Russia Slips into the Soviet Seat

...That they could cut this back-road deal without any serious objection shows to what extent the permanent members have developed a smooth working relationship...

...Asked to comment on the unfolding relationship between Russia and the other republics, he responded, "We are just observing...

...secondly, it has made possible the mass migration to Israel.' "Are you troubled by the rise in anti-Semitism in the republics...

...But in terms of politique, you have the norms of international law that allow recognition of a sovereign country...

...But the change came," Ambassador Ayewah said, his tone hardening, "when the General Assembly had completed its work...

...It is untenable, in 1992, to maintain that the current Council is indeed democratic and fully representative of the UN's present 166 countries...

...For the foreseeable future, knowledgeable Turtle Bay observers say, Russia can be expected to maintain the relatively low-key, cooperative posture assumed by Gorbachev before his ouster...

...Its Ambassador, Samir S. Shihabi, is president of the General Assembly until next September...

...As for the UN," Ambassador Fortier added, Canada is monitoring "what impact the demise of the Union may have on the situation here and the behavior of Russia's diplomats toward the UN agenda...

...No longer possessing the voice of a superpower in the waning stages of the USSR, Vorontsov had already been virtually seconding the West's stand on almost everything from the Gulf War and sanctions against Iraq to the speedy admission—on the General Assembly's opening day last September 17—of the newly liberated states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia as full UN members...

...They don't want the Japanese and Germans and Nigerians banging on the door...

...But they still have nuclear muscle, and a big army, close to our region...

...It did not really address the question...

...The perception shared by the Arabs is that while they no longer have the power to change events in the Middle East, we have to wait and see about their attitude in the UN...

...That is the way I see it...

...It was a political act to accord his letter the status of a legal instrument...

...The unprecedented maneuver was set in motion when Yeltsin sent a letter to the UN last December 24 stating that Russia would occupy the USSR's Council seat—even as he was taking over Soviet President MikhailS...

...Yeltsin wasn't in position to demand anything...

...The trim, 36-year-old second-in-command, a business administration graduate of King Abdul Aziz University, continued: "We don't know what will happen in the future...

...The 49-year-old diplomat, an organizer of the Solidarity trade union and former Fulbright scholar, explained: "They are experiencing a very painful and difficult transition into the democratic system and market economy...

...All of that contributed to what has been widely viewed as a revitalization of the World Organization...

...Actually, China remained somewhat aloof from the other members on the issue, but it stopped short of being obstructive...

...Some states want to abolish the Council's veto power...

...Will there be 12 votes in the Assembly for all the republics, instead of the present three—Russia, Ukraine and Belarus...

...Any enlargement of the Council would require a UN Charter amendment backed by all five permanent members, who oppose considering a change because they fear what it may lead to...

...Of course, the position of the post-Communist countries has changed drastically," Ambassador Mroziewicz continued...

...The Council is based on the 1945 arrangements...

...If it ain't broke, don't fix it, is the mood...

...Permitting Russia to take the seat removed any possibility for debate...

...They wiped out our culture in the Soviet Union, burned our holy books, destroyed our mosques in nine of the republics where we have 70 million Muslims...

...We can urge them, push them, shame them...

...Well, they are welcome if the Charter gives them admission...

...A cautionary approach to the Commonwealth is reflected by the Saudi Arabian Mission, too...

...The situation in the former Soviet Union is fluid...

...A dramatic example was the voting on Resolution 3379, which the Soviet Union promoted 16 years ago along with the other Socialist countries and the Arab nations...

...They invaded Afghanistan, and destroyed our Muslim culture there...

...In the Indonesian Lounge, outside the General Assembly auditorium, Ambassador L. Yves Fortier of Canada, who serves as well on the Court of Arbitration at The Hague, noted that his country is "just keeping a watch" on the transformations of the old Union...

...But with the UN becoming more respected, many anticipate that he will seek to further strengthen his role by taking full advantage of Article 99 of the Charter, authorizing him to "bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which...

...The move, engineered by Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin, was quietly encouraged by Washington and accepted by the other permanent members—in an international organization that now numbers 166 states...

...The hope is that they will not result in upheavals and conflicts inside the new Commonwealth," said the tall, elegant career diplomat...

...As one high-ranking source put it privately: "The judgment of the permanent members is that this is not the time to redefine the Security Council...

...Asher Naim, Israel's representative on the UN's Third Committee (social, humanitarian and cultural matters)—and a former Ambassador to Ethiopia, where he organized the Jewish exodus—told me: "The collapse of Communism has benefited us because it has dissipated the Kremlin's solid pro-Arab support...

...Our concern is about the stability of the Southern republics that are largely Muslim...

...But we had our differences with them during the Communist regime...

...What would you suggest...

...Indeed, he quickly had Gorbachev's Deputy Foreign Minister and UN Ambassador, Yuli M. Vorontsov, reaccredited to represent the Russian Federation...

...Gertrude Samuels reports regularly on the United Nations for this magazine...

...Within 24 hours of its declarationof independence, my government chose to recognize Ukraine and arranged for the exchange of diplomatic personnel...

...and large developing countries such as Nigeria, India and Brazil feel they are no less deserving...

...In the mission's 56th-floor offices on Lexington Avenue, I spoke with First Secretary Mustafa M. H. Kawthar...

