The UN General Assembly has once again decided to roll over negotiations on reforming the Security Council to its next session even as the G4 bloc of India, Brazil, Germany and Japan asserted that nations must move away from "turning in circles" to real, text-based talks to achieve the long-pending reforms.
The 193-member General Assembly on Wednesday adopted the draft oral decision titled 'Question of equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council and related matters' by which it decided to include the matter on the agenda of its 72nd session, beginning in September.
Rolling over discussions on the UNSC reforms is an annual routine but a large majority of the UN members voiced frustration that despite years of efforts, real work on negotiations is yet to be begin.
Germany's Permanent Representative to the UN Harald Braun, speaking on behalf of the Group of Four (Brazil, Germany, India and Japan), said the decision, as well as the paper on Security Council reform, highlighted the progress made, including the milestones reached in past sessions.
However, he said there must be a move away from "turning in circles" and from repetitive stances, as well as a shift from merely discussing negotiations to actually beginning real, text-based talks.
He underlined that there could be no complete satisfaction with the work of the intergovernmental negotiations during the current 71st session because no resolution had been adopted and no real progress made in establishing text-based negotiations.
Permanent Representative of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Inga Rhonda King, speaking on behalf of the L.69 Group of which India is a member, recalled that the General Assembly's consideration of the UNSC reform agenda had begun about 25 years ago.
Despite those efforts, it was yet to begin its real work on negotiations, she said, adding that it was not due to a lack of will or desire on the part of Member States, but to the obduracy of a minority that failed to respect the larger sentiment of the Assembly.
"In no other purportedly democratic space have we seen the wish of 85 per cent of the membership of an organisation not lead to action," she said.
Underlining that the Assembly was accountable to the people of the United Nations, she said it must be recognised that, even after many years, the organisation was carrying on with a fundamentally abnormal process.
More than 160 countries believed the process had all the elements necessary to advance to text-based negotiations, and in that context, the L.69 Group was ready and eager to negotiate, discuss and resolve issues in order to move forward, she said.
Pakistan's UN envoy Maleeha Lodhi, speaking for the Uniting for Consensus Group, said the issue of expanding the Council membership required substantial attention, and once consensus was reached on the main principles, the next steps would be much more fluid.
Emphasising that a serious discussion on the democratic nature of the Security Council could not be postponed any further, she noted the emerging pockets of consensus, including on the issue of expanding the non-permanent membership.
Flexibility and a spirit of compromise would be critical in future negotiations on Security Council reform, she added.
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