Security Council Reforms Gain Momentum With Consensus On Increasing Size

By siliconindia | Monday, 29 February 2016, 11:21 Hrs

Russia also opposed proposals coming from the IGN on reforming the working of the Council, the other item on the agenda, claiming that it was an internal matter that only the Council should decide.

The IGN is to discuss on March 9 the veto issue, including whether new permanent members should have veto powers and if they should voluntarily forgo them. But in a preview of differences expected at the session, African nations said they wanted two permanent members from their region with veto powers and all other privileges the current five have.

While China spoke of greater role for developing countries it avoided saying anything on adding permanent members so as not to publicly antagonise the African countries, even as it lobbies against more permanent members.

Pakistan's Permanent Representative Maleeha Lodhi said categorically: "There should be no additional permanent seats."

Pakistan belongs to a 13-member United for Consensus (UfC) group led by Italy that campaigns against adding permanent members and held up the reform process for several years by preventing the adoption of a negotiating text for the talks.

Italian Permanent Representative Sebastiano Cardi, speaking on behalf of UfC, suggested adding 11 seats to the Council, but said, "UfC countries are convinced that we cannot afford to allocate seats permanently to a few countries at the expense of the rest of the membership".

Cardi examined the current distribution of seats in the Council to various groups, which gives five seats to the Europe and North America group and only three each to the Asia-Pacific and Africa groups and two each to Eastern Europe and Latin America groups.

This resulted in one Council seat for every 26 Asian-Pacific countries and one seat for every 18 African nations, he said. To right the imbalance, the majority of the added seats should go to Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America, he said.

German Permanent Representative Harald Braun, who spoke on behalf of four-nation group G-4 that includes India, Brazil and Japan, said he was "gratified" that the UfC supported his group's proposal on enlarging the Council and added that this "indicated the group's willingness to consolidating this point accordingly".

The G-4 nations lobby for adding permanent seats and mutually support each for them.

Source: IANS