India alongwith other G4 nations demand UNSC reform

From Yoshita Singh United nations, Feb 28: India, along with other nations in the G4 bloc, have said it is "high time" the powerful UN Security Council is reformed to make it more representative and fit for the 21st century.

The Directors General of UN Affairs of the G4 bloc of Brazil, Germany, India and Japan met in Berlin yesterday to exchange views on the current state of play and to develop concrete ideas on how to move the issue of Security Council reform decisively forward.

The G4 shared the view that 70 years after the founding of the UN and 10 years after the 2005 World Summit, during which the Heads of States and Governments had unanimously called for an early reform, the process is yet to be initiated.

"It is high time to finally making the Security Council more representative and fit for the 21st century," said the G4 countries in a joint press statement. They welcomed the strong commitment shown by President of the General Assembly Sam Kutesa in making reform of the Security Council a top priority.

The G4 agreed to continue their close cooperation with each other and with reform oriented partners to actively continue promoting a comprehensive reform of the Security Council. The Berlin meeting was chaired by Patricia Flor, Director General for United Nations and Global Issues at the German Federal Foreign Office.

Meanwhile, addressing reporters at the end of China's Presidency of the Security Council for February, Chinese Ambassador to the UN Liu Jieyi said while the membership of the Council should be expanded to make it more representative of developing countries, there should not be any timelines imposed for achieving the reform of the powerful UN body.

"Our view is that the Council should be enlarged. For us the most important thing is to enhance the representativeness of the developing countries," he said. When asked if there should be a timeline by when the long-pending reform should be achieved, Liu said the reform process is an issue for the 193 members of the UN. "I don't think that any timeline imposed by any member should be the thing that guide the entirety of 193 members," he said.

He added that the reform process concerns the long term interest of the UN itself and must be approached "carefully and democratically" by all members of the General Assembly. "The objective is to try and achieve broad consensus on the issue relating to reform of the UNSC," he added.

PTI