By IANS,
New Delhi : India, Germany, Brazil and Japan will meet on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session in New York later this month to further their common goal of reforms in the international body, including the all-powerful Security Council.
Foreign ministers of the four nations, who are pushing and supporting each other’s permanent membership in the expanded UNSC, will meet to review the progress of their outreach process kick-started in February this year to strengthen their push for comprehensive UN reforms.
“India’s priorities in the current session of the UNGA would include, continuing our efforts for reform of the UN with a view to creating an equitable system that is reflective of contemporary realities,” India’s Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai told reporters here, while briefing on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to New York for the UNGA next week.
“We feel that unless comprehensive reform of the UN Security Council is undertaken, the process of UN reforms would only be piecemeal and incomplete. We along with the G-4 (India, Germany, Brazil and Japan) and other like-minded countries would continue to work pro-actively, to maintain the momentum for UN Security Council reforms,” he said.
The G4 meet comes a month after the director generals from the four countries had met in Japan, where they had had a “pretty extensive” discussion to take stock of their bid’s progress.
“What the four foreign ministers will do (in New York) is to review the outcome of that meeting and collectively decide what are the steps to be taken and the direction it has to go,” Joint Secretary (UN Affairs) Pavan Kapoor said.
“India remains a votary of a robust UN role in maintenance of international peace and security, including through its peacekeeping operations and political processes,” Mathai said.
India will also attend an high level meeting of the UN on nuclear safety and security on Sep 22.
“India has remained steadfast in its commitment to universal, non-discriminatory and total nuclear disarmament. Consistent with our concerns on terrorism and clandestine proliferation, we will emphasize the immediacy of effective measures to deny terrorists, possible access to WMD (weapons of mass destruction) material.
“We will also be actively participating in the UN high level event on Nuclear Safety and Security, which will be held on the Sep 22,” he said.