Statement by H.E. Mr. Andrejs Pildegovičs
Permanent Representative of the Republic of Latvia to the UN
at the Intergovernmental Negotiations on the question of equitable representation on and the increase in the membership of the Security Council and other matters related to the Security Council
New York, 24 November 2021
Distinguished Chair,
At the outset, let me take this opportunity to express my gratitude for convening this meeting and congratulate the newly appointed co-chairs- Ambassador Martin Hermann of Denmark and Ambassador Alya Al-Thani of Qatar for the Intergovernmental Negotiations during the 76th session. We hope that we can move forward with this long-overdue process. Our delegation is committed to work with you and will support your efforts to its best abilities.
Over the years at the IGN, UN Member States have clarified and repeated the positions regarding various aspects of the reform. As for the reform itself, we have not achieved significant progress but we have that chance now. Reform must be accomplished through carefully tailored consensus and comprehensive political approval. It is our main task to find political will amongst ourselves and do our best to explore ways to bridge the gaps and narrow our differences.
The need to reform the UN Security Council is progressively gaining importance not losing it, especially due to increasing gap between the Council’s demanding agenda and its output. Now, we are under even tighter time constraints due to changing scenery of new challenges. Having said that, we strongly believe that building upon former discussions and the work already done in previous IGN sessions is the way to go. As in all UN intergovernmental conferences, we should start text-based negotiations focused on a single consolidated document reflecting everyone’s positions without further delay. We concur with those states that have said that we have plenty of things that we agree on. It is time for us to take a small but meaningful step and build upon these agreements and instill a new life into the process.
On categories of membership – Latvia reiterates that all regions must be adequately represented on the Council to ensure its legitimacy. The reform should ensure equitable geographic distribution of both permanent and non-permanent seats in the Council. Latvia strongly supports greater representation of African and Latin American countries in the Council and allocation of at least one additional non-permanent seat to the Eastern European Group.
We also believe that during the nomination and election of non-permanent members of the Council due consideration should be given to adequate representation of small and medium size member states.
As the member of the ACT Group, we stand by our position that enlargement of any sort has to be supplemented by improving the working methods of the Security Council. One example would be that Council’s permanent members should refrain from using their veto in situations of mass atrocity crimes and work to increase transparency in its work all together.
In conclusion, there is an urgency for us to move beyond merely reiterating positions and finally attain tangible results. Latvia will continue to work diligently to achieve this goal.
Thank you.