Properly balanced membership will warrant greater legitimacy to its decisions, hence greater authority of and respect for them worldwide. Savings from resolving even one single additional international conflict or crisis would justify the longest debate on the reform of the Security Council. It is regrettable that disagreement between the vast membership and very few but very influential states about the size of an enlarged Council has been one of the most difficult stumbling blocks in reform. These assumptions leave us one choice - we have to accomplish our work. We can not give in even when differences of the positions of member-states look insurmountable.
Time goes by, and positions can be modified enabling a single solution to emerge.
Mr. President, Lithuania's position has not changed, but we retain flexibility for a common goal. We have stated our views several times on all basic issues of the reform. The fundamental component of our position is a search for compromise which is achievable regarding all, even the most difficult ones. In the Working Group, Lithuania identified areas of achievable compromises, including enlargement of both cathegories of membership, size of the Security Council, review mechanism, regional rotation and other areas. Search for a golden middle has been facilitated by the Bureau of the Open-ended Working Group.