Saturday, August 27, 2005
2005 World Summit
The meeting next month of the United Nations, 2005 World Summit may not be amicable. Discussions will centre on whether the post WW2 world order should be fundamentally changed, in effect.
Today's FT reports:
"[The US ambassador] sat down yesterday with his UN colleagues to haggle over hundreds of US amendments. They mostly focus on measures and institutions the US has consistently opposed elsewhere, such as the International Criminal Court and the nuclear test ban treaty which the US has either refused or failed to ratify. The US is also opposed to the pledge for rich countries to spend 0.7 per cent of their national wealth on aid; most Americans believe US aid is far higher than this, and the Bush administration does not want to remind them it is actually far lower.
"In the same vein the US apparently wants to delete reference to the UN's Millennium Development Goals set in 2000, when the original aim of next month's summit was to review progress towards them. Astonishingly, given the loud US allegations of recent genocide in Darfur, Washington is fretting at language that would urge permanent Security Council members not to use their vetoes to block action to halt genocide and other war crimes. On this, however, China is as opposed as the US."
Today's FT reports:
"[The US ambassador] sat down yesterday with his UN colleagues to haggle over hundreds of US amendments. They mostly focus on measures and institutions the US has consistently opposed elsewhere, such as the International Criminal Court and the nuclear test ban treaty which the US has either refused or failed to ratify. The US is also opposed to the pledge for rich countries to spend 0.7 per cent of their national wealth on aid; most Americans believe US aid is far higher than this, and the Bush administration does not want to remind them it is actually far lower.
"In the same vein the US apparently wants to delete reference to the UN's Millennium Development Goals set in 2000, when the original aim of next month's summit was to review progress towards them. Astonishingly, given the loud US allegations of recent genocide in Darfur, Washington is fretting at language that would urge permanent Security Council members not to use their vetoes to block action to halt genocide and other war crimes. On this, however, China is as opposed as the US."
# posted by IJ @ 10:22 AM 
