Chinese deputy ambassador to the UN, Zhang Yishan, said on Monday that China cannot accept Japan's proposal to revise UN dues assessments and set a minimum rate for permanent members of the Security Council.

 

Japan presented a proposal to the UN General Assembly budget committee last Friday, calling on the five permanent council members -- the US, Russia, the UK, China and France -- to pay at least 3 percent or 5 percent of the UN dues.

 

Under the proposal, China and Russia, whose dues currently account for 2.1 percent and 1.1 percent of the total, would pay much more each year.

 

"It is a politically motivated proposal," Zhang told reporters after a closed session of the budget committee. "It deviates from the established principle of capacity to pay."

 

"Both China and Russia made our positions clear: we cannot accept this kind of proposal," he stressed, adding that there would be "no chance" for Japan's plan to pass the budget committee.

 

Japan has threatened to reduce its UN dues since last summer when its bid to gain a permanent seat on the 15-nation Security Council ran into snag.

 

The scale of UN dues assessments is reviewed every three years and the General Assembly budget committee, where all 191 UN member states are represented, is due to determine the scale for the 2007-2009 period by the end of December.

 

"Japan is firmly of the view that the status and responsibilities of a UN member state should be duly taken into account in its scale of assessments," Japan said in a briefing document circulated among UN members.

 

(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2006)