India Calls For Text Negotiations For UNSC Reform By 2015

By siliconindia | Thursday, 13 November 2014, 10:15 Hrs

He stressed that without a negotiation text, it is "impossible" for nations to demonstrate their commitment to multilateralism and flexibility to reach an outcome by 2015.

He added that the inter-governmental negotiations should not be perceived to be biased against any individual country or group of countries just because a text is on the table.

"However, if there is no negotiation text on the table, then we would surely have just cause to detect a bias against those of us who are seriously engaged in implementing the explicit mandate given to us by our leaders in the 2005 for early reform of the Security Council," he said.

Mukerji welcomed the appointment of Jamaican Ambassador Courtney Rattray as Chair of the Inter-Governmental Negotiations and called on the General Assembly to "truly empower" Rattray by giving him "a text on the basis of which all of us can begin to engage in actual negotiations".

He urged that once the negotiation text authorised by the President of the General Assembly is placed before member states by Rattray, "we engage in the give and take of actual negotiations to define what early reform of the Council actually means for the vast majority of us in this Assembly.

"It would be a blot on the collective integrity of this organisation if we were to turn our backs to this subject and ignore it completely when our leaders meet next year for the historic 70th Anniversary Summit of the UN," he said.

Significantly, the US also supported for the first time the need to achieve UNSC reforms by next year saying "the landmark year of 2015 is a compelling moment for the membership to consider appropriate ways to achieve successful Council reform".

The US position is similar to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement in the General Assembly in September in which he said that the UN, including the Security Council, must be reformed by 2015 to make it more democratic and participative.

Source: PTI