By KUNA
Rome : Italy announced Thursday its opposition to French proposals to expand the permanent membership of the UN Security Council by adding to it Germany, Japan, India, Brazil and an African country.
Italy judged that being inconsistent with its proposals to reform the Council.
Spokesman of the Italian Foreign Ministry Pascuale Ferrara described – in a meeting with foreign reporters here – the proposals made by French President Nicolas Sarkozy two days ago regarding this issue as “do not seem feasible.” Ferrara said “these proposals to increase seats in the permanent membership of the Council to nine seats to include Germany, Japan, India, Brazil and and an African country would reverse the basic principles of reforming the structure of the UNSC adopted by Italy for years, which are based on standards of democracy, transparency and acceptance.” He explained that his country, by contrast, supports “reforms endorsed by a broad majority” in the General Assembly of the United Nations in this regard, recalling the recent diplomatic initiative in the United Nations which aims to mobilize considerable support for comprehensive reforms of the international organization.
The Italian official added that this initiative also seeks to avoid a clash between opposing ideas of reforms and said that this matter was not raised at the recent talks held by the French President with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi in Rome.