Turkiye holds panel in Paris to push for UN Security Council reform

Turkiye’s Communications Directorate held a panel in Paris to emphasise the critical need for a UN Security Council reform, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Many officials from Turkiye, including Deputy Director of Communications, Cagatay Ozdemir, attended the panel, along with diplomats from the Turkish Embassy in Paris.

The panel was moderated by Washington Director of the Ankara-based Political, Economic and Social Research Foundation (SETA), Kilic Bugra Kanat and attended by panellists – Presidential Security and Foreign Policy Committee Members, Prof. Cagri Erhanand, Prof. Nursin Guney, as well as President of the Association of Foreign Journalists (APE), Elias Masboungi and Italian scholar expert, Valeria Giannotta.

Kanat said that the reform of the UN Security Council is “not a choice but a necessity”.

With the panel series, Turkiye aims to point out how the international community and international organisations faced significant challenges in the face of problems in recent years and how the international system was ineffective in addressing these challenges.

The panel also aims to push for a fairer, more democratic and more representative structure in the Security Council.

After holding panels in Italy, Argentina and France, Kanat said they plan to organise panels in 10 more different countries within the next two weeks.

READ: Turkiye to hold expert panel in 12 countries to push for UN Security Council reform

Erhan, for his part, told the panel that the UN member countries increased from 51 to 193 and the world population was up from 2.5 billion to 8 billion.

“It is clear that we need a change because the UN system was established for a world 4 times smaller than the one we live in today.”

Guney, on the occasion, said there have been initiatives for the reform of the UN in the past, adding that the current system allows the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to use the veto “against human welfare” due to different national interests.

Giannotta said the current system at the UN Security Council, has proven to be ineffective in providing security and stability to the international system and in dealing with the crisis.

Russia-Ukraine war has proven, once again, “our inability as the international community to deal with the crisis”, according to Giannotta.

Masboungi, meanwhile, hailed Turkiye’s efforts to highlight the need for reform in the UN Security Council.