Envoys offer measures to improve UN Security Council’s work

NEW YORK - The world’s major countries Thursday proposed important measures to strengthen the Security Council’s work on global peace and security, saying new situations require new solutions.

China’s Prime Minister Wen Jiabao gave support to the role of UN peacekeeping operations as a major contribution to peace and security as his country increasingly has deployed military and specialised civilians to UN missions.

“China believes that as the core of collective security mechanism, the Security Council should enhance its authority and undertake greater responsibilities, make greater role in maintaining international peace and security,” Wen said.

Wen called on the council to enhance its working methods and problem-solving ability and set priorities in resolving crises, particularly in Africa.

The session of the 15-nation Security Council was also attended by Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan. Kan and Wen did not talk to each other and sat apart around the horse-shoe shaped council table.

Wen said Wednesday he would not meet with Kan to discuss Japan’s seizure of a Chinese fishing boat while they were attending UN General Assembly meetings in New York. China has demanded that Japan release the captain of the boat and has threatened action if Tokyo would not abide by the demand.

The council was convened with the attendance of high-ranking government officials attending the UN General Assembly to highlight and try to make its work more effective.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the council no longer can deploy peace missions in a clear sequence of peacemaking, peacekeeping and peace building.

“These tools should be deployed in integrated fashion, not kept in silos,” Ban said. “Conflict seldom follows a tidy path.”

The meeting was presided over by President Abdullah Gul of Turkey, which holds the rotating presidency of the council for September.

Ban called for change toward a faster and “more flexible architecture of response that allows us to customize our assistance to the real and immediate needs on the ground.”

The meeting was attended by Presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Heinz Fisher of Austria, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan of Nigeria, Haris Silajdzic of Bosnia, Ali Bongo of Gabon and General Michel Sleiman of Lebanon. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and her counterparts from Russia, Britain, Mexico and France also attended.

Clinton called on her colleagues in the Security Council to ensure that peace missions are provided with logistical support, manpower, resources and the means to carry their missions, including helicopters.

“The United States will do our part, but we must do everything we can,” Clinton said, warning that sending out the missions without the proper support would endanger the UN personnel as well as the people they are supposed to help.