...The swift diplomatic action, approved by the shaky Commonwealth's 10 other independent republics, came after the General Assembly had finished its work in its 46th annual meeting here and dispersed...

...From the day the World Organization came into existence on October 24, 1945, the permanent members of the Council, each possessing veto power over matters affecting international peace, had remained the five World War II allies: the United States, Great Britain, France, China, and the Soviet Union...

...inherited"?the USSR's seat in the 15-nation Security Council...

...It also came at the very time pressure was building to enlarge the Security Council to reflect the changing character of the UN's membership...

...We can fight anti-Semitism within the framework of the republics," Naim answered...

...Ambassador Isaac E. Ayewah, a bespectacled 47-year-old diplomat who speaks in brisk, British-accented English, told me: "My country [Africa's largest] has not taken a position yet on whether or not to recognize all the republics of the Commonwealth...

...They point out that given Yeltsin's serious domestic problems, he is hardly likely to try to throw his weight around on the international stage...

...The other republics are "independent states with their own foreign policies, though perhaps coordinated in accordance with the agreement drawn up in Alma Ata on December 8,1991.' The 35-year-old former law professor at Charles University, who joined the mission last August, conceded that there was reason enough for Russia, with its nuclear arsenal, to have the Council seat...

...It is just beginning to work...

...With the overthrow of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and its ruling Communist Party following the failed August coup in Moscow, Russia, the largest republic (today called the Russian Federation), has without debate or a vote simply taken over...

...In the closing weeks of the Assembly session, the USSR supported the election of Boutros Ghali of Egypt as the UN's new Secretary General, although initially it had been pressing for retaining Javier Perez de Cuellar in the post after his second five-year term expired on December 31...

...A Palestinian, he absented himself—some say shamefully—from the debate and vote on repealing Resolution 3379...

...The Israelis are, for the most part, upbeat about the power plays thus far involving the new Commonwealth...

...Similarly, it reversed itself, deserted the Arab bloc, and voted with the Assembly majority, led by the U.S., to revoke the 1975 Resolution 3379 equating Zionism with racism...

...UN membership when this structure was adopted stood at 51 countries...

...Although not disapproving, Ambassador Robert Mroziewicz of Poland, chairman of the UN's First Committee (concerned with disarmament and related security matters), worries about "some pessimistic connotations" in the power plays inside the new Commonwealth...

...MIXED REACTION AT THE UN Russia Slips into the Soviet Seat BY GERTRUDE SAMUELS United Nations The emergence of the new Commonwealth of Independent States, replacing the old Soviet Union, is having a strange and uncharted impact on the United Nations, especially on the all-powerful Security Council...

...The impression is that Russia is a successor to the Soviet Union, and that commitments entered into by the former Union will now be binding on Russia...

...We are aware some 11 republics have agreed to form a commonwealth, but the position of Nigeria and many governments is to wait and see how that group of republics evolves...

...It's a question of fairness in the new world order," he insisted...

...This fait accompli precludes any possibility in the immediate future of reexamining the structure of the Council...

...So one might reasonably assume that since the seamless transfer of the Soviet Union's Council seat to the Russian Federation appears to preserve the momentum gained during the past few years, it has generally been greeted with approval...

...Gorbachev's office in the Kremlin and hauling down the red hammer-and-sickle flag...

...There is no way for the UN not to recognize the weight and importance of such a big country.'' At the Nigerian Mission on Manhattan's Third Avenue, with its striking red-carpeted corridors and huge conference room, one encounters a very different view...

...Peter Tomka, assigned to the UN's Sixth Committee (legal affairs), stressed that while Moscow has taken over the Security Council seat, "Russia only represents Russia...

...At the UN, there is cooperation now, especially with Europe and the United States...

...Russia is a republic of 150 million people and will be a nuclear power...

...Also, the president of the Council for December was the Soviet Ambassador, Vorontsov, and Russia then had him stay on as its representative...

...At the time, very few developing countries were members of the United Nations...

...He had no legal standing at the UN...

...Japan and Germany have been pressing for permanent seats as world powers...

...We will work toward equal representation in the Council...

...may threaten" international peace...

...No one knows how the new Secretary General, himself from a developing country, feels about Russia occupying the Soviet Council seat...

...There are a million citizens of Ukrainian extraction in Canada—that's the cynical view...

...And since Russia is firmly ensconced there, at least for the time being, the Council's ability to respond seems assured—whatever the rumblings about enlarging its permanent membership...

...Yet a random sampling shows some diplomats reacting with mixed emotions and others with a tinge of bitterness...

...In effect, the Security Council was presented with a fait accompli...

...So far I've seen no change...

...The 69-year-old Ghali has been too busy touring offices at headquarters and dealing with such crises as the disintegration of Yugoslavia to grant interviews or hold general press conferences...

...But I'm not sure," Tomka said, "whether the people who created the Commonwealth have a clear idea of the institutions and mechanisms for fulfilling the objectives of their agreement...

...At the Czechoslovak Mission on upper Madison Avenue, Dr...

...Although theoretically the republics are equal, he observed wryly: "Some are more equal than others...

...Why the haste...

...Whether they will be more flexible in comparison with the old Soviet Union depends largely on the future development of Russia, and its role in the UN...

...Accommodating Russia into the UN without changing the Charter," he concluded, "is the best solution...