Estonian Foreign Minister Kristiina Ojuland has joined a memorandum by her Baltic and Nordic counterparts, calling for a reform of the United Nations Organization

Estonian Foreign Minister Kristiina Ojuland has joined a memorandum by her Baltic and Nordic counterparts, calling for a reform of the United Nations Organization. In the memorandum, the Foreign Ministers of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden draw attention to the security threats that the world is faced with. The specifically name conflicts and rivalry between countries, civil wars, collapses of states and genocide, poverty, decline of the environment, mass diseases, the spread of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and organized crime, the Foreign Ministers say these real and growing threats are too serious to be handled by any country on its own and call for a reform of the UN in order to ensure collective security. In order to be successful, six key areas have to be dealt with simultaneously, the memo says. First of all, the UN Security Council has to be made a more representative and legitimate body, without sacrificing its effectiveness. However, the Security Council won't become a legitimate organization unless small countries have the opportunity to take part in its work, the eight small countries stated. The Foreign Ministers declared that the world must find the necessary means to bring nations out from poverty. Rapid measures have to be taken to make aid to countries in transition from war to peace more effective. Nothing poses a bigger threat to international security than a failed country, which may spark conflicts, crime and terrorism elsewhere as well, the Ministers said. As the fourth point, the Ministers underscored that the United Nations must never again fail in protecting innocent civilians. The international community must not remain passive if a country is obviously failing to perform its duties toward its people. In the words of the Ministers, diplomatic intervention has to be ensured in such a phase that makes military intervention unnecessary. As the fifth point, the Ministers said the Security Council has to be more effective, decisive and active, in line with what the international situation requires from it. As a last point, the Ministers named the need to strengthen co-operation in preventing the proliferation and use of weapons of mass destruction and in the fight against terrorism and organized crime.