NewsWhore
10-27-2006, 03:50 PM
During a meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday, President Leonel Fernandez said that the United States has decided to aid the Dominican Republic by providing the country with radar equipment and other tools, to be placed on the border with Haiti, aimed at fighting drug, arms and human trafficking. Listin Diario reports that the meeting between the two lasted for about 45 minutes and the Dominican Republic's possible candidacy for the UN Security Council was discussed. The President said that he would consider the Venezuelan government's suggestion that the Dominican Republic could be put forward a candidate for a seat on the United Nation's Security Council, commenting that the United States would not oppose this move. However, the US is likely to continue supporting Guatemala because it could still win the vote, according to State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, as reported by Clave Digital. Fernandez explained that Washington could not publicly support the DR because neither of the two original aspirants had withdrawn from the race.
The winner of the seat on the UNSC will represent the region at the United Nations, but some suggest that the benefits of the position go beyond this. A country may use the UN Security Council to settle disputes in their favor. For example Guatemala has an ongoing border dispute with Belize, as has Venezuela with neighboring Guyana. Some believe that both nations could use their position on the Council to find favorable resolutions to their problem. Also, according to a report by JT Nguyen, writing for the Global Policy Forum, the benefits for a developing nation can be financial. Nguyen writes that a "developing country serving on the council expects to receive during its tenure an additional 16 million dollars from the US in foreign aid and 1 million dollars from the UN. The aid may increase in time of crises: 45 million dollars from the US and 8 million dollars from the UN." Nguyen cites a Harvard study when he writes that member countries are "willing to trade their vote for favors: they promote another country's interests in the Security Council in exchange for development aid from a UN agency over which the other country has influence." This has been the tensest volley for the seat since the 1979 contest between Cuba and Colombia, which ran for three months and a total of 155 polls. Mexico was chosen as the compromise candidate. Guyana, Cuba, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago are the only Caribbean nations to sit on the UN Security Council.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/membship/electedmembers/2006/0825votebuying.htm
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#1)
The winner of the seat on the UNSC will represent the region at the United Nations, but some suggest that the benefits of the position go beyond this. A country may use the UN Security Council to settle disputes in their favor. For example Guatemala has an ongoing border dispute with Belize, as has Venezuela with neighboring Guyana. Some believe that both nations could use their position on the Council to find favorable resolutions to their problem. Also, according to a report by JT Nguyen, writing for the Global Policy Forum, the benefits for a developing nation can be financial. Nguyen writes that a "developing country serving on the council expects to receive during its tenure an additional 16 million dollars from the US in foreign aid and 1 million dollars from the UN. The aid may increase in time of crises: 45 million dollars from the US and 8 million dollars from the UN." Nguyen cites a Harvard study when he writes that member countries are "willing to trade their vote for favors: they promote another country's interests in the Security Council in exchange for development aid from a UN agency over which the other country has influence." This has been the tensest volley for the seat since the 1979 contest between Cuba and Colombia, which ran for three months and a total of 155 polls. Mexico was chosen as the compromise candidate. Guyana, Cuba, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago are the only Caribbean nations to sit on the UN Security Council.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/membship/electedmembers/2006/0825votebuying.htm
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#1)