NEW YORK: Pakistan has firmly opposed the creation of new permanent seats in the United Nations Security Council and has warned that attempts by the aspirants – India, Brazil, Germany and Japan – known as G-4 to derail efforts to reform the global body.
Addressing the first meeting of Inter-governmental Negotiations Framework during the 75th session of the UN, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative at the world body Munir Akram said creation of new permanent seats will make the Security Council less representative, less effective, more divided and erode the principle of sovereign equality of states.
“The Inter-Governmental Negotiations (IGN) remains the only credible platform for a comprehensive reform of the Security Council,” Ambassador Munir Akram said, while re-affirming Pakistan’s strong opposition to creating new permanent members. “Any attempts to undermine or derail the IGN process will prove counterproductive,” the Pakistani envoy said when the long-running IGN process resumed in New York.
Having failed to evoke support for their bid for permanent membership of the Council, he said that the G-4 members were trying to create the ‘fear’ that the opportunity for reform may soon be lost unless their procedural moves to short circuit the process were endorsed. “We are prepared to breathe new life in the IGN but some states are bent upon killing the process,” Ambassador Akram said.
Full-scale negotiations to reform the Security Council began in the General Assembly in February 2009 on five key areas the categories of membership, the question of veto, regional representation, size of an enlarged Security Council, and working methods of the council and its relationship with the General Assembly.
Despite a general agreement on enlarging the UNSC, as part of the UN reform process, member states remain sharply divided over the details. The G-4 has shown no flexibility in their push for expanding the Council by 10 seats, with six additional permanent and four non-permanent members.
On the other hand, the Italy/Pakistan-led Uniting for Consensus (UfC) group opposes any additional permanent members, saying it would make the UNSC less representative, less effective and more divided and will diminish the right of the vast majority of the UN membership to serve on the Council. The UfC has proposed a new category of members not permanent members with longer duration in terms and a possibility to get re-elected.
In his remarks, Ambassador Akram said that the UfC’s proposal to add 11 new non-permanent seats would redress the ‘deficit’ of equitable representation in the Security Council, as it accommodates the interests of all groups.
In 1945, he said, the UNSC represented 20% of the membership of the United Nations while today it represents 8% of the membership. In 1945, there was one non-permanent seat for 8 member states today there is one non-permanent seat for 19 member states.
It was also pointed out that a third of the UN members have never served on the UNSC. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, for example, is only the second Small Island Developing State (SIDS) to ever serve on the Council.
Pakistan is keen to build on the progress made during IGN’s previous sessions, Ambassador Akram said, adding that it was only through dialogue and consensus that a solution, enjoying the widest agreement of member states, could be achieved. “We are ready and willing to work with you to promote this objective,” the Pakistani envoy said.
