India has said the 15-nation UN Security Council should be expanded to include about 10 more members, cautioning that delay in reforming the powerful world body will be at the international community's "own peril".
Participating in the 8th round of intergovernmental negotiations on UN Security Council reforms here, India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri said India is of the view that reform and expansion of the Security Council are essential if it is to reflect contemporary reality.
A reformed UNSC, with expansion in the permanent and non-permanent categories, will enhance the Council's credibility and effectiveness in dealing with global issues.
"We delay reform of the Security Council at our own peril...Early reform of the Council must be pursued with renewed vigour and urgently enacted," Puri said yesterday.
Puri outlined India's view that an expanded Council should have a total of 25-26 members.
He said structural reform of the Council should respond to the pressing need for credible improvements in the global governance architecture.
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"The clamour for such change is increasing by the day. Even as we speak concrete developments are being witnessed in other international institutions such as the IMF, World Bank," he said.
There is emerging consensus that reform will be complete only when the question of the veto in all its aspects and manifestations is comprehensively addressed, he added.
Noting that considerable time has already been spent in exchanging views on how and when to start real negotiations, Puri said deliberations so far have shown that a large majority of the UN membership wants expansion of the Council in both the permanent and non-permanent categories.