Annalena Baerbock says Berlin does not support Kiev’s call to strip Russia of its veto power
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. © Kay Nietfeld/picture alliance via Getty Images
Germany does not agree with Ukrainian proposals to reform the UN Security Council, which include stripping Russia of its veto power, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has said.
Addressing the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky called for the creation of a mechanism that would allow Russia’s veto power at the UN Security Council to be circumvented.
Baerbock told Germany’s ARD TV channel later the same day that “we don’t support this, and I have made it clear to my Ukrainian partners time and again.”
The diplomat noted that while Berlin sympathizes with the Ukrainian people, “it is not that we support everything that comes out of Ukraine from the government.”
The minister was similarly skeptical of Zelensky’s proposal to grant Germany permanent member status of the Security Council. She claimed that “you can’t say: ‘Okay, we are just changing the Security Council now’, that would be a little naive.”
In his speech on Wednesday, Zelensky accused Russia of violating international law and of launching “criminal and unprovoked aggression” against Ukrainian territory and resources.
The Ukrainian leader further called for reforms that would allow the 193 members of the General Assembly to suspend or strip the veto power of one of the five permanent Security Council members, which are the US, the UK, France, Russia, and China.
Discussing the prospect of peace in his country, Zelensky insisted it could only be achieved if Moscow fully withdrew its troops from territory based on Ukraine’s 1991 borders.
Also speaking at the UN General Assembly, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the West of failing to address the “root causes” of the Ukraine conflict, adding that Kiev’s backers appear to lack any “arguments for an honest dialogue” with Moscow.
The Russian diplomat described the Ukrainian government as a “blatantly Nazi regime.” He noted that Kiev had effectively stonewalled peace negotiations, with Zelensky signing a decree last October prohibiting talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
