politics

Kishida calls for U.N. reforms to address Russian aggression

43 Comments
By MARI YAMAGUCHI

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43 Comments
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i have never heard that when USA have invaded

USA isn't the one invading other countries right now. Russia is.

16 ( +28 / -12 )

1 United States (27.89%)

2 China (15.21%)

3 Japan (8.56%)

4 Germany (6.09%)

5 United Kingdom (5.79%)

6 France (5.61%)

7 Italy (3.30%)

8 Russian Federation (3.04%)

9 Canada (2.73%)

10 Republic of Korea (2.26%)

11 Australia (2.21%)

A nations funding changes year on year. The year 2021 above shows a number of interesting facts. These top nations break into different categories.

NATO funding - 51.41%

Asian funding - 26.03%

Democratic funding - 64.44%

Autocratic funding - 18.25%

Food for thought.

11 ( +13 / -2 )

i have never heard that when USA have invaded Vietnam,Cambodia,Laos,Libya,Syria,Iraq,Afghanistan and list goes on....these days "reform" was not "not needed"...clown Powell did his "job" in UN...

Well, then perhaps things changed for the better.

Or if they didn’t, or if complaining about something 50 years ago makes you feel better, go for it.

8 ( +19 / -11 )

@Peter14 The UN needs a complete redesign. No veto's in the Security council. No permanent members.

I agree.

So on this occasion, I have to say - well done Kishida for calling this out.

6 ( +13 / -7 )

Things have changed since the 1980s.

UN contributions by Country:

United States (27.89%)

China (15.21%)

Japan (8.56%)

Germany (6.09%)

United Kingdom (5.79%)

It seems like tragicomedy that Japan, a former Axis nation, is now the second largest contributor to the United Nations

5 ( +9 / -4 )

So a member of the permanent UNSC invades a country and is killing civilians. And the UN can't do squat because that country in on that UNSC and can veto any resolution.

Kishida openly points this out and everyone here hammers Kishida, LOL

5 ( +13 / -8 )

Kishida is absolutely right about this.

There is no point in having a United Nations if it has no mechanisms to deal with Putin and the Russian people's murder, torture, abduction, and outright genocide in Ukraine.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Plenty more opportunities to speak out against Russian war crimes (and for mini-me’s toadies to whine about the West) as Putie has decided to double-down on the stupid (I guess that’s where Don learned it) and partially call up the reserves.

One wonders which obsolete crew-cooker tanks or Afghan-era rusted rifles they’ll be issued.

4 ( +11 / -7 )

Reform of the UN? Don't make me laugh. They've talked "reform" of the UN almost as long as it's been in existence, without admitting the obvious: the UN is a relic of past realities, of a past war settlement from a time when 70% of the "the world" weren't even nation-states, but rather colonies or protectorates.

What' is Brazil's, or Germany's, or India's, or even Japan's record internationally anyway? When the rubber hits the road, as it were, what did they contribute? And what would make, say, an India which not only refuses to condemn outright invasion, but also seeks to personally profit from it, any more appealing than, say, China's own well-known global opportunism?

Let's face it: the UN "works"...except for all those times when it doesn't! lol. And as for creating any international new organization that can both supersede the UN while also diluting the power that those on the present Security Council now enjoy, deserving or not? lol. Good luck with that!

4 ( +9 / -5 )

People often say that China and Russia will veto any meaningful Security Council reform. Truly it is France and UK, declining powers, who will oppose change tooth and nail.

4 ( +8 / -4 )

There is a legal push under way to have russia removed from the security council as the don’t actually have a valid UN seat, they simply assumed that of the USSR instead of going through the correct approval procedure.

Other successor parts of countries have gone through the procedure when the the original state broke up as the USSR did. When Serbia sought to take over the seat of the old Yugoslavia it was refused and had to reapply along with the other states. When Czechoslovakia split the two successor states had to go through the process. russia has never done so after the break up of the USSR and therefore does not have any valid right under the UN charter to either a seat in the UN or on the Security Council.

Permanent membership was granted to the USSR, which no longer exists, not russia.

4 ( +9 / -5 )

@albaleo You are right. I just grabbed one of the first results from Google. It's unfortunate that the UN does not clearly state total contributions. It seems countries choose to support particular parts of the UN organization.

China has recently stepped up funding Peacekeeping, The World Food Programme and the UN Development Programme.

"As U.S. contributions declined, China stood out as one of the countries that boosted its commitments to the United Nations. In 2020, China paid 14 percent of the peacekeeping budget, making it the second-largest contributor behind the United States. Since 2013, China’s contributions to peacekeeping operations have increased almost threefold, and the country provides more personnel than any other UN Security Council permanent member. 

Beyond peacekeeping, China’s contributions to the United Nations have been largely concentrated in development agencies, specifically WFP, the UN Development Program, and the UN Peace and Development Trust Fund."  https://www.cfr.org/article/funding-united-nations-what-impact-do-us-contributions-have-un-agencies-and-programs

3 ( +4 / -1 )

The UN needs a complete redesign. No veto's in the Security council. No permanent members.

Great idea. What would also be great is if the world shared the financial burden of the UN equally. Any proposal that that doesn't address equity in funding are DOA.

https://www.un.org/en/ga/contributions/honourroll.shtml

The US pays almost 20% of the total UN budget. OVer US$1B/yr.

Germany, France, Japan all pay huge amounts.

In the last few years, China has tripled their UN funding. They are the 2nd largest contributor for UN peacekeeping (it is unclear how that breaks down under the total UN budget), but also provide large number of personnel, primarily in Development roles i.e. having Chinese people helping developing nations. Still in 2019, China was contributing less than 50% of what the US does. There couldn't be any ulterior motive in that, but it does seem to be part of the Chinese Belt-n-Road efforts.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Lots of empty seats.

