UN | One meeting in New York made a particular impression on Alexander Stubb

New York

One the meeting was interrupted by the president of the republic Alexander Stubbia Especially in the UN General Assembly.

“I’ll say it straight, the King of Jordan.”

Stubb said that Abdullah II impressed with his ability to analyze the situation in the Middle East in Gaza and Lebanon.

In New York, Stubb held bilateral talks with the leaders of twenty countries, focusing on the countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. At a press conference on the closing day of his visit on Thursday, he said that in every discussion, the UN reforms and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were on the agenda.

Stubbs assured that his proposals for reforming the UN have received a “really good” reception. “Especially from the countries of the global south, but also from many other countries.”

In his speech to the General Assembly, Stubb proposed that the UN’s most important institution, the Security Council, should be reformed in three ways:

The number of permanent member countries of the Council should be doubled to ten and distributed more geographically. Permanent members of the Council should have their right of veto taken away. Even permanent member states should be able to freeze their right to vote, for example, on the basis of an unjustified war.

“It’s probably a bit of a situation here that 188 countries support these proposals and five are against them,” said Stubb.

He added that support has come not only from heads of state and foreign ministers, but also from countries’ UN ambassadors and UN officials.

“Now, of course, the biggest opposition comes from China and Russia. After all, the United States has carefully opened the door to the fact that somehow the composition of the Security Council should be expanded.”

Stubbs admitted that the purpose of the presentations – which many have assessed as unrealistic – is to open a discussion about the future UN. Expanding the permanent composition of the Security Council is certainly more realistic than pushing through the possibility of freezing the right of veto.

However, the president assured that he believes that there is now a fertile ground for changes. As two signs of that, he mentioned the UN agreement on the future that was approved on Sunday, which paints broad lines, and the shared understanding of the need for change.

“We have two options: multipolar chaos or multilateral cooperation.”

Stubbs persistently highlighted the Sudanese civil war in New York, even though the crisis closest to Finns is Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine and the world fears the explosion of the Middle East the most.

“I was perhaps a little surprised that many African countries hoped for military intervention in that crisis as well – that is, peacekeeping measures.”

The president said that in order to find solutions, the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan must be looked at as a whole.

“We cannot choose in which issues we rely on international law – that we are on the side of international law in one conflict and then deviate from it in another.”

By this, Stubb undoubtedly meant at least that some Finns condemn Russia’s actions in Ukraine, but do not share the position of the clear majority of the International Court of Justice and the UN General Assembly – including Finland – that Israel’s occupation and Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories violate international law.

Board partners are continued foreign minister Elina Valtonen (kok) review of last week’s voting decision. Finland demanded, along with the majority, that Israel must move its armed forces and the residents of Jewish settlements out of the Palestinian territories. However, the resolutions of the General Assembly are not binding.

“I wish we would be a little more moderate in the foreign and security policy debate. At the same time, I understand that foreign and security policy is currently worrying many people. There are many difficult, even emotional questions. Israel and Palestine are one of them, the situation in Ukraine is of course another,” commented Stubb on the matter.

“The guiding star of foreign and security policy is always that temperance is a trump card. Let’s stay on that line.”

Stubb said that he explained to Israel why Finland voted that way, and to Palestine, why Finland has not recognized its independence, even though the majority of countries in the world have. He said that Finland currently has “a very broad say” in the direction of both parties.