UN must adapt to new world – Kremlin

The globe is undergoing dramatic changes and the organization must adjust to them, the President Putin's spokesman has said

The existing system of international law is floundering, while the modern world is plagued by an array of conflicts, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. He made the remarks in an interview with RT Arabic on Wednesday, calling upon the UN to adapt to a changing world.

“It is evident that the world is currently undergoing dramatic tectonic changes. Changes are underway, this requires a certain adaptation on the part of the UN; first of all, of its main body – the Security Council,” Peskov said.

However, Peskov ruled out the possibility of creating a new international organization to replace the UN, stating that the international body’s tools should be “developed and honed” instead.

“It is too early to talk about this yet. Thus far, the main body is the UN, we have no other. And in the current situation, when the whole world is riddled with conflicts, when international law is trampled upon, and economic relations, the system of Bretton Woods relations are de facto collapsing, I don’t think we can say that we will be able to create some other system. This is simply impossible,” Peskov explained.

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The Security Council currently consists of 15 members, ten of which serve two-year terms and cannot veto resolutions. Only five permanent members – the US, UK, China, France, and Russia – hold such power. Russia has advocated a more diverse Security Council for years, arguing that the body can be democratized only through increasing the representation of African, Asian, and Southern American states.

Recently, multiple world leaders and top officials have called for a reform of the UN Security Council, criticizing the institution as a dysfunctional one and lacking a fair representation of leading nations of the world. The issues confronting the council have been acknowledged by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as well, who has said a reform is long overdue to better reflect the “realities of today’s world.”