PRESS CONFERENCE SPONSORED BY PERMANENT MISSION OF ITALY

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE SPONSORED BY PERMANENT MISSION OF ITALY

At a Headquarters press conference sponsored today by the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations, representatives of the New York-based National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (NECO), the Coalition of Italo- Americans, and the Conference of Presidents of major Italian-American organizations called the attention of their fellow Americans and their elected representatives to what they called the United States Administration's prejudicial plan to expand the Security Council. Their message was relayed by the President of the Conference of Presidents, Martin Picillo, who was joined in addressing the conference by two former American ambassadors to Italy, Peter Secchia and Maxwell Raab.

Continuing, Mr. Picillo said the Administration's plan did nothing to strengthen the interests of the United States or the United Nations, but snubbed one of the country's most valuable allies, Italy, and, in the process, Italian-Americans.

The organizations he spoke for were, therefore, launching a grass-roots, nationwide campaign aimed at the Administration of President William Clinton and at Congress to reject the State Department's plan to expand the Council in a manner that would discriminate against Italy. For four years, the Department had been pushing obsessively to add Germany and Japan as permanent members of the Council, creating a deadlock in efforts to reform that United Nations organ.

In the process, he said, the State Department was excluding Italy and other nations that had made real contributions in maintaining international peace and security. "We do not believe that the American people share the State Department's obsession with giving Japan and Germany permanent seats on the Council", he said. "Whatever it is that ails the Security Council, it isn't the occasional absence of Germany and Japan. Whatever ails the Security Council, adding them as permanent members, we do not believe, will fix it."

The State Department's plan, he said, was a "slap in the face of Italy", the world's fifth economic power, which would become, in four months, the United Nations fifth largest contributor, ahead of the United Kingdom, the Russian Federation and China. Italy had been far more active in international affairs than either Tokyo or Berlin. It had participated in the Organization's operations in Somalia, in multinational coalition in the Persian Gulf war, joined a United States Marines-led operation in Lebanon in 1983, and assembled a multinational peacekeeping force that stabilized Albania. It had mediated the peace talks in Mozambique and led the peacekeeping mission that helped end the civil war there. "Any credible plan to strengthen the Security Council would go out of its way to involve a leading country with this kind of record of active participation", he argued.

"Instead, the State Department demands permanent seats for two countries that scarcely participate in risky peace operations at all and includes no sound basis to exclude one that has been a leader in such operations and a proven ally."

As a price for the inclusion of those two nations, he said, the State Department would reserve special rotating seats for a handful of countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America, with some of them even promoted for permanent seats. "Yet, all of these countries contribute far less than Italy does, in terms of peacekeeping operations, in terms of finances, in terms of troops and in terms of logistics", he said. "The approach of the State Department bureaucracy is short-sighted and discriminatory: We are especially concerned that the plan lumps Italy with the tiniest mini-States in a fourth- rate category. Can a classless America push for a United Nations divided into classes?"

"It is foolish to lock in permanent seats for two non-performing countries", he emphasized.

He reiterated that the Italian-American organizations were launching a nation-wide drive to convince the United States President and Congress to reject any United Nations Charter amendment that excluded Italy from a meaningful role in new Security Council arrangements. United States-elected officials should resist the State Department's vision of a "Washington-Berlin- Tokyo axis". Since Italians contributed too much to be marginalized, the United States' 22 million Italian-Americans would not stand for it.

Mr. Secchia, United States Ambassador to Italy from 1989 to 1993, said he had declared his strong disagreement with President Clinton's policy, which would help only Germany and Japan. The policy was especially harmful to the United States and would relegate a valuable ally to second-class status. "The Italians do not like it because it would not be fair to Italy", he said, adding, "I do not like it because, in my judgement, it is not good for the United States."

The motives for the United States' promotion of Germany and Japan, he argued, was to cut a better deal on United Nations financing. "Japan and Germany may be capable of funding the United Nations, but let's more accurately measure world leadership by a country's willingness to involve itself in global affairs."

Japan was not engaged globally, by any stretch of the imagination, he said, adding that "they spend dollars, but they are not committed to solving world problems". Japan had not overcome its inhibitions about sending troops abroad and was slashing its overseas aid. Germany, for its part, had only recently begun to send troops abroad on peacekeeping operations. Both of them had done much less in that area than Italy. They should pay more to the United Nations but without permanent seats in the Council.

Italy Press Conference - 3 - 16 September 1997

Mr. Secchia said that, should the United States' plan succeed, three of the proposed 10 permanent Council members would be from the European Union. And the United States would face a difficult situation if the Union members coordinated their policies without consulting it. After all, he said, the European Union charter called for a "common foreign and security policy". If Council membership grew to 21, the Organization might have five European Union States with a common policy. That would create a situation in which the Council would no longer meet collegially to develop a common purpose, since 21 members would make it harder to do so. "The Italian position that the five permanent members remain as they are makes sense to me", he said. "The proposal to rotate major donors makes more sense than the United States proposal."

Mr. Raab, former United States Ambassador to Italy, who had served as Secretary of the Cabinet of the late President Dwight Eisenhower, said Italy was one of the greatest friends of the United States and the rebuff it was receiving was unacceptable. The United States public should be informed that their Administration was on the verge of creating one of the greatest disasters in international relations: "A debasing, a pushing down of one of our truest, greatest friends, Italy, that has always been by our side."

While everything should be done to help Italy, he warned that it would not be helpful to criticize Germany and Japan. If they were promoted, Italy should be ahead of them. He recalled that Italy had accepted United States cruise missiles and war planes after other European nations had balked. Its gesture had helped bankrupt the former Soviet Union. Everyone should move quickly and loudly to accomplish their common end.

In a subsequent question-and-answer session, Mr. Raab was asked whether Italy might review its military links with the United States if the latter did not support its campaign to become a permanent Security Council member. In response, he said that former United States President Ronald Reagan had once supported Italy's inclusion in the top ranks of international decision-making mechanisms.

Asked what other weapons would be used to press Italy's case apart from the nation-wide campaign, Mr. Picillo said that, as Italian-Americans, his supporters were concerned that the United States Administration's view of Italy might also reflect its perception of the contributions of Italian- Americans. "And, we are here because we basically feel this plan [to promote Germany and Japan] is discriminatory", he said.

To that, Mr. Raab added: "If we get the United States behind us on this, we have won this fight."

In response to a question as to whether, in acting as Italian-Americans, their initiative was totally independent of the Italian Government or Mission

Italy Press Conference - 4 - 16 September 1997

to the United Nations, Mr. Picillo said: "We are totally independent." As Italian-Americans, they were aware that the United States Government always considered the domestic ethnic consequences of its international actions.

Asked whether they had tried to get the views of the United States Mission on their action, he said it had said nothing to his group, adding that they had not tried to contact the Mission recently, either. However, their past petitions to the Administration had not been answered. "Usually, the wheel that squeaks gets the oil, so we are going to start to squeak", he said.

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