Australia supports the repeal of Russiaʼs veto at the UN

Australia supported President Volodymyr Zelenskyiʼs proposal to deny Russia the right of veto in the UN Security Council and called for further reforms in the organization.

Bloomberg writes about it.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a speech before the UN General Assembly that Russia "makes a mockery of the UN every day by continuing its illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine."

Australia will receive a seat on the Security Council for 2029-2030.

The UN Security Council is a UN body responsible for maintaining international peace and security and has the right to make decisions binding on all members of the organization. Permanent members of the Security Council are China, the Russian Federation, the United States, Great Britain and France, and ten non-permanent members are elected for a two-year term. Ukraine was last elected in 2016-2017. Permanent members have veto power, that is, they can block any decision, even if everyone else supports it.

• On September 20, Zelensky spoke at the UN Security Council with a proposal to reform the organization and cancel the right of veto, which is used by Russia, a permanent member of the Security Council.
• In January 2023, Ukraine initiated a process aimed at excluding Russia from the Security Council and the UN in general because it was "taking" the USSRʼs place there.
• Russia always blocks resolutions regarding aggression against Ukraine, so the Ukrainian side asks to exclude Russia from the UN Security Council. In September 2022, the head of the European Council called for Russia to be stripped of its membership, and the United States supported the idea of reforming the work of the Security Council — they propose to change the rules for applying the right of veto, as well as its composition.
• On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale attack on Ukraine during the UN meeting. For more than a year and a half of the great war, the members of the Security Council did not exclude Russia from the organization, did not deprive it of the possibility of presiding and the right of veto. According to the Vice-Chancellor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia, Myrta Vollmer, most of the member states of the UN Security Council do not share Ukraineʼs desire to exclude Russia from this body.