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U.N. to Be Reorganized in the Asian Style
The U.N. General Assembly approved past Friday South Korea's Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon as the next U.N. secretary-general. Ban Ki-moon will replace outgoing Secretary General Kofi Annan on January 1, 2007 to hold the office till at least December 31, 2011.
Always led by the Security Council, the U.N. General Assembly didn’t vote on the new secretary general Friday. Instead, the diplomats gave the go-ahead by mere acclamation, confining to general approval and traditional applause.
As usual in the U.N., the candidacy of South Korean foreign minister Ban Ki-moon is rather a matter of compromise, this time between the United States and China, for which South Korea is a serious competitor on regional level. But in global terms, China naturally prefers Ban to Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga or Poland’s President Alexander Kwasniewski.
In other words, China should be quite satisfied with Ban’s victory over six rivals in nomination to succeed Kofi Annan of Ghana. Just as the United States, by the way, for no anti-American sentiments could be blamed on this minister of South Korea.
Moreover, South Korea is a strategic military ally of the United States, and Ban seems never tied to reiterate that this state is the key player worldwide and the most vital member of the U.N.
Indeed, Ban’s ties with the United States are long and solid. He studied in Harvard and served in the South Korean embassy in Washington and in his country’s U.N. mission in New York.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 16, 2006
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