📋 Tender Overview
Presidencys Directorate of Communications held a panel with the theme United Nations UN Security Council Reform A New Approach to Reconstructing the International Order in Paris the capital of France.Presidencys Deputy Director of Communications aatay zdemir and First Counsellor of the Turkish Embassy in Paris zgr Arslan as well as many guests attended the panel. Altnba University Rector and Member of the Presidential Security and Foreign Policy Council Prof. ar Erhan Faculty Member of stanbul Nianta University and Member of the Presidential Security and Foreign Policies Council Prof. Nurin Gney President of the Association of Foreign Journalists APE Elias Masboungi and Scientific Director of Observatory on Trkiye at the Centre for Politics and International Studies CeSPI Valeria Giannotta discussed the past and current reform proposals for the UN Security Council UNSC during the panel moderated by Assoc. Prof. Kl Bura Kanat SETA Foundation Washington Research Director.Assoc. Prof. Kanat stated that they plan to organise the aforementioned panel series in ten countries over the next two weeks.Kanat emphasised that raising awareness about the need for UN reform especially after the pandemic the international food crisis and the Ukraine-Russia war was their primary objective when they began this project and that they consider UNSC reform to be a necessity not an option.UN system was established for a world that was four times smaller than the one we live in todayProf. Erhan pointed out that the UN was founded during the Second World War an extraordinary and difficult period and indicated reform had been a topic of discussion since the organisations establishment and that the UN has gone through several reforms and changes in the past.Erhan said that African and Asian nations exerted the most pressure for the UN reform in the 1960s and that the United Nations Development Program UNDP was established in 1965.Erhan stated that following the end of the Cold War in the early 2000s former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and current UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres started a series of reforms within the UN.Erhan noted that the number of member states has increased from 51 to 193 since the establishment of the UN while the world population has increased from 2.5 billion to 8 billion saying We clearly need a change because the UN system was designed for a world that was four times smaller than the one we live in today. However this is not easy. Because the current systems founders and beneficiaries do not want to lose their privileges.Erhan on the other hand stated that the term reform has been problematic for UN member states due to the lack of clarity and unanimity over its implementation.Erhan underscored that as proposed by Secretary-General Guterres the UN has a reform agenda focusing on three key areas development UN administration peace and security and he stated that Guterres wants to change the entire UN development system and achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals for the development reform.Pointing out that there are difficulties when it comes to peace and security Erhan said When we attempt to address security issues one of the five permanent members begins to impede these initiatives because they have some privileges. The current structure of the UN Security Council reflects the global power structure of 1945. It does not reflect the power structure of 2022.The veto power should be abolishedProf. Erhan stated that todays world deserves a more effective security mechanism that maintains equality between states in terms of population economic status or military power.Stating that the permanent members of the UNSC protect themselves from any sanctions by using their veto rights Erhan said Therefore the veto power should be abolished.Stating that the number of UN Security Council members should be increased to 25 and the number of permanent members should not be less than 10 Erhan stressed that there is no longer a balance between the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council and this needs to be re-established.The veto power in the UNSC must be balancedProf. Gney also stated that all world citizens and the international order were experiencing difficult times and that it was impossible to predict the future of the international order.Noting that the UNSC did not operate as expected during the Cold War Gney asserted that the world underwent significant changes.Noting that the veto power vested in the five permanent members of the UN could be used against humanitys well-being due to divergent national interests Gney said there were attempts to reform the UN in the past.Mentioning the significance of the UNSC enlargement Gney stated that many countries desired permanent membership including the G4 nations of Brazil Germany India and Japan.Gney stated that what the world was experiencing with the Russia-Ukraine war was not new and that many similar tragedies had occurred in the past and that the UN could not function due to the veto power of the permanent members of the UN Security Council.Referring to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoans statement The world is bigger than five Gney pointed out that the veto power in the UN Security Council must be balanced.Gney recalled that during its non-permanent membership in the UN Security Council in 2009-2010 Trkiye provided support to maintain peace and trust and he added that with its experience and trust-building diplomacy Trkiye managed to secure a grain agreement between the parties today.
