UN Security Council Session Is Like a Tale of Two Worlds, and Orders

Aug. 22, 2022 (EIRNS)—The United Nations Security Council, under China’s chairmanship for the month of August, held a session today which China had organized during the month, “Promote Common Security Through Dialogue and Cooperation.” While speakers for the 15 UNSC members did not exactly “stick to the topic,” there was a dramatic contrast between the two national representatives who spoke almost exclusively to denounce Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, and nearly all the others who spoke, in one way or another, about a new world security and economic order.

All UNSC representatives spoke, along with Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the president of the 10th Review Council on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Gustavo Zlauvinen. Thirteen began by thanking China for organizing the session, and Guterres and Zlauvinen for their presentations. Two—the United States and Britain—thanked Guterres and Zlauvinen, and did not thank China for the session or its idea. The same two—along with the U.K.’s sometime Irish sidekick of late, simply denounced Russia, and used the same phrases: “member nations must be held accountable”; “Russia has torn up the [UN] Charter”; etc. They made, of course, reference to the importance of the NPT, whose long history of the boldest double-standards suggests that it be called the “No Power Treaty.”

All other nations spoke of the need for a new world order, although their objectives for it differed. India, most forcefully, insisted that the UNSC be reformed, adding permanent members (not said, but understood that India should be included). India’s Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj actually said that all multilateral financial and security structures have to be reformed: “Are the multilateral structures ready to deal with the new world order?” she demanded.

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia gave a detailed account of the past 30 years’ NATO expansion at the expense of Russia’s security, “At the same time, contrary to their own declared values, Western countries cynically turn a blind eye to the spread of neo-Nazi ideology, massacres of the people in Donbas and violations of international humanitarian law by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the national guards,” he stated. But as a result of the NATO policy, he said, “As a result, European region saw a crisis with global implications and, without exaggeration, historical consequences.” And, “Today, before our very eyes, the contours of a new world order begin to shape.)

China’s own presentation conveyed the central idea of a new security order based on sovereignty, territorial integrity, and development.

“Respect for national sovereignty and territorial integrity, as set out as the important principle in the UN Charter, is the bedrock of contemporary international law and international relations. If this principle is ignored and abandoned, the whole system of international law will be shaken to its roots, the world will return to the law of the jungle, and common security will be totally out of the question,”

said China’s Ambassador Zhang Jun—who also asserted: “In the face of differences and conflicting interests, what we should do is to find the greatest common denominator through dialogue and cooperation and resolve disputes by peaceful means. ... In this regard, the problems triggered by several rounds of NATO’s eastward expansion and the resultant lessons are profound indeed.”