Coronavirus: UN Security Council expected to reach resolution

The council has conferred only once during the pandemic, which has caused more than 200,000 deaths worldwide

Members of the UN Security Council are unlikely to restore full sanctions on Iran, diplomats say. AFP

After more than a month of controversy, a UN Security Council buffeted between the US, China and Russia is expected this week to adopt its first resolution on the coronavirus pandemic, amid calls for intensified international co-operation.

A hopeless task? A wake-up call for multilateralist forces crushed by resurging nationalism? Or perhaps a first step towards a geopolitical reorganisation and the recasting of an international body founded in 1945 with the express mission of preventing and containing global crises?

Diplomats and experts surveyed by AFP were less than optimistic.

Gandhi once said that being late can itself be an "act of violence", one ambassador recalled, expressing impatience with the council for its silence in the face of the worst global crisis since the Second World War.

The council has conferred only once on the pandemic and that was in a videoconference held on April 9 at the initiative of Germany and Estonia.

The current resolution, jointly proposed by Tunisia and France, calls for "enhanced co-ordination among all countries", a "cessation of hostilities" and a "humanitarian pause" in countries in conflict.

The resolution aims to support the efforts of Secretary General Antonio Guterres and several UN agencies struggling to contain the devastating political, economic and social consequences of the virus.

The text is partly "a face-saving device that allows the Security Council to claim that it has not been entirely inactive", said Richard Gowan, UN director of the International Crisis Group, a centre for analysis.

"But it does have some substantive benefits, too."

Might the benefits of a resolution binding all UN members be seen in crisis zones in Syria, Yemen or elsewhere in the Middle East? In Afghanistan, Colombia or Africa?

"A global ceasefire is very laudable, but the challenge is how you translate that into actions in individual country context," another ambassador said.

The French-Tunisian text merges two proposals negotiated in parallel over several weeks, one under Tunis's leadership among the 10 non-permanent members of the Security Council (the "E10") and the other by France among the five permanent members (the "P5").

But while the two texts share the goal of improved co-operation and support for widespread ceasefires, neither achieved complete unity in its council bloc, diplomats said.

The joint text is likely to undergo several amendments before being put to a vote.

But several diplomats described it as "decisive" and insisted it would be voted on this week.

A principal obstacle to unity remains how the text, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, will ultimately refer to the World Health Organisation.

The WHO's role in dealing with the pandemic has been vilified by US President Donald Trump, who complained the agency was been transparent about the coronavirus and suspended US funding.

China responded by offering additional funding.

Russia, in talks early this month, wanted to insert language calling for an end to protectionism and trade wars and a lifting of unilateral sanctions.

One diplomat said only a high-level video arbitration between P5 members, or possibly even consultation involving national leaders, could resolve such thorny disputes.

Yet might the permanent members take advantage of this virtual get-together to design a new post-pandemic world order – even placing the UN on a new path?

For one ambassador, such an initiative should be led by Mr Guterres, standing above the melee and able to help sketch out a "war-fighting plan".

"Never have the world's seven and a half billion humans felt more strongly such an urgent need for global policy," said Bertrand Badie, a professor at the Paris Institute of Political Studies.

"At the same time, nationalism has never been as active in the world."

What remains to be seen is how those two countervailing forces sort themselves out, he said.