India promises to be flexible in UNSC reform talks

By Arun Kumar, IANS,

United Nations : India, an aspirant to a permanent seat of the UN Security Council, has expressed its readiness to work with other nations towards the goal of achieving urgent reform of the top UN decision making body.”We are both ready and willing to reach out to other countries and to work in close cooperation with them towards the goal of achieving urgent reform of the Council in keeping with the changing realities of the current times,” India’s Permanent Representative Hardeep Singh Puri said Tuesday.


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Speaking at an informal plenary meeting on the intergovernmental negotiations for equitable representation on the Council, he also assured “member-states of our willingness to remain constructive and reasonably flexible on all issues on the table in the months to come and urge other delegations to do likewise”.

Recalling Machiavelli’s remark that “the mass is wiser and more constant than the Prince”, Puri said: “I feel that reform will not come about because of the wishes of a few, but only through traction from the floor in the General Assembly.”

“It will not happen because India wants it, but because there must be real equitable representation,” he said.

Puri reiterated that the overwhelming majority of UN member-states have expressed their clear preference for expansion of the Council in both permanent and non-permanent categories.

“We need to address these issues in a comprehensive manner,” he said noting “there is extreme reluctance today on the use of the veto.”

Associating India “with the growing clamour for early reform of working methods of the Council”, Puri also called for the General Assembly and the Security Council as two principal organs of the UN to respect each other’s distinct roles so as to secure the effective functioning of the UN as a whole.

He also suggested a comprehensive review after 15 years during which the entire structure of the Security Council would need to be revisited.

“Not to agree to a comprehensive review will lead to a demand, sooner rather than later, for changing the present structure. Any attempt to freeze the structure will only lead to a losing battle against the tides of change,” Puri warned.

India, currently a non-permanent member of the Council, wants an expansion in both permanent and non-permanent categories.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])

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