Post #28097

🎙Statement by Permanent Representativeof the Russian Federation to the UN Vassily Nebenzia at an Informal Meeting of Intergovernmental Negotiations on the Question of Equitable Representation on and Increase of the Membership in the UN Security Council and Other Matters Related to the Council (New York, January 21, 2026) 💬 Vassily Nebenzia: We have consistently emphasized that intergovernmental negotiations (IGN) are the unique and only legitimate platform for considering all aspects of the UNSC reform. It goes without saying that, in essence, the reform is to be geared towards gradually accumulating the elements of convergence in negotiating positions with the view to achieving a compromise universal solution, ideally based on consensus. Any attempts to spur the negotiations through introducing proposals that are clearly unacceptable to many will only set back reform prospects for many years. ☝️ The UN will have to pay far too high a price for this. <...> The Russian Federation reaffirms its position of principle in favor of making the Council more representative without compromising its effectiveness. The optimal membership of a reformed Council, in our view, would be in the low twenties. We are convinced that a more radical increase in the size of the Security Council, as is being proposed by some countries, would lead to lengthier meetings and would complicate the already labor-intensive decision-making process. These are not the goals that we are pursuing. As regards geographical representation, of course, the unconditional priority must be given here to increasing the proportion of developing countries from Africa, Asia, and Latin America in the Security Council. <...> We do hope that the upcoming negotiations will contribute to converging the approaches of member States regarding such a complex set of issues. 👉 To this end, we call on all participants to engage constructively, to demonstrate political will with the view to finding reasonable compromises, and to refrain from imposing artificial time constraints and promoting proposals that are certain to be divisive. Read in full