270. Memorandum of Conversation1

SecDel/MC/97

SECRETARY’S DELEGATION TO THE EIGHTEENTH SESSION OF

THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

New York, September 1963

SUBJECT

  • Nigerian Foreign Minister’s call on the Secretary

ITEM OF DISCUSSION

  • Enlargement of UN Councils

PARTICIPANTS

  • The Secretary
  • Ambassador Stevenson
  • Mr. Dickinson
  • Mr. Dean (reporter)
  • Mr. Jaju Anucha Wachuku—Foreign Minister
  • Mr. E. Anyaoku—First Secretary at Nigerian Del to UN
  • Mr. A. O. Nnorom—Private Secretary to Minister

The Secretary asked whether there is any possibility of enlarging the Security Council and ECOSOC without thereby raising the question of Chinese representation. The Nigerian Foreign Minister replied that on the basis of his conversation with Mr. Gromyko, he concludes there has been no change in the Soviet position. According to Wachuku, Gromyko feels that the Eastern European seat in the Security Council “really isn’t of much use to them” since it has only rarely been occupied by a Communist country. If there is no support for revising the UN Charter, Wachuku continued, the Africans are determined to try for enlargement of certain organizations in order to give Africa fair representation. Hence the amendment of the Charter proposed by the Africans might be limited to this specific point.

The Secretary then asked whether all African nations would support the Ivory Coast’s candidacy in the Security Council. Wachuku did not think so because the Ivory Coast is seeking the Commonwealth seat and Nigeria is already committed to supporting Malaysia for this seat. The Secretary pointed out that if the Ivory Coast is elected to the Security Council, it would give Africa two seats inasmuch as Morocco is already a member. Wachuku indicated that this approach is not acceptable to the Africans because they are interested in the principle of clearly setting aside a certain number of seats as African seats. He [Page 597] stressed that the Africans don’t want to “raid” seats allotted to other geographic or political areas, nor do the Africans want to be forced to lobby for seats in every General Assembly. The Africans feel they deserve seats on a strictly geographic basis. Referring to his speech before the General Assembly, he repeated that Nigeria does not want Latin America to lose its seats.

Mr. Dickinson suggested that voting for Malaysia does not automatically force Nigeria to support Czechoslovakia. Since Nigeria can vote for three candidates, it would be able to vote for Bolivia and the Ivory Coast in addition to Malaysia.

In determining which countries to support for the Security Council seats, ideological differences among Africans will also play a role, said Wachuku. Furthermore it is not certain that all UAM states will vote for the Ivory Coast and that petty rivalry among UAM members may lead to some defections.

The Nigerian Minister said that Guinea had asked the Special Political Committee to give priority to the question of enlargement of the UN Councils. On the basis of the outcome of this debate and what is said at that time, the Africans will determine their position on who to support for the Security Council. Wachuku also said that he had emphasized to Gromyko that the question of enlargement should not be linked to the question of Chinese representation in the UN.

  1. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Conference Files: Lot 66 D 110, 18th U.N. General Assembly. Confidential. Drafted by John Gunther Dean on October 4 and approved in S on October 4. The meeting was held at USUN. The memorandum is Part 1 of 4.