of the Security Council under a global spotlight Tuesday when they use their veto power, a move highlighted by Russia’s veto and threat of future vetoes that has paralyzed any action by the UN’s most powerful body on the Ukraine war.

The resolution, which was adopted by consensus by the 193-member assembly with the bang of its president’s gavel and a burst of applause, does not eliminate or limit the veto power of the permanent members -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.

But for the first time it will require the General Assembly "to hold a debate on the situation" that sparks a veto in the Security Council within 10 working days, and to give precedence on the list of speakers to the permanent member who cast the veto.

The assembly isn’t required to take or consider any action, but the discussion could put veto-wielders on the spot and let a raft of other countries be heard.

Liechtenstein’s UN ambassador, Christian Wenaweser, who spearheaded the resolution, has said it aims "to promote the voice of all of us who are not veto-holders, and who are not on the Security Council, on matters of international peace and security because they affect all of us."

Presenting the resolution to the assembly on Tuesday morning, Wenaweser alluded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 and the Security Council’s failure to take action saying: "There has never been a stronger need for effective multilateralism than today, and there has never been a stronger need for innovation in order to secure the central role and voice of the United Nations."

The resolution had about 80 co-sponsors including the United States and the United Kingdom.

The reform of the Security Council, which is charged under the UN Charter with ensuring international peace and security, has been discussed and debated for more than 40 years, and was front and center in comments by countries before and after the resolution’s adoption on Tuesday.

There is widespread support for revamping the UN’s most powerful organ to reflect current global realities rather than the international power structure after World War II in 1945 when the United Nations was created. But all previous attempts, starting in 1979, have failed because rivalries between countries and regions have blocked agreement on the size, composition and powers of an expanded council.

The veto power of the five permanent members is one component on the reform agenda.

By now, more than 200 different Security Council proposals have been vetoed, some by multiple countries, according to UN records. The subjects have ranged from the Korean War and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to climate change, reporting on weapons stockpiles, and governance of a part of the Indian Ocean nation Comoros.

The former Soviet Union and its successor Russia have cast the most vetoes by far, followed by the United States. Far fewer have been cast by Britain, China and France.



Russia Says It Is Not Easy to Agree Ukraine Peace Deal with US 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks during a session at Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Antalya, Türkiye, April 12, 2025. (Reuters)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks during a session at Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Antalya, Türkiye, April 12, 2025. (Reuters)
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Russia Says It Is Not Easy to Agree Ukraine Peace Deal with US 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks during a session at Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Antalya, Türkiye, April 12, 2025. (Reuters)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks during a session at Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Antalya, Türkiye, April 12, 2025. (Reuters)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that it was not easy to agree with the United States on the key parts of a possible peace deal to end the war in Ukraine and that Russia would never again allow itself to depend economically on the West.

US President Donald Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker, has repeatedly said he wants to end the "bloodbath" of the three-year war in Ukraine, though a deal has yet to be agreed.

"It is not easy to agree the key components of a settlement. They are being discussed," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper when asked if Moscow and Washington had agreement on some aspects of a possible peace deal.

"We are well aware of what a mutually beneficial deal looks like, which we have never rejected, and what a deal looks like that could lead us into another trap," Lavrov said in the interview published in Tuesday's edition.

The Kremlin on Sunday said that it was too early to expect results from the restoration of more normal relations with Washington.

Lavrov said that Russia's position had been set out clearly by President Vladimir Putin in June 2024, when Putin demanded Ukraine must officially drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw its troops from the entirety of the territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed by Russia.

"We're talking about the rights of the people who live on these lands. That is why these lands are dear to us. And we cannot give them up, allowing people to be kicked out of there," Lavrov said.

Russia currently controls a little under one fifth of Ukraine, including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and parts of four other regions Moscow now claims are part of Russia - a claim not recognized by most countries.

Lavrov praised Trump's "common sense" and for saying that previous US support of Ukraine's bid to join the NATO military alliance was a major cause of the war in Ukraine.

But Russia's political elite, he said, would not countenance any moves that led Russia back towards economic, military, technological or agricultural dependence on the West.

The globalization of the world economy, Lavrov said, had been destroyed by sanctions imposed on Russia, China and Iran by the administration of former US President Joe Biden.

Biden, Western European leaders and Ukraine describe Russia's 2022 invasion as an imperial-style land grab, and repeatedly vowed to defeat Russian forces.

Putin casts the war in Ukraine as part of a battle with a declining West, which he says humiliated Russia after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 by enlarging the NATO military alliance and encroaching on what he considers Moscow's sphere of influence.