2 ( +17 / -15 )

The UN is a good talking platform. NATO has teeth.

2 ( +12 / -10 )

The UN needs a complete redesign. No veto's in the Security council. No permanent members.

Simply those with veto powers can evade security council resolutions and actions for their own actions. Perhaps designed that way to ensure they never go to war with each other, it is a failure in stopping injustice when one of the five is responsible. There must be a mechanism that is able to hold accountable any nation, no matter how powerful, for their actions.

It will not happen in my lifetime, and many lives will be lost because of this inbuilt inability of the UN to deal with the worlds most powerful nations when they take military action against the weak, especially singular action in the invasion of another for permanent territorial expansion.

2 ( +9 / -7 )

It seems like tragicomedy that Japan, a former Axis nation, is now the second largest contributor to the United Nations, an international club dominated by the former Allied nations. It’s about time a new functioning organization took over the UN.

You are aware that the war ended (checks notes) 77 years ago, right?

And that things might have changed a wee bit in the interim, correct?

2 ( +10 / -8 )

Re-organizing the UN has been long overdue. Time to use "majority rule" procedure. The veto situation virtually means that anything Western countries propose (not always good) are automatically vetoed by Russia & China as a matter of course.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

UN contributions by Country:

Are those not figures for the UN peacekeeping budget?

The overall figures I've seen are these are these:

USA 22%, China 12.005%, Japan 8.564%, Germany 6.090%

(Not so different, I guess)

1 ( +2 / -1 )

There is no doubt that UN is a front for the U.S. in spite of itself. 

U.S. forces fought the Korean War under the name of U.N. Forces. The vestiges of that state of affairs remain in U.S. bases in Okinawa. Formally, Kadena Air Base, USMC Air Station Futenma and White Beach Naval Base in Okinawa are U.N. bases.

There is a lot of room for it to be reformed, structurally as well as ideologically. So, power to the shoulders of Fumio Kishida.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

No words needed. Empty seats tell everything.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Oh! Is Kashida still around? Great! OK! Well, maybe he might want to take a close look at his pole number at home to get the Gist of what his people think of him and his lack of influence domestically and internationally.

-1 ( +8 / -9 )

Job 1 Kishida…take care of JAPAN! Folks here have suffered since you sanctioned Russia!

LNG now must be imported from Australia! What about kerosene for the heaters we use during Winter. Japan is it’s own nation it’s not part of Biden’s America.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

The UN was created to defeat Germany and Japan in WW2.

It has been an obsolete, defunct org since the illegal US invasion of Iraq.

this war is just the last straw to crush its legitimacy.

Reform or not, the post war order has already collapsed.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

i have never heard that when USA have invaded

USA isn't the one invading other countries right now. Russia is.

Oh, is that so, then everything is ok, we will just wait for the next USA attack.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Though Japan isympathetic to the Ukraine cause, . . . . Japan's first priority should be to protect its own borders during times like these . . . .

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Kishida, sit back down

-3 ( +17 / -20 )

Koshida asking The World to do what Japan cannot.

-3 ( +5 / -8 )

Lots of empty seats.

LOL. Yep. The question is whether UN is worth being reformed

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Reform the UN. Guess his reason is, abuse of the UN by the 5 permanent members using their veto power, abuse. Perhaps, he should check the records of the 5 permanent members and their veto records. Ie, see who had used it, veto UN resolutions, most often. Or, his idea of reform is, perhaps, only have 1 permanent member? His friend from across the ocean?

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Japan is in no position to be lecturing other countries in how to behave.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Kishida accused the UN of 'all talk and no action ' for which he himself is the grand master.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

I guess so long as the UN doesn't ask Japan to reduce more of its business dealings with Russia despite their supposed "sanctions", which I think is still 90% of Japan's dealings before Ukraine? Or I guess when Japan's not hating on the UN for refusing to heed Japan's calls to stop talking about Nanjing or sex slaves?

Don't get me wrong, it's nice that Japan wants to use the world stage to ask other countries to do what it itself won't do, but if they truly want to look like a leader in the eyes of the world, why not start acting like one? Start by severing all ties instead of wanting to start new gas projects, for example.

-4 ( +17 / -21 )

Releasing frustration from failures (and low approval rating) on United Nations.

But Putin has yet to come to the podium for lamenting :)

Kishida, sit back down

Can he unseat a Russian ambassador as a permanent member at the UNSC? :)

This guy hasn’t been very assertive against Russia. ... Japan needs to step up now too.

Japan needs to reserve its own military as well as diplomatic resources in order to counter threats from neighboring rogue states.

-4 ( +3 / -7 )

It seems like tragicomedy that Japan, a former Axis nation, is now the second largest contributor to the United Nations, an international club dominated by the former Allied nations. It’s about time a new functioning organization took over the UN.

-4 ( +4 / -8 )

Releasing frustration from failures (and low approval rating) on United Nations.

-5 ( +17 / -22 )

Better reform Japan first Kishi!

-5 ( +5 / -10 )

The UN is a total joke. Time to defund it.

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

And what would make, say, an India which not only refuses to condemn outright invasion, but also seeks to personally profit from it, any more appealing than, say, China's own well-known global opportunism?

Nice that you mentioned India and China but left out the US, a morally upright nation with a vast military industrial complex which has never benefited from wars.

Oh wait ....

-7 ( +2 / -9 )

i have never heard that when USA have invaded Vietnam,Cambodia,Laos,Libya,Syria,Iraq,Afghanistan and list goes on....these days "reform" was not "not needed"...clown Powell did his "job" in UN...

-12 ( +18 / -30 )

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