By IANS,
New Delhi : Pitching for reform of the UN and global financial institutions, India Friday said a neighbour – a veiled reference to Pakistan – had strongly resisted its bid for a seat in the Security Council, and warned that “weak or failing states” in its neighbourhood pose a threat to its security.
“So that is something that India clearly feels very strongly about; there is a need for an expansion of the Security Council in both categories – permanent and non-permanent,” Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor said here.
Tharoor also called for strengthening of the UN General Assembly as the primary intergovernmental legislative body. “It has become too often a rhetorical forum, or a declaratory forum rather than one which acts as a legislative body which drives the action of the UN organisation,” he said.
Tharoor was speaking at a seminar titled ‘India’s place in the multi-polar World’. The seminar was organised by the Alfred Herrhausen Society (International Forum for Deutche Bank), Policy Network, London, and the Indian Council for World Affairs (ICWA).
“UN reform is sort of like a malady where all the doctors gather around the patient, and they all agree on the diagnosis, but they can’t agree on the prescription,” he said while calling for a fresh momentum for the reform of the UN.
“That is the problem we’ve been facing for the last 18 years of debate on UN reform, since the General Assembly took it on the agenda in 1992 but which we are seeking to supplant with a more serious discussion in the General Assembly plenary,” he said.
“…in India we know that we have a neighbour who has strongly resisted any proposal that could see us become a permanent member, and we know that Japan has similar problems with its East Asian neighbours,” Tharoor said, alluding to regional rivalries that stalled the process of reform of the UN Security Council.
Pakistan led the so-called “Coffee Club” to oppose India’s candidature for the UN Security Council. The club comprised countries like Italy, South Korea, Argentina, Canada, Colombia and Pakistan, who came out with an alternative proposal to block the G4’s bid by India, Japan, Germany and Brazil for permanent seats in the UN Security Council.
Tharoor, a former UN official, however, exhorted other countries to move beyond indefinite debate to find “a prescription that the rest of the world will eventually learn to finally live with.”
Underlining the problem of global terrorism, Tharoor said its appeal might diminish if economic opportunities for youth are increased and greater political pluralism is offered in many societies.
“But in saying this, I am conscious that India’s story could be seriously affected by the failure of other countries in our neighbourhood to do either,” he said in an oblique reference to Pakistan.
“Weak or failing states are a major threat to their neighbours. India sees its own security in the promotion of the security and prosperity of our neighbours,” he said.