Brussels, 01/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - Toni Borg, Foreign Minister of Malta, the country which will host the second “summit” of the countries of the Western Mediterranean in Valetta on 5 October, believes that it is the duty of the countries of the region to succeed in affirming their common commitment. He describes the summit of this group of countries, known as the “5+5”, as providing the opportunity to offer a concrete response to the challenges of the wave of democratic reforms underway throughout the region. “We cannot fail” in this challenge, “we owe it to our people”, he told the UN General Assembly in New York. Borg believes that the "5+5" dialogue is the right framework to initiate this response to the aspirations of the people of the region.
His German counterpart, Guido Westerwelle, also stressed before the same meeting the risk of not facing up to the upheaval in the region. The escalating violence in the Middle East could plunge the entire region into insecurity, said the minister. On the role of the UN, he flagged up the risk of “weakening the Security Council if we do not manage to adapt it to today's world”. The German foreign minister believes that “it cannot be that Latin America and Africa do not have permanent seats on the Security Council, or that Asia has only one seat”, he said. This does not reflect the realities of the world today, and more specifically does not reflect the realities of the world of tomorrow. The challenges are too large for us to simply accept the status quo. (FB/transl.fl).