African ministers clashed with the French delegation at a meeting ahead of yesterday’s Franco-African summit, during which they discussed the continent’s representation on the UN Security Council.
African diplomats also put their views forcefully on the issue of climate change.
“It was a lively debate, fairly long, animated,” French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said after the six-hour meeting on Sunday.
It had been a sincere one, between friends, he added.
The African ministers had advanced the line adopted by the African Union, that the continent should have two permanent, veto-wielding seats on the Security Council, the heart of the UN’s decision making apparatus.
They also wanted at least two more non-permanent members’ places on the council, to add to the three currently allocated to Africa.
France argued that it would be more realistic to argue first for one permanent seat on the Security Council, Kouchner said.
A number of African diplomats said the meeting was a stormy one.
“The talks started very badly,” one Gabonese diplomat said, with some of those present questioning France’s right to even raise the issue.
The most outspoken comments had come from the Tanzanian and South African delegations, another diplomat said.
Africa currently represents 27 percent of the UN’s member states — but the five permanent members of the Security Council are Britain, China, France, Russia and the US.
The talks also covered the issue of climate change, the Gabonese diplomat said.
African delegates denounced a situation in which they said the West was the main offender, but Africa, the victim, was expected to make more of an effort to solve the problem.
Several delegates pointed out that Africa’s 200 million hectares of forest in the Congo region meant it was one of the “lungs” of the planet.
They denounced as disappointing the result of last year’s Copenhagen summit on climate change, making it clear they were not impressed by the US$30 billion that wealthy countries had pledged in aid from this year to 2012.
The money was pledged to help poor countries deal with climate change, but earlier this month, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who represents the African Union on climate issues, expressed doubt over the capacity of developed nations to honor those financial commitments.
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person