Majority supports expansion of UNSC: India

Lalit K Jha

United Nations, Sept 4 (PTI) Asserting that majority
members of the UN General Assembly support expansion of the
Security Council, India Friday said that the body would remain
beset with the "current problem" unless it was reformed.

"Not making the right choices will mean that the problems
that currently beset the UNSC will persist in the future. It
is for this reason that we think we need to be practical and
forward-looking," Vivek Katju, Special Secretary,
International Organisations and Political Issues said during
the Informal General Assembly Plenary Meeting on "Intermediate
Model".

"The majority favors expansion of the Security Council in
permanent and non-permanent categories of membership," Katju
said.

"Colleagues have argued, and I believe convincingly, that
the focus of this round of negotiations should be
forward-looking. That obviously means we should focus on the
details of what Member States desire, which is reform and
expansion of the Security Council in both existing categories
of membership," he argued.

Opposing the intermediate model suggested by a group of
few countries, Katju said: "It was predicated on the fact that
the intermediate model does not address the core demand of
Member States i.e. genuine reform of the Security Council."
That being so, it is hard to see how it helps us to engage
in a discussion on this issue since this model does not appear
to garner overwhelming, or even requisite, support, he said.
"While we are open to general explorations of ideas and
proposals, we need clarity on the utility of such general
ideas," he said.

"What is the intermediate model 'intermediate' to?" he
asked adding for those from United For Consensus group, who
present this notion as a sign their "flexibility" -- which, as
we know, is a distillation of the old wine of limiting
expansion to the non-permanent category in the new bottle of
flexibility, it needs to be asked ourselves in what way is it
intermediate?

"If it is in the sense of a compromise, where is the
'compromise' on their part, since this is essentially limiting
us to expansion in the non-permanent category," he said.
"For those of us who believe that an intermediate solution
is essentially an interim measure, in that it postpones a
decision until it is easier for those who have opposed
expansion of the UNSC in both categories for fifteen and years
and more, I can only say that we are deluding ourselves to
believe that a comprehensive solution will be easier to find
later. Indeed, one can argue that the quest for a lasting
solution would be stymied by an interim structure," Katju
said. PTI LKJ
JVN