The Prime Minister also wants the Veto system abolished
Venkat Raman
Auckland, September 24, 2022
Prime Minister Jacinda Arden has called for the reorientation of the United Nations and make it more responsive to the changing geopolitics and emphasise the need for cohesive action.
She also called for the abolition of the veto system
Institutions like the UN are the ballast that the world needs, but it is a ballast that requires modernisation, fit for the tumultuous waters that all of us face, she said.
She said that as a responsible global citizen, New Zealand has always championed the cause of a just world and the need for peaceful resolution of disputes among nations.
Ms Ardern launched a direct attack on the UN Security Council, saying that in March 2022 (when Russia invaded Ukraine), when the world needed decisive action from the UN Security Council, it failed to take any action.
“It did not fulfil its mandate because of one permanent member who was willing to abuse its privileged position. That was wrong. We will not give up on the ability of our multilateral institutions to stand up against this illegal war, or to take on the many challenges we face,” she said, addressing the UN General Assembly at its annual gathering in New York, the USA on Friday, September 23, 2022.
Russia vs Ukraine
Citing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resultant crisis across the world labelled Russia’s war as illegal and immoral, Ms Ardern said that the Russian invasion is a direct attack on the UN Charter and the international rules-based system and everything that this community should stand for.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s suggestion that it could at any point deploy further weapons that it has at its disposal reveals the false narrative on which the country has based its invasion and asked, “What country who claims to be a liberator, threatens to annihilate the very civilians they claim to liberate?”
Stating that the was is ‘based on a lie,’ Ms Ardern recognised the people of Ukraine who have lost loved ones, their sense of peace and security, and their livelihoods.
“They need us,” she said.
“What if it was us? Our ability to answer that question with any confidence that we have the tools as a global community to act swiftly and collectively has been severely undermined. We were amongst the founding members of the United Nations as governments of the day recognised that the perils of war would only be avoided through a greater sense of shared responsibility. The basis on which this institution was formed, remains as relevant today as it was then. But without reform, we risk irrelevancy,” she said.
Ms Ardern said that whether it is climate, trade, health crisis or seeking peaceful solutions to war and conflict, New Zealand has always been a believer in multilateral tools,” she said.
Abolition of the Veto
“That is why New Zealand was pleased to champion the Veto Initiative. Not only does it provide an opportunity to scrutinise the actions of the permanent member who cast a veto, but the Veto Initiative also gives the whole UN membership a voice where the Security Council has been unable to act. But we continue to call for more than that,” she said.
Ms Ardern said that the Veto should be abolished for the UN to maintain its relevancy and ensure that it is truly the voice of the breadth of countries that it represents. She also called on the Permanent Members to exercise their responsibility for the benefit of international peace and security, rather than the pursuit of their national interest.
She said that New Zealand continues to wage ‘other battles’ as a nation, one of which is its demand for a global response to the use of nuclear weapons.
“Our history of championing not just non-proliferation, but a prohibition on nuclear weapons is grounded in what we have witnessed, but also what we have experienced. We are a nation that is both of the Pacific and within it. It was in our region that these weapons of war were tested. Those tests have left a mark on the people, lands and waters of our home. The only way to guarantee our people that they will be safe from the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons is for them not to exist,” Ms Ardern said.
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
She urged all countries who are convinced of the dangers faced by the world today to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Ms Ardern said that some will call such a position naïve and some would believe that we are safer as a result of nuclear weapons.
“In New Zealand, we have never accepted the wisdom of mutually assured destruction. It takes one country to believe that their cause is nobler, their might stronger, and their people more willing to be sacrificed. None of us can stand on this platform and turn a blind eye to the fact that there are already leaders amongst us who believe this. Nuclear weapons do not make us safer. There will be those who agree but believe it is simply too hard to rid ourselves of nuclear weapons at this juncture,” she said.
Ms Ardern was critical of Russia, stating that the progress on NPT was blocked by Moscow recently, which “represented a backwards step to the efforts of nearly every country in the world to make some even limited progress on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.”
“None of this will stop New Zealand’s advocacy. We will remain a strong and passionate advocate for efforts to address the weapons of old, but also, the new weapons. The face of war has changed and with that, the weapons used have also changed. The tools used to challenge the statehood of others are hidden and more complex. Traditional combat, espionage, and the threat of nuclear weapons are now accompanied by cyber-attacks, prolific disinformation, and manipulation of whole communities and societies,” Ms Ardern said.
