This Tuesday, the President of the Republic pointed out the expansion of the BRICS group of emerging economies as a sign of discontent over the lack of reform of the United Nations, which in his opinion could grow.
In statements to journalists at the headquarters of the United Nations (UN) in New York, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa returned to the message he left this Tuesday at the 78th session of the UN General Assembly, in which He called to move from promises to action. in the reform of this institution and in particular of its Security Council.
According to the Portuguese head of state, his message corresponds to what “people think” about these meetings: that world leaders “repeat the same thing every year” and over time “it gives the impression that nothing moves, or little “.
“That is what causes a negative coalition of a number of states. The enlargement of the BRICS is that. The enlargement of the BRICS is not a positive coalition, they do not think the same, they think the same about being marginalized from political institutions and finances, they are united there,” he said.
The BRICS group, made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, decided at its last summit to include, starting next year, six new members: Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and Iran.
According to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, “the Security Council [das Nações Unidas] It is blocked, it does not decide anything, and then the General Assembly replaces it to discuss why it does not decide anything, but that does not solve the problem of not deciding anything and not being representative and not being able to intervene. “.
Expressing doubts about the prospects for this situation to change in the short term, the President of the Republic added: “Now, one thing is certain: if progress is not made on these various objectives, there is no substitute for the United Nations.” . “There are none, we are not going to create others, it is not possible.”
“But yes, it creates a pole of enormous discontent that then fragments. Now it is the expanded BRICS, tomorrow which will it be? It is, on the one hand, the African position, then it will be the Latin American position, then it will be the position of the Asian countries , and the possibility of solving universal problems is lost,” he considered.
Regarding the reform of the UN Security Council, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa mentioned that several permanent members “have made unilateral statements saying that maybe, maybe,” but that this Tuesday “the American President [Joe Biden] was very clear, because he even talked about more permanent and non-permanent members of the Security Council.”
The President of the Republic defended that Portugal can contribute to this reform by “getting there”, to a non-permanent member position in the 2027-2028 biennium.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said that, on the sidelines of this session of the UN General Assembly, bilateral meetings are planned with Palau, Kazakhstan and Kenya, among other countries, also with the aim of promoting this candidacy.
The UN Security Council has five permanent members with veto power: the United States of America, the Russian Federation, France, the United Kingdom and the People’s Republic of China.
This body was created to maintain international peace and security in accordance with the principles of the United Nations.
Each year the General Assembly elects five of a total of ten non-permanent members, who according to the terms of a UN resolution are distributed as follows: five African and Asian, one from Eastern Europe, two from Latin America, two of Western Europe. and other States.
Portugal was a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 1979-1980, 1997-1998 and 2011-2012.
Source: TSF
