Russia Rejects Any Proposal to Restrict UN Security Council Veto

Dragon Media News Desk

Russia will not support any proposal to restrict the use of the veto in the United Nations Security Council, Russian Foreign Ministry official Kirill Logvinov said. He described the veto as a burden of special responsibility rather than a privilege, and as a means of encouraging the search for lasting and fair compromises.

In an interview with TASS, Logvinov, director of the Foreign Ministry’s Department of International Organizations, said the Security Council’s declining effectiveness was caused not by the use of the veto but by the policies of what he called the “Western minority.” He accused Western countries of trying to use the Council solely to advance their own agenda.

Asked about the possible role of the next UN secretary-general in Security Council reform, Logvinov said the matter was outside the secretary-general’s mandate. Decisions on reform, he said, are the prerogative of UN member states.