UNITED NATIONS: For years, there have been proposals to increase the number of permanent veto-power members of the United Nations Security Council with India in the forefront of an aspirant.
The aspirant nations for permanent seats are India, Brazil, Germany and Japan and they have formed a so-called group of four.
But Pakistan says any expansion in the permanent category will compound the 15-member body paralysis and prevent the majority of small and medium-sized states from serving on it.
India on behalf of group proposed on Friday that the council’s membership should be increased from 15 to 25-26 – six permanent and four or five non-permanent members besides hinting at flexibility on the veto issue.
Addressing the Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) held for restructuring Security Council, Pakistan’s Ambassador Munir Akram said: “As a member of the Uniting for Consensus (UfC) Group, it is evident that our position has consistently opposed the issue of the creation of new permanent members.”
He said the G-4 model would direct the effort in the “opposite direction”, noting it would expand 6 new permanent seats, but only 5 new non-permanent seats– making the proportion of the members who are permanent versus those who are non-permanent even greater.
The UNSC currently has five permanent members – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – and 10 non-permanent members elected for a two-year term.
“Today the permanent members are 1 to 2 — 5 permanent members to 10 non-permanent members whereas in the G-4 model in a 26-member council the equation would be 1 to 1 — 11 permanent members to 14 or 13 non-permanent members,” reducing the proportionality between the two membership categories by half and lessen the chances of representation for the rest of the 182 countries who will not be permanent members on the Security Council.
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