As
Asians
Fight Over
Limits of the
Continental
Shelf, Russia
Runs Alone For
Now
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
Exclusive
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 14 --
There are
eight Asian
candidate for
five Asian
seats at the
UN Commission
on the Limits
of the
Continental
Shelf
elections next
month - while
for three
Eastern
European seats
there is only
one candidate,
a Russian.
Amid
talk that the
largely
landlocked
Eastern
Europeans are
being asked to
cede one or
more of their
seats to
another
region, while
Georgia is
being
solicited to
put a
candidate
forward, Inner
City Press on
Monday asked
Russian
Ambassador
Vitaly Churkin
about the
race. "It's a
lot of work,"
he said, being
on the
Commission.
But
it is not
unimportant,
being on the
Commission.
There are big
money disputes
about the
Arctic, and
most recently
between
Venezuela and
Guyana. Well
before the
election,
Trinidad and
Tobago is
already
celebrating
the
anticipated
re-election of
its member, breathlessly
reported:
"It
was
a reception
held in the Delegates
Dining Room at
the United
Nations
headquarters,
the very heart
of
international
diplomacy.
There was an
air of levity,
expectation
and high
stakes at the
evening's
event, hosted
by the
Permanent
Mission of
T&T to
honor the
re-election of
Francis
Charles to the
Commission on
the Limits of
the
Continental
Shelf for
another five
year term...
He joined
T&T
Ambassadors
Rodney
Charles, who
called the
occasion
'significant
for the
government,'
and Eden
Charles, to
greet
diplomats and
other
specially
invited guests
who were feted
with fine
aperitif,
cocktails, and
island
flavoured
music of a
solo pianist."
This
is how it
works at the
UN. Only one
problem with
celebrating:
the election
has not been
held yet.
Of
interest to
some, the US
does not have
a candidate
because it it
is not a
signatory but
all other
Permanent Five
members of the
Security
Council do
(although the
UK candidate Richard
Haworth
is a joint
Canadian
citizen).
Argentina,
too, is making
a run, with Carlos
Marcelo
Paterlini. Watch
this site.
, 
