The US and China have agreed to work together to block a plan to expand the powerful UN Security Council backed by Brazil, Germany, India and Japan, China's UN ambassador said.
Wang Guangya (
Washington and Beijing are already on record as opposing the G4 resolution for different reasons, but the agreement would mark a new joint effort to prevent its approval by the UN General Assembly, which requires a two-thirds "yes" vote.
Wang and Bolton, who have known each other for about 15 years, met again Wednesday outside the office of General Assembly President Jean Ping, part of a round of courtesy calls the US envoy is making to Security Council members and senior UN officials.
"There's a lot of important work," Bolton said. "It's a very busy schedule in the first couple of days, and I think it's been productive and I'm certainly enjoying myself."
He wouldn't discuss his meetings with Ping or council members.
Wang said the ultimate objective of China and the US is to expand the Security Council with a formula that is not divisive.
"But at this stage, I think our objective will be to oppose the G4, to make sure they do not have sufficient votes to take the risk to divide the house," he said Wednesday.
"We agreed to work together to make sure that our interests are being maintained -- which means that we have to work in parallel ways to see that the unity of the UN members, the unity of every regional group, will not be spoiled because of this maneuver and process," Wang said.
But he said Washington and Beijing will be working in parallel in the coming weeks to block the resolution -- not together -- because "we have different friends in different parts of the world."
After 10 years of seemingly endless debate, Secretary-General Kofi Annan told UN member states in March that he wanted a decision on Security Council expansion before a summit of world leaders in September. But the issue remains highly contentious, and no proposal on the table at the moment can win the required two-thirds support.
The US-China effort to defeat the Group of Four came on the eve of yesterday's emergency summit called by the African Union to consider whether to approve a compromise agreement which some of its ministers reached with Brazil, Germany, India and Japan in London on July 25.
The Security Council currently has 15 members, 10 elected for two-year terms and five permanent members -- the US, Russia, China, Britain and France.
Brazil, Germany, India and Japan have introduced a resolution calling for a 25-member council that would add six permanent seats without a veto and four non-permanent seats. They are hoping to win four of the permanent seats with the other two earmarked for Africa. South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt are the leading African contenders.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency as well as long-term residency in Taiwan has decreased, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that the reduction of Chinese spouses staying or living in Taiwan is only one facet reflecting the general decrease in the number of people willing to get married in Taiwan. The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency last year was 7,123, down by 2,931, or 29.15 percent, from the previous year. The same census showed that the number of Chinese spouses applying for long-term residency and receiving approval last year stood at 2,973, down 1,520,
RSS