Italy took the floor today at the General Assembly meeting, when for the first time since the birth of the United Nations in 1945, two Security Council’s members with veto power had to account to the wider UN membership for casting a veto vote.
The unprecedented meeting was convened on the basis of the new Resolution 262 of April 26, which establishes an automatic and permanent mechanism to call for debate at the General Assembly when veto power is exercised in the Council (an initiative, it should be remembered, resulting from the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, which highlighted how the use of the veto by a member – in that case Russia – prevents the Council from fulfilling its peacekeeping role).
China and Russia today had to explain to the remaining 191 UN member states why on May 26 they vetoed the resolution, thus preventing its adoption, which aimed to strengthen sanctions on the North Korean regime. This resolution had been devised to respond to over 20 missile launches carried out by Pyongyang since the beginning of the year – more than in the last ten years combined – in violation of all the resolutions adopted by the Council.
In his speech on behalf of Italy, the Permanent Representative of Italy to the UN Maurizio Massari appealed “to all UN Member States to join Italy in an unequivocal condemnation of North Korea’s behavior, reaffirming its obligations to abandon programs for the development of weapons of mass destruction and urging Pyongyang to respect the safeguards of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and of the IAEA”.
“We are very disappointed – continued the Ambassador – that the Security Council was unable, due to the opposition of two of its permanent members, to react promptly to the threats posed by the DPRK”.
