UNITED NATIONS—China and Russia are among the countries who have not yet signed onto a U.S.-drafted declaration of U.N. reform—foreshadowing a potential stalemate in the bloated international body over the Trump administration’s push for wide-ranging reform.
President Trump will lead a meeting on reform at the U.N. on Monday, and the U.S. Mission has been circulating a draft declaration on reform in support of Secretary-General António Guterres’ own push for reform since Guterres took the U.N.’s top job in January
The list of names of countries signed on to deal, seen by Breitbart News, shows that as of late Saturday, 120 countries have signed onto the deal, coming from top U.S. allies such as Japan and the U.K. as well as countries such as Yemen and Tonga.
Haley announced Friday that they had secured 120 countries, calling the number “miraculous.”
“We basically have the president headlining a U.N. reform effort which would really support the Secretary-General but the really impressive part is that asked other countries to sign on to their support of reform and 120 countries have signed on and will be in attendance,” she said at the White House press briefing. “That’s a miraculous number.”
The declaration is a broad series of goals as opposed to an indepth policy proposal. It has already come under fire from former U.S. Ambassador John Bolton.
“The draft declaration is just the usual rhetoric. It could have been issued five years ago, or 50 years ago,” Bolton told Fox News. He added that it “reads like it was drafted by the U.N. Secretariat.”
While many of the goals of the document are in line with the administration’s, calling for greater transparency, oversight and the reduction of overlaps, the draft includes recognition for the U.N. to give a “platform for partnership to enable global sustainable development”—a reference to the U.N.’s wide-ranging blueprint to reduce poverty and that that includes a central pillar of fighting climate change.
Yet even that broad proposal has not yet secured the support of Russia and China, according to the list seen by Breitbart News, while Brazil and France have also not yet signed their name to the proposal—although it is believed that France may still sign the document.
Russia and China have no veto at the General Assembly, but the opposition of two of the most powerful players at the U.N. to even the most basic of reform documents could foreshadow a tough fight for the U.S. to get the vested interests at the international body to reform down the road.
The Russian and Chinese missions did not return requests for comment. A spokesman for the U.S. Mission said that it was waiting for the Monday event to announced who had signed on.
The draft declaration, first reported on by Fox News, commits to “strengthening partnership and trust between and among Member States and the Secretariat to support reform efforts for a more effective and efficient organization.”
It also encourages “stronger collaboration across the United Nations system for improved mandate delivery” and asks Guterres to “pursue impactful and field-centric management reforms.”
The reform meeting will take place Monday morning, where it will be clear if the U.S. has managed to add more names to the declaration. Trump will address the General Assembly on Tuesday, where he is expected to make reform one of the main topics of his address.
Adam Shaw is a Breitbart News politics reporter based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY
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