UN reforms must serve national interests of member states - Dr. Dhanapala

Rashomi Silva

COLOMBO: The challenge of any Secretary General to the United Nations, is to find converging interests between the United States and the world community in general, Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala, Sri Lanka's candidate for the UN's top post, said yesterday. Fielding answers of journalists shortly after launching his Website Dr. Dhanapala explained that proposed reforms to the world body should be objective and must serve the national interests of all its 191 member states.

While stressing that US cooperation was vital for the UN 's survival he said: "The UN is not there to protect and promote interests of one powerful nation in particular but has to balance the interests and act rationally in a manner that would be most profitable to most of us, the member countries".

"It is not rational to think that the UN could survive without US support, the UN without the US would be a much weaker body " he said and explained the failure of League of Nation, the brainchild of one time US President Woodrow Wilson was mainly due to the non participation of the US.

The US senate did not approve the US being a part of the League of Nations and ultimately spelled the failure of the world body, he explained.

Just as the UN needs the assistance of the US, he said the US too needs the support of the UN. "Today every aspect of international relations had taken a multilateral character and therefore it is difficult for any nation to live alone," he said.

Dr. Dhanapala, one of the only two Asian candidates who had their Government's support said it was as far back as 1995 when his candidature for the UN top post was talked about. "But it was Africa's term to be the Secretary General and we decided to respect the rotational scheme," he said.

Dhanapala who first talked about the need for UN reform, said it was vital to reform the world body but one should be sure not to throw away the baby with the bath water,"

Referring to the proposed expansion of the Security Council he said the Council need to be expanded to suit the needs of the 191 member states. But while doing so he said it is vital to respect the principle of equilibrium.

Asked about the UN's position of the Sri Lankan conflict he said unless a request was made from the Sri Lankan government the UN would not intervene. "The UN would respect the sovereignty of Sri Lanka.