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Resolution submitted calling for increasing elected Security Council members
Twelve countries which oppose an increase of permanent members of the UN Security Council submitted Thursday a draft resolution to the General Assembly calling for adding 10 elected members to the powerful UN organ. The 12 co-sponsors, all members of the so-called "Uniting for Consensus" movement, are Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Italy, Malta, Mexico, Pakistan, South Korea, San Marino, Spain and Turkey. The draft, the third to be presented to the General Assembly on the Security Council reform, proposes expanding the council's non-permanent members to 20 from the present 10, with all non-permanent members on the enlarged council entitled for immediate re-election. The Security Council is currently composed of five veto-wielding permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- and 10 elected members with two-year terms, half of which are rotated annually. Under the new draft resolution, Asia and Africa would each get three new non-permanent seats, Latin America would gain two, and the Eastern Europe and Western Europe would each obtain one. The draft contains amendments to the UN Charter to reflect the enlargement of the council's non-permanent membership, and calls upon UN member states to ratify the amendments by September 2007. The measure is widely seen as a counteract to a framework draft resolution submitted to the General Assembly in early June by Japan, Germany, India and Brazil, known as G-4. The G-4 proposal calls for an increase of six new permanent members and four non-permanent members on the Security Council. It also provides for a 15-year freeze on the veto power for the new permanent members. Another draft was introduced by the 53-nation African Union ( AU), which suggests an increase of six permanent council members with the veto power and five elected members, two of them for Africa. The G-4 and the AU have held rounds of negotiations at the level of ambassadors in New York this week, but the talks remained deadlocked. Foreign ministers of the G-4 and the AU are expected to meet in London on Monday to further coordinate their position on the council expansion. Reportedly, the G-4 would probably request a vote on its resolution in the General Assembly on July 29. A UN reform resolution requires two-thirds or 128 "yes" votes to be approved by the 191-nation assembly.
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