(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 (KUNA) -- Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan said Monday that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is working on proposals to restructure the veto power held by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (UNSC).
This was due to what Hasan considered the deliberate obstruction of implementing resolutions related to the Gaza issue, despite their majority approval in the UN General Assembly.
During the parliamentary questioning session, Hasan said that Malaysia and ASEAN countries called for a comprehensive reform of the veto power held by the five permanent members of the Security Council: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the US.
The minister added that the veto is used even in cases where resolutions are adopted unanimously in the UN General Assembly, delaying their implementation and undermining international justice and that is what ASEAN are trying to fix now.
He explained that the success of the ASEAN-GCC summit in issuing a joint statement on Gaza for the first time is an achievement for Malaysian diplomacy, especially since ASEAN countries had previously struggled to agree on a unified statement on the Palestinian issue.
He noted that Malaysia also organized a joint conference with Japan and South Korea to discuss the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, noting that his country is now strengthening its cooperation with like-minded countries to continually express its position in international forums.
Malaysia will chair ASEAN, which comprises of ten countries, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar, starting January 1, 2025, under an annual rotation system among member states. (end)
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