23rd April, 2018
Russia is ready to cooperate with the UN member states as well as with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on reforming the UN, Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the Russian upper house’s foreign affairs committee, told Sputnik on Monday.
“Russia is ready for comprehensive cooperation with other UN member states and the UN Secretary-General for the reform of the organisation,” Kosachev said.
The Russian lawmaker also noted that the need to reform the United Nations had been caused by the “consistent and deliberate erosion” of the organisation’s role and functions on the part of Western countries.
Kosachev also said that the West, and particularly the U.S., did not need the UN in its current form, which is defending the international law and the mechanisms of collective decision-making in the field of war and peace.
“Therefore, I would advise [the UN chief] to focus his efforts on consolidating stances of the majority of the UN members, which act exclusively in accordance with the UN Charter, and on demanding that any violation of the Charter would be condemned by the international community,” he stated.
Since the beginning of his term in January 2017, Guterres has repeatedly made proposals to reform the organisation as well as its Security Council to reorganise and integrate existing substantive capacities and resources more rationally to achieve the peace building and security goals.
As at October 2017, no fewer than 120 of the 193 member states declared their support for a series of reforms aimed at overhauling the UN bureaucracy to make the world body stronger and more responsive to the people it serves