UN General Assembly
1993

This will entail thinking through the role of the United Nations into the next century. What challenges will the 18 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session United Nations face in the next decade? What will be the role and priorities of a new Security Council under these conditions? What capabilities will it need? These difficult questions demand the most exhaustive possible examination. The General Assembly should consider the formation of a working group, representative of the whole membership, to consider them and formulate agreed objective criteria for the expansion of the Security Council, especially its permanent membership. To stimulate discussion, Singapore suggests the following: First, there should be a level playing field with regard to all present and future members of a possible expanded Security Council. Anachronistic references to "enemy States" in Articles 53, 77 and 107 of the Charter should be removed. It is time to set aside the baggage of the past. Suggestions that there could be or should be a different set of permanent members without the veto are also impractical.