Contrary to a popular belief, it’s quite a possible to accomplish. Key players to exclude Russia from UN are China and USA.
China must abstain from veto and accept shared responsibility for facilitating international peace, making US-China condominium in managing world affairs a a real thing. Currently Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council with full veto power, is a rogue state without consequence.
The Vice-Chancellor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia, Märt Volmer, said yesterday that the question of excluding the Russian Federation from this body is not a prospect at the moment. “If it really comes to the point of putting this to a vote in the Security Council, then Russia will obviously block it. This is obviously one of the reasons why most countries do not think that this would be a very realistic course of action ” That is, the Vice-chancellor believes that the main problem is Russia’s blocking of this issue.
However, there is another way forward based on principles and the common will of the international community. This involves expelling the Russian Federation from the UN through the General Assembly, which can be done under Art. 18, #2. Obviously, if a country loses its status as a UN member, it also loses its seat on the Security Council.
To accomplish this, first, a resolution proposing Russia’s expulsion/suspension needs to go to the General Assembly from the Security Council. Second, the General Assembly must vote by a two-thirds +1 supermajority in favor of expulsion.
China is the only country in the Security Council that might veto sending a vote on expelling Russia to the General Assembly. If we want Russia to be appropriately punished, China must be offered a deal: Make Beijing’s abstention in the Security Council the first test of President Xi’s proposal for a US-China condominium in managing world affairs.
China must accept shared responsibility for facilitating international peace. To refuse would be to embrace Russian aggression and present China tying itself to an unstable and declining actor on the world stage.
The expulsion of Russia would make the Security Council an effective body able to adopt much-needed decisions aimed at preserving global stability and security today.
