Statement by the Delegation of Ukraine at the Open Debate of the UN Security Council on “New Orientation for Reformed Multilateralism”

Mr. President,

Ukraine highly appreciates the initiative of the Presidency of India to hold this important debate and takes note of the briefers’ presentations.

As it is rightly pointed out in the concept paper for this debate, “the world is not the same as 77 years ago”. It has changed dramatically and so has done the nature of threats and challenges. In particular, we confront the attempts to undermine the credibility and efficacy of key multilateral institutions from inside.

I mean the UN Security Council, first of all. One could hardly disagree with another statement from the concept paper that “the composition of the UN Security Council… is far from reflecting the true diversity of the UN’s wider membership”.

We can tell even more; the composition of the Security Council does not even reflect the relevant provisions of the UN Charter. Such defunct entity as the Soviet Union is still present in the Charter despite being a thing of the past. The latter, however, does not mean that another entity could occupy the permanent Soviet seat by circumventing necessary legal procedures.

I would like to highlight several points in this regard.

First. 77 years ago, all agreed to vest five powers with a special status in return for their special responsibility on maintaining international peace and security. The events of this year have made it crystal clear that the system of five mutually dependent permanent members does not work if one of the seats is occupied by a violator that disrespects the norms and neglects the responsibility.

Moreover, the aggression started even earlier, in 2014, but 8 years were not enough for current multilateral system to prevent the escalation to the level of full-fledged invasion.

Many interesting ideas on the reform of multilateralism that we have heard today are worth of thorough consideration. Special attention should be paid to the reform of the Security Council and this brings me to the second point.

Higher level of inclusivity should be coupled with a stronger perception of responsibility. It is with a great sympathy that we address the aspirations of democratic and law-abiding nations for a specific position in the reformed Council. Regional underrepresentation must also be overcome.

The enlarged Security Council will likely be more democratic organ able to consider more informed decisions. At the same time, in order to cope with such cases as russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the factors of immobilization of the Council must be removed. We should take all political and legal actions to fix the situation when the aggressor misuses the permanent seat. We also expect resoluteness of all members in making a clear difference between taking sides and defending the UN Charter.

Third. Zero-tolerance towards violations and abuse should be total. Let us call a spade a spade, those who deliberately generate problems for the global security order could never serve as a part of solution anywhere else.

They use their presence among the decent and responsible democratic nations only as a chance to legitimize their violations and to introduce new conditionalities as bargaining chips.

This is why we are convinced that now more than ever we need strong multilateral institutions, we need strong and inclusive Security Council. The Council where all members are legitimate and responsible as well as reliable contributors to safeguarding the rules- and values-based international order.

Thank you.