India and three other nations seeking permanent membership of the UN Security Council (UNSC) Thursday called for an early action on the Council's expansion, saying it would make it more effective to tackle current challenges and reflect the new century's realities.
At a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly Session, the foreign ministers of the four nations -- known as G4 -- reiterated their commitment to Security Council reform "reflective of the geopolitical realities of the 21st century".
They pointed to "the difficulties of the Security Council to effectively address current international challenges" and said it made a compelling case for reforms to "make it more broadly representative, efficient and transparent and thereby further enhances its effectiveness and the legitimacy and implementation of its decisions".
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and foreign ministers Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Machado of Brazil, Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany, and Fumio Kishida of Japan, who attended the meeting, expressed support for each other nation's candidature. Seeking a broader base for reforms, they said in a joint statement that it was important for developing countries, including from Africa, to be represented as both the permanent and non-permanent members of an enlarged Council.
Since the founding of the UN in 1945, Britain, China, France, Russia, and the US, who were then considered the leading powers of the winning side in World War II, have been the permanent members of the Security Council with powers to veto its resolutions.
Originally, Taiwan held the China seat and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics the Russia seat and other than that there have been no changes to reflect the vast global changes.
There are in addition members who are elected to two-year terms to the Council based on a system of regional representation and their number was raised from six to ten in 1965, the last time there was any change in the composition of the council. Since its founding, the total membership of the UN has risen from 51 to 193.
At the Millennium Summit in 2000 and the World Summit in 2005, calls were made for reforming the Council, however, there has been a stalemate developing a plan for implementation.
The G4 ministers said the reform process "should not be seen as an endless exercise" and appealed to all UN members to make the 70th anniversary of the UN next year, the target date for the changes.
They said that they would reach out to "reform-oriented member states" to discuss models for increasing the Council's permanent and non-permanent membership categories.
Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) on Council reform have been chaired by Afghanistan Ambassador Zahir Tanin, who gave an assessment of the reform move.
In addition, the president of the last General Assembly session, John Ashe, set up an advisory group which produced a document outlining several alternative proposals for changing the structure of the Council based on suggestions from representatives of various nations and groups. Providing permanent member seats for Africa and dealing with the Council's veto powers were among issues raised in the proposals.
The Ministers also welcomed Tanin's assessment, noting his call for a high-level event to be held at the General Debate of the 70th General Assembly next year to reform the Council and the need to finally start text-based negotiations. They added that the G4 would work closely with Sam Kahamba Kutesa, president of the the current Assembly on Council reforms.
(Arul Louis can be contacted at arul.l@ians.in)
