America’s propositions on international arms trade stirs up fiery debate at Näringslivets Hus, resolution FAILED. Interviews with USA and Turkey regarding the matter
Even before the meeting between the peace and security embassy began earlier today, a tense atmosphere had filled the room. Everyone who sat there that afternoon knew how tense this debate was going to turn out with America’s position on international weapons dealing, as well as their troubles with armed civilians being a very current issue in the wake of the Florida school shooting a couple of months ago.
In America's resolution, their positive attitude towards arms trade is stated, with them expressing how everyone should participate and that an exchanging of weapons are in some cases necessary for certain nations, some being dependant on it. In their resolution, the American delegates suggest that in able to make the trading of arms successful and efficient, countries need to have stricter policies, take responsibility for their trading and introduce more thorough background checks to their clients to prevent the weapons in getting into the wrong hands. America does vocalize their awareness of the issues concerning international, as well as national trading yet still reasons that if nations involved act as suggested the problems will be solved.
American delegate, Mohammad Reza, speaking in front of his fellow delegates and the chair
Many points were raised regarding the opinions expressed by America. One of the more active participating nations were Turkey, who questioned many of America's suggestions. In the break, after America's resolution got denied by voting parties, my colleague Tyra Tolfesbo stepped aside with both nations to discuss the result, as well as their opinion on the debate.
Interview with Turkish delegates, Noah Öhgren and Magnus Berggren
Q: After this thrilling debate, what are your initial thoughts?
Öhgren: We’re very happy that it didn’t go through, and that we still have a chance to win.
Berggren: We are a bit concerned with the US tactic to not understand our questions when asked, and just because it’s our questions they didn't want to answer them but when other countries asked similar questions or even the same question they at least tried to answer them. That is really unprofessional.
Öhgren: I believe that the resolution didn’t go through because it didn’t have any concrete solutions to these problems, and especially now when they have regulated lower age restrictions for buying weapons and we don’t want that in our country. We don’t want such a country to lead us
Berggren: They also stated a lot of things that they hadn’t mentioned in the resolution. How are we supposed to understand the whole context of what they really want if they don’t state everything in the resolution, which is what we are going on when we’re debating.
Q: Are you satisfied with the debate today?
Öhgren: No, I thought they were very unprofessional for not letting us speak our questions and in trying to pretend they didn’t understand them.
Q: So you are saying that they did understand you but just pretended not to?
Berggren: Yes, since other countries asked similar questions, which they actually tried to answer and answered. We are not so happy that they treated us this way.
Öhgren: For example, we asked them how they would handle second-hand organizations from getting weapons from other people who received them legally. They answered that they didn’t understand and when we clarified it they said “Well, we will do background checks”, but that wasn’t what we asked.
Q: Anything else for the press regarding arms trade?
Berggren: Well, we are very confident in our own resolution, and we have concrete suggestions on how to proceed and how to act on these problems
Öhgren: And it’s absolutely not true that we’re just trying to win for our own game, as we have added a lot of the other countries resolutions to it as well so it will help everyone.
Delegates from Turkey, Noah Öhgren, and Magnus Berggren being interviewed by Tyra Tolfesbo.
Interview with American delegates, Mohammad Reza, and Riyaaq Ali.
Q: After this thrilling debate, what are your initial thoughts?
Reza: That people can easily backstab you. We discussed this yesterday with all of our allies, especially about this question.
Ali: We talked with our allies, and they said that we had their support to one hundred percent, and today they turned upon us. But this is a lesson we learn for next year’s Model UN, we are of course going to improve. I don’t know if I’m going to work with Mohammad next year, he is a really good partner, but we are both going to learn from our mistakes: never trust your allies.
Reza: Actually, it’s kind of unfair that we could not talk about Turkey’s resolution. Maybe the United States of America does not have a very good policy when it comes to the arms trade, but neither does Turkey. At least we have a democracy in the US. There is no democracy in Turkey. In my opinion, it was very unfair that we could not talk about that.
Ali: And one thing that we actually learned from this is also that, with our presentation and debate, we want to have an international focus, not locals selling weapons and stuff. That’s what arms trade is: countries importing and exporting weapons. We could not talk about this because everyone was against us, with our mass shootings in schools. It’s really hard to talk about the profits some countries are getting because of the arms trade when people are focused on our country’s mass shootings.
Q: I had an interview with Turkey earlier, and they stated that you pretended not to understand their questions during the debate. What are your opinions about that?
Ali: Language-wise, they did not have an advantage. Their words were mixed up and they couldn’t pronounce right. I suggest more English lessons.
Reza: The point is, we really couldn’t understand their questions. And some of their questions were very rude and irrelevant.
Ali: Exactly, and they asked the same question over and over again. They asked the background check-question three different times, and they asked the treaty-question four times. That’s the same questions over and over again with different words.
Q: Anything else for the press regarding arms trade?
Ali: As a representative of the USA, we see how many countries think that we are hypocrites and all that, but the focus is on us because we’re the biggest country in the arms trade. But if we were second, the focus would be on Russia, and this is not a question about obligations or responsibilities, it’s about profits. Every country that went against us just wants to profit from our demise.
Reza: When you represent the United States of America in this Model United Nations, you will receive a lot of hate, to be honest. The first day, in the opening speeches, both Turkey and Iran used the phrase “go fu*k yourself”, “fu*k off”, and “piece of trash”. Which is very rude in my opinion. It’s a lot of work to represent the US, and you will receive a lot of hate.
Ali: Many countries might act like your allies until the very end, just to see you go down. But we’ve learned from our mistakes, and next year we'll be different. I promise.
After the break when debating as well as voting on the opposing nation Turkey’s resolution ended, it too had been voted down by participating nations, with the American delegates looking pleased with the before mentioned result. The tense nature of the air could be felt in the room as the chair announced the gathering as being over.
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