UN General Assembly
1999

member of the Security Council. I would like briefly to share some thoughts with the Assembly. The responsibility of the Security Council in the maintenance of peace cannot be irreplaceable, and its authority must be strengthened. The Council must work in cooperation with other bodies of the United Nations system and with regional organizations in order to carry out its tasks effectively. We have a responsibility towards the men and women who make up the Blue Helmets, as well as towards those who perform humanitarian work in conflict situations. It is our obligation to protect them. We call upon countries to ratify the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel. Concerning the reform of the Security Council, Argentina supports the creation of a system of non- discriminatory, open rotation. It would be unfair and unrealistic, at the beginning of a new millennium, to multiply the privileges and discriminatory practices that came about only as a result of war in 1945. Therefore, no new categories of membership should be introduced in