Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim today reiterated the need for United Nations reform. Speaking at a seminar to mark the 61st anniversary of the creation of the UN, he said it ‘is no longer possible to have a Security Council with the same structure as in 1945’.

With regard to the composition of the Security Council, Amorim pointed out that neither Africa nor Latin America is represented among the permanent members, and that China is the only one of the developing Asian nations to hold a permanent seat.

As for the way the Security Council functions, Amorim believes the central problem is that of the veto. He pointed out that the only voting options open to Security Council members are ‘yes, abstention and veto’, and insists it should be possible for countries to express their opposition to a proposal without automatically exercising a veto. He predicted, however, that the problem has no chance of being resolved in the near future.

Source: Agência Brasil and Embassy of Brazil in London